What do you guys think??

Jena

New Member
hi.....

So, i have to be honest the whole hospital thing with-difficult child has been eating away at me a bit. I know I can't obsess yet what they did to her, huge mistake i made in leaving her there and listening to that dr.

well, suffice it to say i broke down two nights ago and just cried for about an hr over it. The vision of her in that locked room, cracked lips, wetting herself, completely medicated is eating me up a bit.

Do you guys think I have a case here to pursue legally? do we have any para's here? i used to do that work, yet it was estate administration. so i'm clueless in litigation matters.

It seems very wrong to me that they get away with-what they did and more importantly that other kids will be treated that way. If anything good will come of it it would be them changing their program.

what i have is :

they illegally administered medications to difficult child with-o my knowledge. I checked with-dir. at hospital highly illegal.

not to mention sitting infront of food for ten hours, locking in room, locking bathrooms treating her like an aneroxic when she was not.

thoughts???
 
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HaoZi

Guest
Any way to file a complaint through a state medication board the way you would file a complaint against a lawyer with their bar association? Or maybe see if a reporter in that area might pick up the story and look into it?
 

Jena

New Member
oh and not a day goes by where difficult child doesn't talk about what they did to her. hence triggering my thoughts regarding how wrong it all is. dont' get me wrong she isnt' crying over it yet it made a mark a scar that i'll never be able to wipe away the way they treated her. the security guards standing over her with-the nurse injecting her with-medications i didnt' even approve. makes me crazy and want to rage.
 

Jena

New Member
not a bad idea. i emailed head director of hospital days ago. told her i want a change there or i'll pursue legally and i wanted acknowledgment of email. that never occured. i can make some calls. i should probably call one of those pro bono attorneys also. i'm not looking for money although money and reiumbursement for truck being fixed, hotel, food expenses would be great. yet change has to happen because i know full well there will be another child in there having the same done onto her
 
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HaoZi

Guest
Document everything while it's still fresh in your mind, maybe also contact insurance company to file complaint and see if they'll deny payment as services were not rendered properly?
 

Jena

New Member
ok did insurance co. already to file, peds filed a complaint as well. great ideas!! you see my pt though, right? it just doesn't seem ok that they get to get away with this. and i know my hands are full right now yet when i'm feeling this way about something usually flying into action makes me feel better than just holding it in and being stagnant about the issue
 

Jena

New Member
yea it's odd i thought i was ok with-it than the other night i just kinda melted down over it. hearing her everyday refer to it is getting me going. she said to me the other day it's still like a dream being home. doesn't feel real. i said baby u were there 2 weeks. she said yea the longest 2 weeks i ever had in my life. i thought all hope was lost and i was just done. ahhh scary to hear that from an 11 year old kid
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
Jen, my thoughts are that you should take some time, document everything you remember, and include things that difficult child remembers separately from YOUR experience and perspective. Create a file in chronological order and then seek an attorney's advice = you can usually get at least one hour of time with an attorney for a consultation for free. Or, you may contact the AMA or a local law school/legal aid society and see if they can't point you to attorneys who help with legal advice in cases such as these. It's important that even if you're not going to do anything legally that you get the correct advice and maintain scrupulous records.

DO NOT discuss any aspect of this situation via email - no communications whatsoever with those doctors or staff at all. I personally would request a copy of your difficult child's complete medical file from them, but do it in writing in a regular letter form. Hand deliver (and mark it hand delivered) if possible and also send it certified register receipt so they cannot deny that your request. Give them a deadline for your copy, say 15/30 days. Every institution has guidelines for providing copies of files. Without letting on your intent, you can contact the file administration people and find out what theirs is and then follow up with your request. You can cc everyone possible, your Dr, the president/director of the hospital, etc. That way it is well documented that you requested the file and it's date stamped, understand?

Before discussing this with any news media, I would be more inclined to go to my state's or NJ's state attorney's office and find out from them what the next step would be.

Just throwing out my first thoughts - you have to do what's right for you. Obviously, you can work on this slowly as difficult child improves - I would not throw myself into it as difficult child's welfare is more important right now and the statute of limitations will not run out for at least 2 years (I think that's what it is in NY/CT, but check in NJ).

Big hugs~ try not to let this eat you alive - you did the best you could with what you knew at that time, and now you know better. You were desperate and trusted the people we're supposed to be able to trust. difficult child will come out the other side and sometimes these types of experiences serve us well later on. When you get to it, use your anger positively.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Haven't read all of the responses, sorry if I repeat what someone has said.

