Methadone Killed my brother today...HELP

[amberb]

I'm in the state of Utah. My brother has been on a lethal dose of methadone from a local methadone clinic in Salt Lake City. They have been increasing his dose for the last 2 years. I am not sure what mg he was on. Anyway, in March they were bringing him down gradually, he did not want to be on it anymore. It caused him to be aggitated and sick. We got in a fight and I ended up calling the cops and he was arrested for domestic despute. I really regret this now. He was locked up and taken off methadone cold turkey. He was not given any medicine and was in constant pain the last time my mom talked to him. Since then I have moved to Ireland with my husband. Within the first week of jail, they put him in the medical clinic there in the county jail and cut off all contact with him and any family. They said they could not release any information about his status or let him talk to anyone unless he signed a release form, which I doubt they even gave him the option to, because he would definitey want to talk to my mom of all people about his status. I found out this morning he passed away. They released him Friday, the charges were dropped. He was very sick. I still have no clue what happened, my mom said he had vomit in his mouth, so he may have suffocated on that, or his heart may have shut down, either way i know it was from withdrawling from the methadone. This is not fair and i cant believe first off the methadone clinic could legally be prescribing such high lethal addictive doses to people and second off its not fair how the jail treated him, criminal or not, he needed medical attention which they did not provide, and whne the charges were dropped they just kicked him out with no resources. I am so saddened by this, completely distraught and my mom is a complete wreck, he is all she had aside from me and now i live in ireland and she is all alone. Is there a way to sue them for wrongful death and medical malpractice? I'm not even worried about winning money right now, all i want is justice, this is so wrong and i dont want it to happen to anyone else. Please help. any advice or direction would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Dogmatique]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

You did say that you're unsure of what happened; you don't know if his death was methadone-related or not, and you can't really know this until the cause of death has been legally established. Even if his death was related to methadone that in itself does not necessarily prove that malpractice occurred.

Until (at the very least) a cause of death has been established, there's nothing you can really do in terms of legal action - and once that has been decided your family can gather all of your brother's medical records and have a medmal attorney review them to see if malpractice has occurred.

In all honesty I think the best advice is that you and your family hold each other up during the grief process; it will take time and is excruciatingly painful but it's also very necessary.

Again, I'm very sorry for your loss.

[ecmst12]

You don't say how long he was in jail but it seems longer then a few days. And he was in a medical clinic in jail and you don't know what treatment he received in there. Honestly if he was released from jail on Friday I find it much more likely that he went and got his hands on some REAL drugs and overdosed on that. That is a normal response for a person with a drug problem after experiencing a stressful or traumatic event, especially when going from a very controlled environment to a completely uncontrolled one. Your mother can request his medical records and find out what the cause of death was and if the corrections staff contributed, but it does not look like there is any evidence to that effect.

I am very sorry for your loss and hope you can find a way to heal from it.

[xylene]

Methadone is a proven drug treatment for those coping with addiction.

There is no such thing as a 'lethal dosage' of methadone.

A dose that would kill a opiate naive person would not even touch your brothers withdrawal symptoms.

The goal of methadone treatment is to prevent withdrawal, thereby preventing the need to score illegal drugs.

I am very sorry your brother had a serious problem.

Try to let go of your self blame. This isn't your fault.

[ariastar]

Death is always hard, and I'm sorry for that.

But before all else, your family would need to have an autopsy, which will probably be required anyway, to determine the cause of death. It's very probable that he went out and got some drugs. Fridays are party nights. He could have died from an OD. It's not likely that he died from the methadone he wasn't on. An expected response to a stressful situation for a drug addict is drugs.

The nest thing you and your family can do for yourselves right now is to support each other the best you can. Absolutely do not blame yourself. It's easy to blame yourself, I've been there when my dad died. But it wasn't my fault, it wasn't your mother's fault, it's not your fault. Somewhere along the line your brother started drugs and became addicted and it got to the point that help wasn't helping anymore. It wasn't in your control. You did what you thought best at the time. Hindsight is always 20/20. For all anyone can know, even if he hadn't gone to jail, withdrawing from the methadone may have resulted in him going on a drug binge anyway. You can't know. So absolutely don't blame yourself.