Am nurse. You are allowed to walk out AMA without signing shit if you have capacity and you’re generally assumed to have capacity unless indicated otherwise. I would like you to sign the documents, but I cannot force you or imprison you and I’m not going to call security. Going AMA without signing something or seeing a doctor is not elopement.
Since she called her mother saying she needed a ride on the 8th and they stated she went AMA on the 8th, I honestly believe she went AMA, maybe even signed it, and then ended up dying off the unit. It’s the most plausible scenario. How everything else got fucked up is another situation. If they already discharged her maybe they didn’t readmit once she died? Everyone thought it was someone else’s job? Saw she was “discharged” on the board and thought someone else already handled the death checklist?