Is this Wrongful Death

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?Alabama
My grandmother recently passed away and she was under Home Health Care and Hospice Care through the State of Alabama in my mother's home. Four days before she died my mother was talking to one of the nurses and she said to her that she wasn't aware that my grandmother was on a bloodthinner(which was clearly stated in her chart) the nurse told my mom that they were supposed to have been checking her blood every week since she was on the bloodthinner. She had been on it for over 3 months. The nurse took the blood sample and a few hours later someone notified my mother to take her off of the bloodthinner. The next day she started throwing up blood, she was bleeding internally and she died 3 days later. My question is do I need to contact an attorney to get this investigated? I just don't want any other person to be denied the care that they need.

Hello from Minnesota
Oversight Or poor follow up happens more often then you know. It could be wrongful death Or malpractice, an Attorney would know better. A similar situation happened to my first husband when the first care he received after a car accident that was questionable was from a small northern town doctor. It was covered up by the coroner in the big city. It was complicated more when he was found to have cancer a month later. There were no x-rays taken and he suffered with broken ribs and a punctured lung, caught pneumonia and fought in intensive care for a month. This was a healthy 51 year old man who died 4 mo. after the car accident. He thought he was going into the hospital for cancer surgery and never knew he had pneumonia.
To see if you have a case you will need to know what the attending doc/nurse Or coroner stated on the death certificate as the cause of death and have a copy for the Attorney. You will also need to go to where her medical files were kept ie clinic, Hosp. and ask for a copy to be made. Since you are interested in the last days ask for the last month to look at. If there are a lot of pages ask for a copy of the last week or two to be copied as you will be charged for each page. When you are asked to fill out a form to release the records to yourself you will be asked why you want them. Just write Self, if they want more, write Family History. If they think they are being investigated they may tell you they will mail them to you. You would like to View them on the spot before any (go missing.) This is also why you don't call them up and ask, you go down there. Your Mother could probably do this easier being she was her daughter. An Attorney would want copies of these, would appreciate not having to get them, and would also charge you for their time. An Attorney may not even look at the case without them either. You can also make a few calls, free, to local Attorney's and inquire about submitting a lawsuit. Sorry for your Loss ~Mary~

I'm sorry for your loss.

It is important to obtain copies of as many of your Grandmother's medical records as possible. Having a comprehensive medical history is going to make the case easier to develop because there may be other factors that may not seem important to you that will become a defense. A person's priviledge over their medical records does not cease with their death. If your mother had written waivers signed then she should still have access, otherwise it waill take a court order and yes the best way is to go unannounced and do an in house review of the records and get copies, she may have to pay for them but then none become disappeared nor excluded, for example, they can exclude anything sent to them by someone else. Also "post its" may be removed for coping purposes that have things on them that is important, like after an advise nurse told a head injuried patient who was too dizzy to drive to the hospital to drive anyway rather than order an ambulance, wrote on a post it, "I hope she doesn't have an accident" this was not copied. This process should be extended to other providers.

I see several potential problems with this case, first of all your grandmother was already determined to be terminally ill and thus the hospise services.

A number of medical conditions, even some genetic can go undiagnosed for years and play a role in abnormal signs of bleeding, also combinations of medications may induce bleeding or over time build up to a bleeding disorder. Blood thinners including common foods, OTC and some supplements can cause bleeding in addition to Rx interact with about everything. To top it off as difficult as it may be to think, in some cases blood thinners are given to stop a bleeding disorder, so stopping a blood thinner can cause bleeding in some cases depending on the combinations, so it could be a very complex investigation. Some genetically related bleeding disorders may rect in unpredictable ways and removong a Rx can upset the balance. If any of the women in your family have a history of abnormal signs of bleeding such as bleeding gums, heavy or prolonged periods, easy bruising or extensive bleeding or bruising with surgery, there may be a bleeding disorder in the family, these affect both men and women. Bleeding disorders in women are common and frequently go undiagnosed or explained away and may even have normal tests results.

I am telling you these things, not knowing the particulars of your grandmother's case or even her age, just to show you what you may be up against and some of the possible defenses. If your grandmother was misdiagnosed at some point, even that is not enough to prove fault if there is clinical evidence of normal tests or referals and none of this brigs back your grandmother nor changes the outcome and the internal bleeding may have happened anyway.

An attorney will better be able to tell you what you have to prove insofar as damages.

These days, everywhere you turn, you are bombarded with ads for medications, along with their disclaimers. Many of hese medications are useful and safe for the right people, many things we consume foods, vitamins and supplements all work together with the medications, Rx and OTC and our genetic makeup, allergies, finding the correct combination when there is a medical condition is important.

AMScoltsfan
I, too, am sorry for the loss of your mother.
Although failing to monitor the therapeutic range of the bloodthinner is an act of negligence, in this situation the act of negligence will be almost impossible to be proven as the cause of significant and avoidable damages.

Physical symptoms such as bleeding gums, excessive bruising, and blood in the urine and/or feces would have been present if the ability of the blood to clot had been impaired. Receiving an order to d/c the blood thinners could have been for many reasons, such as the medication was never intended to be administered for that length of time and the MD was satisfied with the results and d/c'd the course of treatment. Bleeding as you described could have been from many causes, i.e. the stressors from being bedridden or physically debilitated, the cancer process, cancer treatments, organ failure, or acidosis created by multiple-systems failure.

One of the criteria for being a hospice patient is the MD-stated prognosis of six months or less (life-expectancy). She had already been a hospice patient for at least 3 months at the time of her death.

Medmal suits are expensive and the damages must translate into sufficient monetary awards as to pay for the litigation process and to compensate the plaintiff. I don't see the damages (if proven) to be of an amount sufficient to justify the cost of a medmal suit.

Make an appointment with a medmal attorney in your area and discuss your concerns. Wrongful death claims generally have a shorter Statute of Limitations than other forms of medmal cases, so you want to make the appointment in the near future.

Best wishes,
EC