Student project on WSAZ documentary '53 Days' expands

MINGO COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – We have a follow-up to a WSAZ investigation into the disappearance and death of a man with dementia.

We told you about Chuck Carroll, who was taken from an assisted living facility to a hospital in Huntington. But he was able to walk away from that facility and died.

WSAZ has aired a number of investigations and a documentary examining what went wrong and how a similar tragedy can be prevented.

53 days | Chuck’s story

A teacher from Mingo County saw our documentary and assigned her students to watch it and come up with their own ideas about how to better protect patients with dementia.

Those students’ ideas have taken off and are reaching places they never thought possible.

“When this started, we really thought this would be a one-day class,” said Mingo Central Health Science educator Angel Jude.

Now that one-day class is taught across the country, taught by high school and college students from Mingo County, West Virginia.

Sager: “What was the most meaningful part of it for you?

“Basically just sharing his story, because when I go there and talk about it, I don’t look at it while I’m presenting, I look at it as if I’m doing something for him. Unfortunately, he was never able to share his story. We just want to raise as much awareness as possible about this ongoing problem,” said Mingo Central High School senior Dalaney Grimmett.

The “him” Grimmett is talking about is Chuck Carroll.

Carroll had documented dementia. In late 2021, he was taken to a local hospital with fever and vomiting, but was able to walk away and die.

His body was found 53 days later in an outbuilding just blocks away from the hospital.

The number of days between Carroll’s disappearance and when his body was found became the name of WSAZ’s documentary that aired in December 2022. The focus of the documentary was on Carroll’s story and the WSAZ investigative team’s search for answers in the months following his death.

How does WSAZ’s documentary tie in with health science lessons in Mingo County, West Virginia?

In January 2023, Andrea Clark, health sciences teacher at Mingo Central High School, gave her students an assignment: watch “53 Days” and come up with ideas to better protect patients with dementia.

To say that these students took the assignment seriously would be an understatement.

In May 2023, the students presented their ideas about the purple papers and the purple pants with sensors to educational leaders in West Virginia. Those leaders were so impressed that they awarded the students a $30,000 grant to continue their projects.

Representatives from Logan Regional Medical Center and Williamson Memorial Hospital were present that day and pledged to implement the student’s ideas.

“We plan to use all your ideas to help us and our patients,” Logan Regional Chief Nursing Officer Jeanette Sexton said in May 2023.

Logan Regional Medical Center leaders have delivered on that promise. At the end of October 2024, employees attended further training on how to use the purple trousers and papers.

Williamson Memorial Hospital has plans for community education in the future.

Many of the students who originally worked on the project have since graduated. In some cases that could have been an end point for their work.

But not at Mingo Central. These students there say they feel pressure to persevere and make their older peers proud.

Sager: “How do you feel about taking on this project and handing it over from the previous seniors and juniors?”

Feye: “It was a little difficult to match what the seniors did last year, especially since they take credit for all the great ideas we had, like the pants, the papers and things like that. But it was really great to be able to do it nationally now. I still keep in touch with some of the seniors from last year and give them updates on the project.”

That national audience was able to listen to the students’ ideas for the first time in October 2024.

Seniors, Grimmett and Feye traveled to Arizona to attend the National Health Science Consortium Conference.

The Mingo Central seniors were the only two students in the country to present to health science educators from 48 different states.

Feye: “We had the 53 Days Documentary on the board. We let the audience watch the whole thing because we felt it was very necessary that they had all the information, especially how beautifully that documentary was filmed.

Sager: “Did you watch the 24, 25 minutes?”

Feye: “Yes.”

Grimmett: “One lady even cried. Yes, we really touched her heart with the story, and I mean it would touch anyone’s heart. She even asked us if we would call her class and present it to her class.”

That class is happening in Florida and that Zoom is about to happen.

While on the other side of the country, the students say another classroom in Colorado wants to learn their ideas and implement them in their state as well.

Sager: “Has this project blossomed and grown more than you expected?”

Judas: “Beyond anything we could have imagined. We’ve found that if you set the bar high for these students, they will achieve it. They will meet. They will exceed. If you put that out into the community and start presenting that, other people will get involved.”

It’s a passion project that these teachers and students believe can protect those who need it most in the Mountain State and across the country.

So what’s next for the students? They say they plan to apply for a SPARK West Virginia grant. It’s similar to Shark Tank in West Virginia.

The students hope that an entrepreneur will invest and help them with the business side of their project, but they say the sky is the limit. They hope their ideas can eventually be implemented as a standard of care nationwide.