Kathleen A. Gagne

Kathie Gagne died 4,475 days ago.

May 20th, 2013 @ 1:40 pm

On Monday, May 13, 2013, at 2:34 PM, Kelly Mathis of Mathis & Murphy, P.A. emailed James B. Morrison of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., the law firm representing Woodland Terrace with a subject line of Estate of Kathleen Gagne:

Mr. Morrison,

Please advise when we will receive the records for the above named decedent.

Thank you,

Kelly

Mr. Morrison responded at 3:22 PM with:

Did you provide prepayment to facility ?

Two days later, on Wednesday, May 15th, at 10:24 AM, Mr. Mathis sent another email to Mr. Morrison:

Can you have the nursing home fax or email the invoice asap?

Kelly

Mr. Morrison replied to that email at 10:42 AM the same day with:

I will work on. They were supposed to handle.

Mr. Mathis forwarded me this response at 5:47 AM on Thursday, May 16th.

I responded to Mr. Mathis’ forward at 6:10 AM with:

Thank you for keeping me updated. I do appreciate it.

According to Jill and Jennifer, he has been saying that for almost two months now.

Would it be helpful if I called and / or emailed him each day as well?

Mr. Mathis replied to me at 8:21 AM with simply:

Probably not.

Kelly

At 9:32 AM on Friday, May 17th, I wrote to Mr. Mathis:

Hey, Kelly,

Did you email or call Mr. Morrison today?

At 9:55 AM on Monday, May 20th, I again wrote Mr. Mathis:

Hey, Kelly,

Have you emailed or called Mr. Morrison since the 15th?

At 10:33 AM I received a BCC of an email from Mr. Mathis to Mr. Morrison, in which Mr. Mathis wrote:

What do I need to do to get the invoice and documents?

Kelly

At 10:42 AM Mr. Mathis forwarded me a copy of an email Mr. Morrison sent him at 10:35 AM in which Mr. Morrison wrote:

I spoke to facility on Friday. You should get invoice this week.

I replied to Mr. Mathis at 1:34 PM with:

Thank you for staying on top of this, Kelly.

I have very little faith that we will receive anything this week, but I suppose I have no choice but to wait.

Sisyphus

May 14th, 2013 @ 10:45 am

At 10:08 AM I called Mathis & Murphy again in another attempt to speak to Kelly Mathis. Good ol’ Candace answered the phone and I said it was me calling again. She sounded happy to hear from me and told me she was going to check to see if he was back from lunch. After a few seconds on hold she said Kelly was back in the office but told her he was waiting for a conference call and would call me after that. She asked me for my phone number, which I gave her. She said, “Okay. He’ll call you,” and I thanked her.

About two minutes later my phone rang and it was Kelly himself. He apologized for all the problems I’ve had lately and explained that his firm was in the middle of some reorganization.

Kelly said that he had personally followed up with the attorney from Woodland Terrace (via email) to see what the hold-up was. The attorney from Woodland Terrace responded last night (Monday, May 13th, 2013) and was apparently surprised that the medical records had not yet been received. Kelly told me the other attorney asked him if the reason might be because they had not yet paid the invoice and Kelly told him his firm hadn’t even received an invoice yet to pay in the first place. The attorney for Woodland Terrace said he would follow-up.

Kelly told me he was still very much interested in the case, and that if he didn’t hear from the other attorney by tomorrow (Wednesday, May 15th, 2013) that he would start “hounding” him every day until we got the medical records. He said that it was unfortunate that he had no “teeth” because there is no “hard and fast deadline under the law” by which date the medical records must be delivered. Kelly said he was sorry and that he couldn’t speak to how effective his employees had been (or had not been) at following up with the case, but that all we can do now is harass them until they hand over mom’s medical records.

He said that we could theoretically take them to court to get a judge to force them to deliver mom’s medical records, but that doing that could take two months and there would be more legal fees, etc. involved, and in the end we’d simply have the records.

I told him that I was concerned that if Woodland Terrace is not compelled by a judge to deliver the medical records, we are just going to be sitting here in two months in the exact same position we’re in now. Kelly said, “I hope that doesn’t happen.”

He told me that he’d BCC me on his emails to the other attorney so I will be aware of how persistent he is being, and I told him I appreciated that very much.

I started to go over the reasons for why we want the medical records in the first place, but Kelly said there’s no point in explaining all that now since I’ll most likely have to do it all again once we finally get them.

I thanked him and sort of, kind of, maybe feel a little bit better that wheels are in motion again.

Just before five o’clock in the afternoon I emailed Kelly a copy of the same email I sent Jennifer Workman on May 9th.

