The Probono Justicia en Salud clinic at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law held a public forum on 4 November examining the abandonment of older adults in Puerto Rico's hospital system, an issue that has grown measurably worse since 2017.^[1] Dr. Karen Agosto Valentín, an auxiliary professor at the UPR Medical Sciences Campus School of Public Health, moderated the panel, which brought together Juan J. Hernández López, Edna I. Díaz De Jesús and Luis E. Meléndez Cintrón to address the care, extended stays and transinstitutionalization of older adults within hospital systems.^[2][3][4] The forum's urgency is backed by data: cases of abandonment of older adults in island hospitals rose 45 percent from 2017 through fiscal 2024-2025, from roughly 700 cases documented in 2017 to a peak of 1,018 cases in the most recent fiscal year, according to research led by Dr. Erika Colón Ortega and published by Medicina/Salud Publica.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The rise is attributed primarily to socioeconomic factors rather than intentional family neglect.^[10] The demographic pressure behind those numbers is structural: older adults already make up 31 percent of Puerto Rico's population, a share projected to reach 40 percent by 2050.^[11][12] The study recommends reactivating the interagency committee created under Law 121 to coordinate services for abandoned older adults, an administrative tool that has sat dormant as case counts climbed.^[13]