The following is a list of things that I had no
idea of until after Josh died and received his hospital records.
1. On June 6/12 at 1:00 pm they knew Josh’s levels were spiking again.
However,they did not contact Poison Control for treatment
recommendations.
Despite his rising levels, the Dr. still medically cleared Josh. This
means he was left with no medical treatment for the high valproic acid
and ammonia levels in his system.
At 6:00 pm Poison Control contacted the hospital to inquire as to what
was going on with Josh. When they found out that his levels had started
rising earlier in the day, they were very concerned for his well being.
When the doctor was contacted by hospital staff about this, he clearly
stated that he “stuck by his decision, patient is medically clear” even
though it was quite evident that my son was deteriorating quickly
because of the doctor clearing him earlier.
He let him go from 10:30 am, when they discontinued the antedote, until
after 8:00 pm when he became delirious. Also Poison Control told
them not to give Josh "Haldol" but he was given it twice that day by two
different doctors (psychiatrist and internest). I believe this may have contributed to his
deteriorating condition as it can cause "Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome"
as well as other serious conditions.
2. Violated the “Consent to treatment Act”.
On June 6/12 Josh was unable to speak for himself from 8:00 pm on, and
they never called me until after midnight. When someone can not speak
for themselves, they are supposed to contact the next of kin to get
signed authorization to treat the patient. They treated him without
written or verbal authorization from me (next of kin). I was never
consulted during the whole time he was in the ICU unable to speak for
himself. Why did it take over 4 hours to contact me?
3. Violation of the “Minimal Restraints Act.”
Only the doctor in charge can order physical restraints and they are
supposed to closely monitor this and keep records. The doctor in charge
now claims she does not remember him being in restraints even though you
can clearly see them in the picture above and I have signed
statements from witnesses regarding this. She also did not get my
permission for this. Josh was physically restrained the whole time he
was chemically restrained for over 4 days. This put him at great risk
for the DVT he developed.
4. He had all the symptoms of the DVT (blood clot) he developed.
Pink sputum, fever, high heart rate
The doctor claims she was treating him for aspirated pneumonia even
though an Xray revealed he did not have this. She never even looked at
any other reason for his symptoms. I thought when one thing is ruled out
you naturally would look at another cause for the symptoms. Why did she
not do this? I believe he had developed the DVT on the evening of
June 6/12 when he ended up in ICU since he had the symptoms from then
until he died. If this is the case it is likely that only giving
him hepernan would not help. It is a preventative measure and does
little good after the DVT has developed.
5. When I found my son in distress on June 12 at 3:40pm, I pushed the
call button and got no response from anyone. About 5 minutes later I
pushed it again, and about 1 ½ minutes later the nurse finally arrived.
When my son started turning colour she left the room instead of pushing
the code blue as is protocol. It was
not until after she returned and Josh passed out that she finally pushed
the code. I witnessed this. This nurse wasted over 10 minutes from start
to finish of my son’s last minutes of life and we will never know if the
call had been answered promptly the first time and the code had been
pushed sooner if this would have saved him. By the time the team arrived
I know in my heart he was already gone as I seen his eyes roll back and
heard him defecate just before the code was pushed.
6. The coroner states the cause of death as “suicide”. Although he took
an overdose this is not what he died from. He was hospitalized for
almost 8 days and the medications he ingested were long gone out of his
system. He died by Deep Vein Thrombosis (blood clot) which was most
certainly caused by giving him Haldol and being restrained in ICU for over four days.
Watch this video on Haldol