Out to Lunch

May 14th, 2013 @ 8:49 am

At 8:42 AM on May 14th, 2013 — about an hour after my previous attempt — I called Mathis & Murphy to try to get in touch with Kelly Mathis.

Candace answered the phone and I said, “Hi, Candace. It’s David Gagne again.”

Candace said, “Kelly has just gone to lunch. I’m sorry.”

I said, “Ah. Oh,” and she said, “You’re in California, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I replied.

She asked, “Do you want his voice mail?”

After a long pause I said, “I guess so. I’ll leave him a message and then call back in an hour.”

Candace said, “Ok. Hold on,” and I was connected to Kelly’s voice mail.

I said who I am, spelled my last name, recited my phone number twice, and said, “Please return my call.”

The Widening Gyre

May 14th, 2013 @ 7:52 am

Since Kelly Mathis didn’t respond to the message I left on his voice mail yesterday, I called Mathis & Murphy at 7:38 AM today, Tuesday, May 14th, 2013. Candace answered the phone and I reminded her of our call.

“Hi, Candace. This is David Gagne. We spoke yesterday when I called looking for Jennifer Workman.”

She said something to indicate she remembered, and I asked, “Are you certain now that she is not returning?” to which she replied, “Yes, I am.”

I asked, “Can you at least tell me if she left voluntarily or if she was dismissed?” Candace said, “No, I’m sorry; I can’t tell you that.”

“Ok,” I said. “I understand.”

“Would you like to speak to Kelly?” she asked, and I said, “Yes, if he’s in.”

She placed me on hold, then returned a moment later to say she was sorry, but somebody was in his office so he couldn’t speak to me right now. His door was closed so she couldn’t see that someone was in there, she mentioned. She asked me if I wanted his voice mail and I said, “No. He doesn’t return my messages. I’ll just call back.”

I asked Candace if she could estimate how long he might be and she said that she couldn’t, because, “his door is closed.” I said I would call back in about an hour and she said, “Ok. I’ll tell him that.”

05/14/2013 Update: It was not fair of me to say that Kelly doesn’t return my messages, and I should not have said that. I’m sure he is a very busy man, just like everyone else. I was simply very frustrated.

Inconceivable

May 13th, 2013 @ 1:41 pm

I called Mathis & Murphy on May 13th, 2013 at 1:30pm to speak with Jennifer Workman and — fingers crossed — hopefully get an update on the status of acquiring mom’s medical records.

A lovely woman named Candace answered the phone. I assume she’s a receptionist; she’s answered the phone almost every time I’ve called. I asked if I could speak to Jennifer and she told me that Jennifer was not in today.

“Is she on vacation or something?” I asked, “Because she wasn’t there when I called on Friday, either.”

Candace said, “I don’t think she’s coming back.”

I was confused, of course. “You mean she’s out for the day? Or do you mean she’s gone forever?”

Candace said, “I don’t think she’s returning ever, no.”

I asked, “Is something wrong?” I meant at the firm, like: Is the whole law firm disintegrating or something?

But Candace just replied, “No. She’s just not coming back.”

She asked which attorney was working with me and I told her Kelly Mathis. Then she asked if I wanted to be connected to his voice mail and I said I did.

I left him a message — I spelled my name and recited my phone number twice — and asked him to please return my call.

I suppose there is a chance I am simply cursed. I hadn’t really considered that as a realistic option, but it’s starting to actually make sense.

No News

May 10th, 2013 @ 1:06 pm

I called Jennifer at Mathis & Murphy at one o’clock this afternoon hoping for some good news. The receptionist who answered the phone said that Jennifer was out of the office for the day. I thanked her and told her I would just call again on Monday.

Additional Records Requests

May 9th, 2013 @ 10:51 am

Yesterday I told Jennifer at Mathis & Murphy that I would send her copies of some questions I had asked Jill. I sent her this email this morning:

Dear Jennifer,

During our phone call yesterday I mentioned that I had previously asked Jill about obtaining my mother’s medical records from Fish Memorial Hospital, Halifax Hospital, and (potentially) the paramedics company which transported her from Woodland Terrace to the hospital on the day of her death. (I asked Jill this in an email on Thursday, April 25th, 2013 sent at 10:14 AM Pacific time.)

Here is the relevant paragraph from that email:

——————————–

I’d also like to know if it is possible to acquire my mother’s medical records from Fish Memorial Hospital Deland. (She was there less than 48 hours before her death, and — of course — that is also where she was sent by Woodland Terrace the day she died.) Can we get any documentation from the paramedics company that transported her to the hospital on the day she died? (We still do not know if anyone attempted at Woodland Terrace attempted to revive her or if they simply called the paramedics; or if the paramedics made any attempt to revive her, etc.)

