Inset: Nyakno Udo (Montgomery County Police Department). Background: The Maryland home where La Familia Assisted Living was located when Nyakno Udo walked out and died from hypothermia (Google Maps).
A Maryland woman with a history of wandering and leaving care facilities slipped out of an assisted living home through a window and died of hypothermia after spending three days outside in the freezing cold, a lawsuit said. Her body was found in a neighbor's backyard, less than 100 feet from the facility that was allegedly responsible for looking after her.
Now, Nyakno Udo's family has won a $4 million jury award after accusing La Familia Assisted Living in Rockville of failing to protect the 45-year-old despite knowing she was at risk of wandering away. A medical expert retained by the family concluded that her 2022 death could have been prevented with proper supervision and safeguards.
The Montgomery County Circuit Court entered a default judgment against the facility after its operator, Nurys Diaz, failed to participate in the wrongful death lawsuit. A jury spent two days determining damages, awarding $1.5 million to Udo's mother's estate and $1.25 million to each of two family members, according to court records and the family's legal team, Brown & Barron, LLC.
The complaint identified the two family members as Udo's daughters.
Udo had been living at La Familia since July 2019, when she was brought there following treatment for hypothermia. She had been found wandering around a gas station at night earlier that month.
"Ms. Udo was admitted to the facility with a medical history including, but not limited to, schizoaffective disorder, hypothyroidism, insomnia, and a history of wandering and elopement," the complaint said. "She was admitted to the Facility because, among other reasons, she was unable to make decisions for herself, including, but not limited to day-to-day care and medical decisions."
The facility allegedly represented that it had safeguards in place to prevent residents from wandering away, according to the complaint. But there were allegedly at least two earlier incidents that should have raised alarms, Udo's family argued.
On March 18, 2020, Udo wandered away from La Familia and was returned by police. Then, on Aug. 4, 2020, she got out again, this time by jumping through a window. Police once more brought her back.
In May 2021, the Montgomery County Police Department made a "Concern for Missing Aspen Hill Woman" post on Facebook that included a photo of Udo and said she "left her Brad Court group home on foot" and could not be found. The address listed for La Familia in the complaint is 4613 Brad Court.
Despite these incidents, her family alleged, the facility never implemented effective measures to stop Udo from leaving.
The complaint included a report from Dr. Ziad K. Mirza, a board-certified internal medicine physician who reviewed Udo's medical records, police reports, autopsy findings and other evidence. He concluded that La Familia failed to provide appropriate monitoring and supervision, to adequately address her known risk of leaving or to properly implement an individualized care plan.
The alleged failures included omitting window alarms or chimes, leaving her access to exits unrestricted, and failing to increase monitoring despite her repeated departures. The report also criticized the facility's failure to properly train and supervise employees responsible for her care.
Mirza concluded that the facility's shortcomings directly contributed to Udo's death. He said, "It is my opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that if Ms. Udo had been provided a minimum level of appropriate care, she would not have frozen to death on January 9, 2022."
Udo got out again on Jan. 6, 2022, during lunchtime, according to the complaint. This time, she was not discovered in time.
"She was found frozen to death in a stranger's backyard," the complaint said.
Police found Udo's body in the neighbor's backyard on Jan. 9, 2022. She had died of hypothermia.
Her family alleged that Udo had not received her schizophrenia medication in the days before her final departure from the facility. Diaz disputed the medication allegation and told The Daily Record she did everything she could, including calling authorities "immediately." She claimed the window had a lock but Udo managed to force her way through it anyway.
"The police were called immediately," Diaz told the Record. "I have nothing to hide."
Diaz later closed La Familia, citing a declining number of residents and falling revenue, the Record reports. She told the newspaper she could not afford an attorney for the civil case, explaining why she did not participate in the litigation that resulted in the default judgment.
The $4 million verdict may be difficult for the family to collect. La Familia carried no liability insurance, and Maryland did not require assisted living facilities to maintain such coverage at the time of Udo's death. A law that took effect in 2026 now requires licensed facilities to disclose whether they are uninsured to residents and prospective residents.
"There's no insurance policy for them to collect those damages — and the family knew that going into it," said family attorney Chris Smith. "They just wanted their story to be heard in the hope that this verdict could help change things for people in assisted living facilities that don't have insurance."
Comments