In four and a half years, I have been fighting for justice. I am certain that Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation , and Dr. Larry Joe Russell were responsible for Mom's death. I believe that if she were properly examined after her fall, she would still be alive. Trust me this is not just me looking for someone to blame. I believe there is undisputable proof in the records from Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation and subsequent DHSR investigation. The problem is that no matter what I've done, I cant get anyone to even look.
The first step we took, was to file a complaint with the NCDHSR against Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation. My brother and I filed separate complaints alleging different violations. The reply to both complaints from the NCDHSR was " no deficiencies found ". This prompted us to request a meeting with Gail Maloney, the Western Regional Director of the NCDHSR at the time. Four family members met with Ms. Maloney at the office in Black Mountain. Ms. Maloney's' attitude was confrontational from the beginning.
At the meeting, we reviewed the list of items from Mom's medical records that were inaccurate. The most obvious being the wrong room number and bed on almost every page, including the medication administration record. Some of the things we discussed were, missing medications, altered nurses notes, missing information, conflicting notes on what happened the morning she died and more. Mom's roommate the night she fell, gave a whole different account of the fall than was reflected in the nurses notes. The nurses account of the fall was marked " late entry" and was dated December 1, one month after Mom passed.
Our meeting lasted almost two hours and Ms. Maloney was defending the actions of Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation the entire time. When asked what happened to the missing Ativan, Ms. Maloney replied " they must have put it back ".Even though according to the records they were prescribed and the prescription was filled by Blue Ridge Pharmacy , the pharmacy provider for Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation. The NCDHSR guidelines state that medications be disposed of, and there has to be two people present to witness the disposal. You might think that Ms. Maloney as the regional director of NCDHSR would be familiar with their own regulations. The meeting was extremely disappointing, and there was no indication that our concerns were ever going to be addressed. At the end we asked where else we could take our concerns and Ms. Maloney simply stated that she was the end of the line, there was nowhere else we could go.
Ms. Maloney told us they would review the records and our information, and we would hear from them in the future. It took quite some time before we heard anything from the NCDHSR, and when we did they reaffirmed that there were no deficiencies as reported in the original investigation. Ms. Maloney is no longer the director, she was replaced by Todd Davis, who just happened to be the lead investigator of our complaint!
We were told that we could request a copy of the investigation through the FOIA ( freedom of information act ). I filed the required forms with the FOIA and requested the records. It took almost two years, several phone calls and emails before I actually received the report. Some of the investigation records were redacted and some of the names were blacked out. Still there was plenty of information that indicated the investigation was not taken seriously. The report reads almost like it was written by the staff at Hendersonville Health and Rehabilitation. Even the results of the
" review" were suspicious. There were two different letters written by the Doctor that did the review, and neither one had the correct chain of events, dates and facts.
That was just the beginning of my frustration with the system and trying to get them to do their job. More to come later on the quest for truth and justice!