First you have to get a copy of ALL of her hospital records. Your first request for her records will get you a summary of them, a few paragraphs at best (Wiz 4 month psychiatric hospital stay got five paragraphs of "records" when I first asked). You need to be specific to request a copy of EVERY document/record/chart including all testing. it is likely to take another couple of weeks before medical records will have the chart (here the average is 3-4 weeks after discharge before it is available) but they can go and find it if you have asked for it. Many docs/hospitals will NOT give you ANY response to a request for change the way you put it in the email. The statement that you will sue if they don't respond and don't make substantial changes in the program leaves them open to a whole world of problems if they even acknowledge receipt. Your idea of changes is likely to be entire different than theirs. They also could be opening themselves up to legal action if they change a medical treatment program based on the treat of litigation from an unhappy patient (or patient's guardian) rather than making program changes based on sound medical practice and medical science. Know what I mean?? If they change things because Jen said to, then those changes result in someone getting hurt, the hospital could just say "jen made us so you need to go sue jen" rather than "It isn't legal to give medications to minors without specific permission from their parents so we stopped doing that because the law said we had to" or "we stopped leaving patients alone locked in their rooms in their own waste because it is not healthy to lay around in your own waste all alone for days at a time".

Once you have a copy of the records you need to find a lawyer to help you figure out if you have a case. You will NOT get $$ for the truck repairs because the truck would have needed repairs even if difficult child hadn't needed to be in a hospital. That is what the court will say anyway. The rest? LArgely depends on your attorney. in my opinion the hospital is likely to want to settle if there is much merit to the case legally (from the sounds of it I would think there is merit, but laws are tricky). The state medical board may be able to help you file a complaint if you choose to go that way. Lots of it will depend on what you are suing for. Malpractice is very tough to sue for because you need another doctor to say that what the doctor did was wrong. While a doctor may tell YOU this, getting them to tell a court is another ball of wax.

You will be charged for the records. They will NOT let you go and make the copies, even though they charge a HUGE sum per copy (can be $1 a page or more!). They will likely send the records to another doctor for nothing. Not sure about an attorney. If you have a doctor who is GOOD friends you may be able to get them to give you the copy if they request it. That is how I got Wiz' hospital records. There were over 500 pages to his records, and our therapist looked at them and then handed them over to me. She had no room to store them, if nothing else.

I think you should have grounds for some type of suit. For giving her medications with-o your consent if nothing else. I am so sorry that she was treated so badly there. I honestly think the docs and staff lost sight of the fact that she is just a little girl and got caught up in the "I can MAKE you do it" bullkoi. The program there seems to be about breaking children instead of healing them. WTH was the idea of not letting her have therapy unless she ate her entire meal? Do these docs not know that they are there to treat eating disordersd? It makes no sense and goes against every type of therapy I have ever heard of. Esp therapy for eating disorders. I even asked a friend who has been inpatient several times for both anorexia and bulimia. She couldn't believe this was a program afiliated with ANY hospital, much less one as well known as that one. She said that no reputable program would not let you have either group or indiv therapy if you hadn't eaten. They might make you go back to the food, or take the food to the therapy session, but never would they not let you have the therapy. I would guess that keeping difficult child from therapy would be the basis for any lawsuit, but I am just guessing.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
In the meantime, as soon as you can, difficult child NEEDS to go to the local hospital. NOT NOT NOT for treatment. She NEEDS to go there with you for POSITIVE experiences. Otherwise if she gets hurt or breaks a bone it is going to be terribly difficult to get treatment for her. She is likely to catch a lot of viruses this year because she wasn't eating for so long. If you don't take her to the hospital for small positive experiences you will have a horrible time if she needs IV antibiotics or anything else. She won't want to do it.

You can take her there to walk outside first. Then to go inside. Then to look in the gift shop, then another time to buy a little something at the gift shop. Then to have ice cream there. Call ahead and ask if someone at the hospital can explain TO HER how children are handled if they are admitted - can their parents stay with them the entire time, do they get TV, etc... Stuff that will help her if you need to take her to have anything there.

Don't put it off too long. The flu could be devastating to her this year and she needs to know it won't be what she went through before. in my opinion that might be reassuring to her even when she knows she doesn't have to go there at any time in the near future. The topic of hospitals comes up once in a while, driving past them at least. She has a right to know that what these people did is NOT normal. Heck, the WORST they would likely do is to make you wear a paper gown, gloves and a mask if you were going to be in her room (I was in the hospital with a bad infection and everyone who came into my room had to put a gown on, gloves, and a mask because the types of bacteria I had - and I didn't even have MRSA!). I am willing to bet that if you called either a children's hospital or someone at the nearest hospital and explained what you needed that they would be very happy to help you. NO ONE wants a patient who is terrified, much less one who is terrified and resisting the way one of our difficult children can resist.
 

Jena

New Member
hi

thanks for feedback. i already ordered her medical complete chart from there day i took her out. so that shoud be coming soon. as far as hospital's trust me she'll be breakign something again soon enough, she's my breaker and she has no issue at all with er's. :)
 
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