Seeking Guidance For Death Involving Elder Abuse

by James
(USA)

My father-in-law died in a long-term acute care facility. He was a victim of Parkinson's disease. He was there to be weaned off respiratory support and for physical therapy to enable him to transfer from bed to wheel chair to bathroom.

The staff showed remarkable lack of understanding of Parkinson's and timeliness of administering medication. Each staff had to be "re-trained" even though we created a posted sheet to give them guidelines.

He made progress toward weaning off the respirator and was pleading for physical therapy so that he could transfer from the bed to a chair. Physical therapy was spotty and incomplete.

He had plueral infusions but these were diminishing. Overall he was making progress (despite staff being unreliable), then we got a call in the early AM hours that he was in code blue. When we arrived he was dead.

Seems he had been given Ativan, slept some, had an apnea and was put on higher level respiration support, then became restless (possibly due to Parkinson's) and was given more Ativan. When staff noticed this (we think they were ignoring him - "snowing" him) they had no antidote to Ativan and code blue procedures failed.

The point of all this - this is not Personal Injury. I am looking for a good sample Demand Letter to submit for this malpractice/negligence/elder abuse based on the very detailed review of all hospital documentation (and our own which we kept daily - as we were with him 12 or more hours per day).

Any guidance is appreciated.