'Safe Return' identifies 170 Alzheimer patients
Advertiser Staff
More than 170 Alzheimer's patients were registered with the Safe Return program yesterday, more in one day than Alzheimer's Association director Janet Bender expected to see in a year.
"It was beyond anything we could have hoped," Bender said yesterday.
Wallace Silva, who suffers from stroke-related dementia, was last seen July 21.
The program offers photographs and easy-to-spot identification bracelets and pendants. Identifying characteristics of the Alzheimer's patients, who often wander from home and become disoriented, are entered into a national computerized database.
More than 19,000 people in Hawai'i suffer from Alzheimer's; 746 of them are now registered, making it more likely they'll receive help if they become lost.
Correction: Wallace Silva, right, a resident of Moloka'i who is missing, suffers from stroke-related dementia, not Alzheimer's. A previous version of this story was incorrect.
