MENORAH HOUSE page 8

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wheelchair-bound man, who suf-
fered from dementia, exited a
door to a second floor stairwell in
Menorah House and fell down
two flights. He broke his neck and
died.
The elderly man's body was
found more than 2 1/2 hours lat-
er that evening by Menorah
House staff. The incident was re-
ported immediately to the MDPH
and police. The state levied a cus-
tomary fine and a police report
was filed.
"It's a case of gross negligence,"
Mr. Olsman says.
The alarms on the stairwell
were not working, according to
the MDPH. They were missing
vital parts, which had been on or-
der and expected to arrive at the
nursing home any day.
An MDPH investigation of the
accident revealed that staff nurs-
es and aides had not been told of
the malfunctioning alarms.
Administrators have said that,
even had an alarm sounded, it
would have been too late. Mr.
Schwartz likely still would have
fallen to his death.
MDPH investigators inter-
viewed a staff member who was
quoted in the report as saying:
"We were short (staffed) that
night."
Another worker told MDPH
officials that she assumed the
alarms were working. She de-
scribed the elderly man as "am-
bulating very slow (in his

wheelchair). Anybody could catch
him."
Both attorney Olsman and
Citizens for Better Care's Michael
Conners believe the state has not
handled this incident appropri-
ately. Herbert Schwartz is suing
Medilodge for damages in excess
of $10,000. The suit was filed Feb.
7, 1995, in Oakland County
Circuit Court.
"We want the state looking at
the home more closely," says Mr.
Conners, describing MDPH's re-
sponse as a mere "slap on the
wrist."
State official Dr. Richard
Yerian disputes CBC. The state,
he says, decided Menorah House
was prepared to accept Borman
-Hall residents in November.
"And we still stand by that de-
cision," he says.
Mr. Wronski maintains that
one incident does not necessarily
point to a lack of preparation. The
state agrees.
"Unfortunate incidents do oc-
cur, and we do not want to make
light of any incidents. We have
cooperated thoroughly in the en-
tire investigation of the matter,"
Mr. Wronski says. "This was a
single, solitary episode.
"To date, we've gotten ex-
tremely positive feedback from
many of our families and resi-
dents," he says. "We look forward
to a long and positive relation-
ship with the entire Jewish corn-
munity."

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HILLEL page 1

in the audience, Mr. Garden
opened the meeting with a brief
explanation of the lengthy pro-
cess the school leaders have gone
through to accommodate their
growing student body. He talked
about options that have been ex-
plored in the past few years.
"So, it isn't like we had gotten
a phone call in December and
have gathered facts to make a de-
cision," he said.
He also said the task force is
•not called for by the school's by-
laws to make a decision to move,
but the board of trustees wanted
the issue to be studied by a de-
mographic cross-section of the
parent body.
"It was just too important of
a decision not to get as broad-
based a consensus as possible,"
Mr. Garden said.
The audience also learned that
the site for the school building on
the community campus will be
too far for the school to use the
Jewish Community Center fa-
cilities during the day. The
school, if it moves, would be lo-
cated east of the Lubavitch prop-
erty and west of the Hechtman
Federation Apartments and
Hechtman II. An entrance would
be located off of Maple Road.
"We wouldn't benefit by our
proximity because of the distance

from door to door," Mr. Garden
said. "It would be about 1,000 feet
from the school's door to the door
by the Holocaust Center."
The task force also took ques-
tions from the audience, a large
number of whom were
Huntington Woods parents of po-
tential future Hillel students.
Their major concern appeared
to be the extended drive to the
school if it is moved.

The board may vote
in executive session.

Debbie Salinger, a Huntington
Woods parent of a preschool
child, said she has studied the
move and has gone so far as to
time the journey from her home
She told the crowd it would take
31 minutes to get there in good
weather with no traffic. She
would like her child to spend as
much time as possible at Hillel
but would pull her out if the
school moved to the Jewish
Community Campus.
"It may be that she gets two
years at Hillel and that is it," she
said. "We are going to be in a ter-
rible quandary if you decide to
move." ❑