<http://kathiegagne.com/2013/02/20/obtaining-medical-records/>

——————————–

I detailed some other major concerns of mine in an email sent to Jill on March 8th, 2013 at 9:17 AM Pacific:

——————————–

I am just now realizing that I was told repeatedly by Dr. Wolf and by Attorney Phillips that Dr. Wolf would not be able to finalize my mother’s autopsy until and unless she received copies of my mother’s medical records from Woodland Terrace. To the best of my knowledge she was never given those records, and yet she did finalize the autopsy.

This discrepancy is troubling me very much. Does this mean that the autopsy Dr. Wolf provided should be considered incomplete and / or inconclusive?

…

I have always had questions about what happened between when exactly my mother was found “unresponsive” and when she arrived at the hospital. And I have always questioned why Nurse Alvis told me that she was not able to detail what happened during that time because — she told me — she was busy preparing paperwork and my mother’s chart to go to the hospital, yet everyone at the hospital who spoke with me stressed that they received no paperwork or information at all whatsoever with my mother.

Detective Whittier of the Deland Police Department had questions about all this, too, and seemed at first to be very engaged in determining what had happened. But after a week or two he simply completely stopped responding to my phone calls and I was never able to get in touch with him again.

<http://kathiegagne.com/2013/03/08/autopsy-results/>

——————————–

Thanks,

David Vincent Gagne

Touching Base

May 8th, 2013 @ 12:05 pm

I called Jennifer at Mathis & Murphy this afternoon. She told me she had touched base with Nicole at the office of the attorney for Woodland Terrace. Nicole told her that she had submitted the paperwork, and Jennifer asked Nicole if it would be okay for her to touch base each day until we have obtained my mother’s medical records. Jennifer said she was going to call every morning and every afternoon until we get them.

I asked her to whom Nicole had submitted paperwork, and she told me Nicole meant she had submitted a request to Woodland Terrace to deliver my mom’s medical records. Jennifer said that Nicole told her it should not take too long because Woodland Terrace had already been preparing the paperwork based on the earlier, apparently misplaced, request.

Nicole told Jennifer that once the invoice (for photocopies, I assume) was paid, the documents will be sent via email to Mathis & Murphy. Jennifer told me that she expressed how important this was to Nicole, and that Nicole said she understood.

Jennifer said that as soon as she receives the medical records, they would be reviewed by Kelly Mathis and we would then decide what to do next. She told me that the first call she makes every morning and the last call she makes every afternoon will be to Nicole until the medical records are delivered.

I thanked her profusely and then, because I don’t think I had done so yet, I gave her the abridged, ten-minute synopsis of my mom’s story. We also discussed that I would send her copies of some of the requests I had sent Jill Bechtold.

Progress?

May 7th, 2013 @ 1:57 pm

Just before two o’clock (my time) I received a call from Jennifer at Mathis & Murphy, P.A. She told me that she had been in contact with a Nicole Barna at the law firm representing Woodland Terrace, who asked her to resubmit our request for my mother’s medical records via email. Jennifer said she did that.

She said that Nicole told her that tomorrow she would send an invoice to Mathis & Murphy to pay for photocopying, etc. and that once that invoice was paid, copies of the medical records will be supplied. Nicole told her that the lawyer or paralegal that had been handling Woodland Terrace (or maybe just this request; it wasn’t clear) was no longer at their law firm and it would take a while to find the original request, so that was why she wanted Jennifer to simply resubmit the request.

Jennifer said that if everything goes smoothly, we should have copies of mom’s medical records by the end of the week. I told her I was (hopefully understandably) wary of that claim, since I have been told, “just one more week,” for about four months now. She said she understood and told me I should call her tomorrow afternoon to check on the status of our request. I told her I would.

Perseverance

May 7th, 2013 @ 12:10 pm

I called Jennifer at Mathis & Murphy, P.A. just after noon, as she suggested earlier today. She told me that since our phone call she had tried twice more to get in touch with someone at the law firm representing Woodland Terrace, but had gotten no response. She said she left another message for James Morrison, and that she would call again this afternoon and try to speak to any lawyer at the firm.

Jennifer said she asked Kelly Mathis about a deadline, and that he told her there is really nothing we can do to force them to comply. Our only option, she told me he said, was to file a lawsuit against the other law firm, and that that could take months to resolve.

She said that she would be persistent and that I should call her again at five o’clock (her time). I told her that I was going to be persistent, too, and that I felt bad that she had to bear the brunt of my persistence. She said she could take it and I shouldn’t apologize.