VIRGINIA BEACH
The small tracking unit around his ankle was irritating, so Hiram Foster pulled it off nearly a year ago and dropped it in a trash can.
His daughter, Lesley, said she didn’t want him to be uncomfortable, even though the effects of Alzheimer’s sometimes led Foster to wander away.
She decided against getting a new bracelet and dropped his membership in Project Lifesaver, an effort that tracks the whereabouts of people with dementia and other disorders across the United States and Canada.
Last week, police issued an appeal for help to find the 84-year-old Virginia Beach man. Foster had found his keys and left home July 23 in his Chrysler Concord. He turned up about 24 hours later in Grandy, N.C., where he was trying to buy gasoline with a deactivated credit card, his daughter said.
If he had still been wearing the ankle band, authorities said they likely would have found him much quicker.
The program has a 100 percent success rate, with 1,724 people found and returned since 1999, according to Gene Saunders, who founded Project Lifesaver in Chesapeake.
Most cases, such as one in Virginia Beach just before Foster went missing, are resolved in less than a half hour. In that case, Virginia Beach police Sgt. George McCormic said, an officer took a report of a missing man, turned on his tracking equipment as he headed toward the man’s home and found him walking along a road.
As of Thursday, the city had 105 people registered for the service. That gives Virginia Beach police the most registrants of any agency in the country. Chesapeake is second with about 97 registrants, Saunders said.
The program carries a $285 start-up cost, and a roughly $10 per month fee, but McCormic said city officials won’t turn away anyone who is interested.
“We’re going to search for them anyway,” he said, “so if we can get them in the program and guarantee we’ll get them back soon, that’s what we want.”
To learn more about Project Lifesaver, go to www.projectlifesaver.org or call 546-5502.
Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com
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Read the article Jason
The program is %100 effective. This article is about spreading awareness of it. This would have worked for this individual IF he was wearing the tracking device, but dropped out of the program.
Are you serious?
Are you serious jason...? You think just because the band may be a little uncomortable for some people that the program doesn't have a 100% success rate. I think a little discomfort is worth saving the life of an autistic child or elderly person with dementia. The reason the program uses the bands that it does is so the patients can't cut take them off like a watch. It is also waterproof. The program is amazing. If you are unhappy with the bands then design some yourself. I am sure the program would welcome them.
Doesn't have to be uncomfortable though
The thing is it doesn't have to be uncomfortable. Assuming that picture is accurate, it's probably irritating due the cheap plastic band. Get rid of that and put a quality watch band on it instead. A necklace version might be a good thing to try too.
The program is a good thing
My Mother died of Alzheimers at the age of 94. While my Mother never wandered off, we would have certainly gotten the bracelet for her. I can understand people not wanted it or feeling it's uncomfortable, but not knowing where your Alzheimer parent is.... is a lot more uncomfortable.
Apparently not 100%
If they really had a 100% success rate, then this story wouldn't exist. Creating an uncomfortable product people don't want to use does count as a failure of that product.