Lynchburg Business

Project Lifesaver

Issue: February 2010 by Mitchell Malcheff in Inside The Magazine, Senior Services

Every 70 seconds, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, according to the 2009 Alzheimer’s Facts and Figures Report. Another 5.3 million people live with the disease, 42,000 of which are in the Central and Western Virginia region. Alzheimer’s takes a heavy toll on primary caregivers, as those with the disease often wander off and can disappear, sometimes for days at a time. Some are never found. Since 2002, Sgt. Tim White and Project Lifesaver have assisted those caregivers by finding the lost and helping to save lives.

White, a sergeant with the Lynchburg Sheriff’s Department, has headed up Project Lifesaver since its inception eight years ago.

“There was a sheriff down in Chesapeake, and he went to a conference and heard about a program that assisted in locating lost individuals,” White said. “It started with the tracking units they put on animals—it’s the same basic concept—and he said, ‘Well, if they can track animals with that, then I think we could probably figure out a way to use it to locate people,’ because people were getting lost, and we weren’t finding them.”

A prime example, which helped to spur Project Lifesaver, happened in Danville when an Alzheimer’s patient wandered away from an area nursing home during a November snowstorm. The man was found two weeks later just 75 yards away from the home, where he had lain down near the road and been covered with plowed snow.

Stories like that are sobering reminders of the important role that Project Lifesaver is currently playing. Since 2002, White says he has received 78 calls regarding lost clients.

“We’ve found every one of them, in usually 30 minutes or less,” White said.

Currently, White has 28 clients, ranging in age from 4 to 92. Though most are older Alzheimer or dementia-afflicted people, White does have a handful of younger autistic clients.

Clients are outfitted with a tracking device that is embedded in a plastic or leather bracelet. That device sends out a radio frequency signal that can be tracked by White and his receiving unit. When a client is lost, White is called and he and his team follow the signal, which grows stronger the closer they get.

A loud beeping lets White know when he is close and from that point, the team “goes mobile” and physically searches for the lost person. The Project Lifesaver rescue crew is comprised of roughly 20 members from the police department, Sheriff’s department, fire department and lifesaving crew.

Over the years, White says he has developed a feel for where he will find those who have wandered off. For instance, he relayed a story about a 50-year-old man and Appomattox native who lives on Memorial Avenue and likes to drink a particular soda that is sold at the Kroger’s on Wards Road.

“My first stop is Kroger [on] Wards Road. My second stop is [Route] 460 towards Appomattox and that’s where he’s going to be—one of those two stops,” White said.

In July 2009, an Appomattox man who was not part of Project Lifesaver went missing, according to local news outlets. Seventy-seven-year-old George Morris disappeared around 2:30 p.m. on a Wednesday and was not found until the next morning at a convenience store near Bent Creek, according to WDBJ 7. Though Morris was found, his disappearance highlighted the importance of programs like Project Lifesaver.

“You have no idea where to look or where they are,” White told WDBJ at the time.

Cindy BonDurant, who works with the Lynchburg Alzheimer’s Association, stresses to members the importance of enrolling in Project Lifesaver.

“We never know when they are going to wander, because the disease is very unpredictable,” BonDurant told WDBJ after the Morris disappearance.

The program has been embraced by area nursing and rest homes such as Heritage Green, Grace Lodge, the Pace Center and Westminster-Canterbury. In addition to the peace of mind that the program affords caregivers, it also helps to limit liability and costly lawsuits that can result when patients go missing.

Group homes are not White’s only clients, as any willing individual can be enrolled in the program. In fact, “willingness” is a key ingredient to making the program a success. The bracelet that clients are outfitted with is a simple, plastic snap-on which can be easily removed. Even heavier leather bracelets can be taken off by an unwilling patient.

“If a person doesn’t want it on, they’re not going to keep it on,” White said.

White said that he sees Project Lifesaver continuing to expand in the future as the technology develops, and current statistics back up his contention. Though the present rate sits at one patient being diagnosed every 70 seconds with Alzheimer’s, that number is expected to rise to one every 33 seconds by mid-century, according to the Alzheimer’s Association Web site.

Project Lifesaver costs just $25 per month and is completely non-profit. To help offset costs, a charity golf tournament is held every September at Poplar Grove in Amherst and White accepts donations as well to help cover the cost of the search units, which totals close to $3,000. For a man who spends most of his own time searching for people, White says he has been blown away by the community support that Project Lifesaver receives.

“I have people looking for me,” White says in reference to those who donate to Project Lifesaver.

Of course, every penny donated helps bring one more person home. For White, it’s a mission that’s not only necessary, but personal.

“I had an uncle who had Alzheimer’s who would wander off, and I said, ‘There’s got to be something’ and when this came together I got him on the program. So, it kind of hits a little close,” White explained.

For those interested in Project Lifesaver, White can be reached at the Lynchburg Sheriff’s Department. For more information about Alzheimer’s and its impact on the Lynchburg area, visit www.alz.org.