Long Beach woman, 84, dumped outside locked care facility at 2 a.m., daughter says

A Long Beach medical center dropped off an 84-year-old woman with “the cognitive abilities of a toddler” at a locked assisted living facility in the middle of the night, according to the woman’s daughter.

Savina Genoese Zerbi was living in Regency Palms when she threatened to kill herself with a nail file, the daughter said. She was taken to College Medical Center in Long Beach on Jan. 12, but several hours later she was abandoned outside Regency Palms, her daughter, Costanza Genoese Zerbi, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

The daughter said she received a call from a clinician at College Medical Center, who said transportation for her mother between the hospital and the senior living facility would be coordinated, but she wasn’t told when her mother would be discharged. She later learned a taxi dropped her mother off at Regency Palms at 2 a.m.

Surveillance video published online shows the woman approaching the doors of the living facility in flip-flops and a robe with papers in her hand. She pulls at the locked doors and then bangs on the glass with her palm several times before walking away. She is then seen pacing down an alley.

Costanza Genoese Zerbi filed a complaint with the California Department of Public Health against both College Medical Center and Regency Palms.

“My mom has the cognitive abilities of a toddler,” she said in an interview with CBS. “It’s like taking a child and dumping him in the street in the middle of the night in an unsafe neighborhood. It’s insane. It’s criminal. I just would like to see the hospital behave in a more responsible way.”

Senate Bill 1152, passed in 2018, requires medical centers to comply with discharging protocols.

Christine Tomlinson, executive director of Regency Palms, said she could not comment because of patient confidentiality laws. Representatives for College Medical Center did not immediately return calls.

The state Department of Public Health says it is investigating the case.

alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com

Twitter: @r_valejandra