Reinhardt v. Sunrise at Mill Basin

James Reinhardt, a 75-year-old dementia patient moved into a secure dementia unit at Sunrise at Mill Basin in 2002. Staff allowed him to wander the facility unsupervised. He went into the kitchen July 17, 2002, where he found a bottle of red cleaning liquid he mistook for cranberry juice served earlier that day to residents. He drank the liquid resulting in burns to his mouth, throat and upper airways. He developed aspiration pneumonia, a lung infection caused by inhaling foreign matter, and then died a week later.