Johanna,
I read earlier tonight your posting about your conversation with
someone at the VA Hospital about the investigation into your dad's death, and
I just finished reading Edith's posting which encourages you to investigate
your dad's death further and to consider the possiblity that there was
negligence or wrongdoing somewhere at the VA. You and your family could have
requested an autopsy, tox screens, and blood levels prior to the time your
father was prepared for burial. (I assume your father has been buried, or
possibly cremated, since he died in February). I assume that the VA, in its
own internal investigation, interviewed personnel and possibly performed some
tests or other procedures. There should be the record of this investigation
as well as the medical records at the hospital.
I think you, your mother, and your family, although it is very
difficult to accept the fact and manner of your father's death, can
determine, can sense, if there were problems at the VA, or with the attending
physician, at the time of your father's death. You may feel comfortable
scheduling an appointment with hospital administration and the attending
physician to answer your questions and explain the investigation. You may
want to contact an attorney to discuss the fact and manner of your father's
death and/or review the records at the hospital and of the hospital's
investigation. Exhuming a body is very expensive as well as emotionally
harrowing. The doctors on this list, or your father's attending physician,
or a neutral physician you, or your attorney, contacts/hires could indicate
for you if an autopsy would be helpful; I would think that the autopsy would
only show the fact of the death, which you know, and if your father was
properly diagnosed as having PD. I would be much more interested in the
dosages, and the frequency of those dosages, of medication as given in the
hospital, and recorded in the chart, and the matching of actual dosages as
given and recorded with the doctor's orders as written in the chart. I would
also be interested in any blood levels or tox screens of the blood taken at
the time of death, but I doubt that any were taken and you can't get them
know. I don't know what type of tissue samples would be useful and available
at this time. It might be helpful to have a doctor, with the appropriate
expertize, particularly of dementia in the last stages of PD and of
delusions/dementia/personality changes caused by PD medications, review your
father's entire course of treatment, including medications prescribed, prior
to his hospitalization as well as after. If you see a personal injury
lawyer and that lawyer agrees to take your case, you most likely will have to
pay, and most likely pay in advance, for all of this and any other costs of
the attorney's investigation into your father's death.
The manner of your father's death is horrific and bizarre. I don't
know if any further investigation, or exhumation of the body, will show
anything was done wrong or if it will help you and your family accept and
reach some closure on your father's death. The purpose, the function, of the
legal system is to redress wrongs, but the legal system can't do everything.
I don't think the legal system can make you feel better about your father's
death. I don't think that the legal system can help you accept the manner of
his death. If you feel you need to pursue further investigation of your
father's death, by all means, do so. I made some suggestions as how you
might get started. You may find something wrong, but you may not. I assume
that there is no serious issue here of foul play since you have never
mentioned that possiblity. Showing that the doctor/s did something wrong or
that the hospital did something wrong will be difficult given your father's
behavior and state of mind. I think that you would have to show that the
dosages of the medications and/or the continued prescription of the
medications were wrong or that the level of protection and security provided
by the hospital was wrong.
I was uncomfortable writing this to you, at this time. I was
primarily responding to the questions which were raised by Edith. It is
difficult to deal with grief over the loss of a loved one under any
circumstances, and, when things like this happen, we look for the reason, the
cause, the explanation. However,sometimes, we can't get any answers to our
questions, and it is heartbreaking as well as frustrating. Katie
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