Guardianship, the legal process of taking away an adult’s rights to make life decisions, is intended to protect vulnerable people from neglect and abuse.
In Richmond, VCU Health System and other health care providers have used the process to remove poor patients from hospital beds, sometimes against the wishes of family members, with the help of a local law firm.
A year-long Richmond Times-Dispatch investigation has found that what happens to the patients after they’re discharged is left up to a system that fails to provide the one justification for the power it wields – protection.
Days after what would have been Richard Richardson’s 40th birthday, his three sisters stood in silence on a bridge in Bryan Park, where they’d played as kids, staring into the pond where they’d just scattered his ashes.
Around them, people were out enjoying the first cool day of October — playing Frisbee, biking and jogging — the kinds of things Richard hadn’t been able to do in his final years.
Jennifer, the middle sister, remembered a time years ago when she and Richard had been here with their kids. She laughed thinking about how Richard had joked about throwing his nephew into the pond if he didn’t behave.
That was before the accident, back when Richard was a fit, young father who rode his bike everywhere and practiced mixed martial arts.
But then, on Thanksgiving 2014, a fall from a second-floor balcony paralyzed him from the shoulders down.
Afterward, he had been shuffled from nursing home to hospital to nursing home. His serious medical needs and the fact that he was on Medicaid made it hard to find a decent place. He’d been most stable in the year he spent living with Jennifer, but after he started having seizures, he ended up back in the hospital.
“It was a terrible life for a person to have to live,” said Richelle Richardson-Hayes, Richard’s oldest sister.
He spent the last year of his life in a nursing home where, his sisters say, he often went hungry and was rarely moved out of his bed. They say the staff was rude to the family when they visited and spoke up for their brother.
It was a nursing home that he was sent to against his will.
LAST WEEK
VCU Health System always called Richelle Richardson-Hayes for permission whenever her younger brother, Richard Richardson, needed a procedure, she said.
Although Richard was mentally stable, he’d been paralyzed after falling from a balcony on Thanksgiving 2014, when he was 35, and sometimes needed his sister to consent on his behalf. The VCU medical staff had called her when he needed a breathing tube inserted and when they wanted to give him a halo brace to support his neck and head.
That’s why she was shocked when she found out from Richard that the hospital was discharging him to a nursing home in Petersburg without telling her.
SUNDAY, NOV. 16
Ora Lomax felt in her bones that her husband of 63 years would die that day.
Four days before Christmas, something in William Lomax had changed. He was praying and singing “This Little Light of Mine” and “Jesus Loves Me.”
He must have felt death, she thought.
She couldn’t stand to see it happen. But before she left him, he squeezed her hand and told her he loved her for the last time.
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(14) comments
An amazing series..... please consider doing a story on “Healthcare Insurance Leaving People Unprotected While Charging Us 18,000 a year for no help —— nothing until you pay the co-pays and deductibles——- but Illegal people don’t pay co-pays or deductibles——- or get these bills that we can’t really pay. Then add the outrageous office visits they charge for example 380 dollars for 15 minutes .... whooooo hoooooo our health care system is really total garbage .....
This article is really an indictment of the State of Virginia's negligence in a lack of affordable assisted living facilities, and policing those below average facilities. A decent facility costs thousands of dollars/month (even more for dementia patients). Many of these individuals have nowhere near enough funds for a decent facility, hence, they end up in a place like Envoy.
Why should they need to be “affordable” if care is required for the infirm the government should come up with a way to provide.
Unconscionable that US healthcare causes the extremely ill to be tossed out of life saving hospital care for inability to pay. There was never a better case for single payer Medicare-for-all than this article.
I know these lawyers personally and professionally. Their interest in the well-being of their disabled clients exceeds their interest in legal fees. Thompson McMullan lawyers are leaders in providing pro bono services in our community and have been recognized by various volunteer bar associations for their leadership in the representation of the underprivileged. It would be a shame and a disservice to those in need for this one-sided reporting to chill TM's desire to commit time to this noble practice.
The elephant in the room is our govt accreditation and ongoing certifications of nursing homes. Nursing homes are regularly inspected as are restaurants and other businesses. Why do such facilities remain in operation? The article suggests it was wrong for this specific patient to be sent to this facility. The real RTD article should have asked why any patients are there.......if it is as bad as the RTD implies.
The real elephant in the room is why should extremely sick disabled people have to worry about paying for necessary care from a qualified provider. Why do hospitals resort to underhanded means like power of attorney to eject poor sick people?
This certainly raises legitimate concerns about conflict of interest on the part of the lawyer having guardianship. But frankly, if the hospital cared so much more about money than the patient's well being, they would have just discharged him home. Clearly there were serious concerns about his safely at home. If the hospital cared more about money why would they both paying an attorney many thousands of dollars to take this to court?
The hospital had to make certain there were arrangements in place prior to releasing him or if something happened to him, the hospital would have been proven to be negligent. Your second question: Again, they had to make certain they were thorough in making arrangements for him and by having a court decide these important issues the hospital was relieved of responsibility and possibility of a lawsuit brought by the wife. This is so very sad but now they are together forever. My condolences to any loved ones.
Thank you for RTD for a very informative and compelling article about the abuses of the poor and elderly. If we live long enough, many of us could find ourselves in a similar situation.
This is incredible. You should be considered for a Pulitzer. I hope your digging gets results.
This kind of investigative reporting, especially in these days of financial challenges for print media, is exceptional. Thank you, TD and Bridget Baluch, for investing in this important work. Jaw-dropping storytelling! I look forward to the sequels.
Amazing and stunning report. Thank you fir publishing
It's a gutsy, hard nosed expose. Thank you, Richmond Times Dispatch, for the courage to name names.
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