Kathleen A. Gagne

Kathie Gagne died 4,511 days ago.

December 17th, 2012 @ 5:48 pm

Mom had incredible penmanship. (Her mother did, too, and I’ve tried to mimic their style my entire life.) She wrote me so frequently that I have — literally — boxes of cards and letters from her. She sent me a card on every holiday. She even sent me cards on Jewish holidays just to be funny. She sent me cards to celebrate when the Gators won a big game or to console me when they lost a game. She sent me clippings from newspapers. When I was in college she sent me Peanuts and Far Side and B.C. comics nearly every week.

I found this one in her day-planner. It looks like a note to herself, but she addresses me directly as well. It’s not dated and there was no way to determine from the surrounding pages when she might have written it. It could have been two years ago or it could have been ten years ago. I don’t know if it’s indicative of how confused and scared she must have been towards the end, or if it’s an example of how much she loved me that she was leaving notes for me to find one day.

She’s been dead four and a half months now, and I still keep reaching for the phone to call her when I leave the office. Or when I hear a funny story I know she’d like. Or when there’s a tragedy on the news. I miss her so much.

Great talk with David.
About 1/2 hr. he is
really happy!

David, I always love you
and Jen …

You are my joy!

Finalizing the Autopsy

December 13th, 2012 @ 12:45 pm

In the middle of December, 2012, I sent the following email to attorney Steve Phillips of Pincus & Currier, LLP:

From: Gagne, David
To: Phillips, Steve <SPhillips@wprclaw.com>
Cc: Shand, Laurel <LShand@wprclaw.com>
Subject: Re: Gagne – Status Update?
Sent: December 13, 2012 1:03 PM

Steve,

re: I will call you after I have the results which as Dr. Wolf says should be next week.

Dr. Wolf called me on Saturday, December 8th, to let me know she had received the toxicology report. She said that she mailed me a copy and that she had faxed you a copy as well.

I have not yet received the copy she said she mailed to me; I expect it will arrive any day now. Can you confirm that you’ve received the copy she faxed to your office?

Dr. Wolf said that there was no evidence of Risperdal in my mother’s system at the time of her death, but that she did have an elevated amount of other psychopharmaceuticals. I don’t understand how this could be the case, since the nurse at Fish Memorial in DeLand told me just thirty-six hours before she died that according to the records she had been given by Woodland Terrace my mother was being administered Risperdal daily (against my direct orders), and I spent hours on the phone with Woodland Terrace arguing with them to stop giving it to her. Either the drug is very, very quickly and efficiently eliminated from the body after it’s been administered, the documentation the nursing home provided the hospital (when she was admitted on Friday, August 10) was woefully inaccurate, or the nurses at Woodland Terrace who argued with me all morning on August 11th were doing so purely out of ignorance.

Dr. Wolf seemed to indicate — at least as I understood her — that we need to acquire the medical records from Woodland Terrace in order to finalize the autopsy.

What is our next step now?

Thanks,

Autopsy Results

December 8th, 2012 @ 12:18 pm

Early in December of 2012, I was walking around Beverly Hills — window-shopping and carrying my son — when my phone rang. It was Dr. Wolf. She asked if I had time to talk and I apologized and said that I couldn’t because I had my hands full. I asked her if she could call again in ten minutes and she readily agreed. I rushed back to the car and then waited anxiously for her call.

The phone rang and we exchanged pleasantries. I told her how sorry I was that it took me several months to pay the balance in full and she told me she understood and it was not a problem. She said that she had gotten the results of the toxicology reports and they showed that mom, in fact, had no trace of Risperdal in her system.¹ She said that mom did have abnormally high levels of Zoloft, though. Dr. Wolf said that the pulmonary embolism that killed mom originated in her legs and was almost certainly the result of prolonged periods of inactivity.

We discussed how frustrated I was that we were still waiting for Woodland Terrace to produce copies of mom’s medical records and Dr. Wolf said she would be interested to learn how frequently — or infrequently — mom was receiving physical therapy.

We were on the phone for about ten minutes and it was very painful to (once again) talk so clinically about mom.

¹ I later learned that this doesn’t mean that she wasn’t being administered the drug while at Woodland Terrace. Because of the long delay between her death and when the autopsy was performed, any traces of Risperdal may have simply disappeared.

Autopsy Update

December 6th, 2012 @ 10:11 am

On the morning of December 6th, 2012, I received a phone call from Elaine, who said she was the assistant to Dr. Barbara Wolf.

Elaine called to tell me that Dr. Wolf had received the final payment I made for the autopsy she performed on mom and that she should have the toxicology results soon, and would be able to provide her findings by the end of next week.

Finally, A Reply

December 5th, 2012 @ 1:15 pm

On December 5th of 2012, Attorney Steve Phillips of Pincus & Currier, LLP finally replied to my emails and voice messages. He wrote:

David,

Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. I have been waiting to hear from Dr. Wolf regarding the toxicology report and kept putting off responding to you thinking she was going to get back to me at any minute.
Dr. Wolf let us know last night that she should have the toxicology report next week and she will call you when she receives it.

The nursing home is refusing to release the records to you because your mother is deceased. They are taking the position that your authorization is no longer valid.

Once we receive the tox results, we will re-evaluate the case on which direction to go.
I will call you after I have the results which as Dr. Wolf says should be next week.

A Lost Cause

December 5th, 2012 @ 11:54 am

Early in December of 2012, I sent the following message to the only email address I could find associated with the @FloridaLegal Twitter account. It was a shot in the dark, but I tried regardless. I never received a reply.

From: Gagne, David
To: jeffrey.kuntz@gray-robinson.com
Subject: Twitter
Sent: December 5, 2012 11:54 AM

Hello,

You don’t know me, but I have been following you on Twitter for quite some time.

I need some legal help in the state of Florida, and was wondering if you could point me in the right direction.

I completely understand if you are legally or ethically unable to provide any information, and will hold no ill will towards you if that is the case.

I live in Los Angeles, but was raised in Daytona Beach and graduated from the University of Florida in 1996.

I have a lawyer in Florida who took a case for me on a contingency basis, but I have not had any communication with him in a month now, despite repeated emails, phone calls, and voice mails.

In August of this year, my mother was killed because of a combination of nursing incompetence and a blatant disregard of my directions. I have an overwhelming amount of very comprehensive and detailed documentation of this. It is horrible beyond words; the pain is unimaginable and I want someone to be held accountable.

I have been told by multiple law firms in Florida that because my sister and I are both older than twenty-five, there is very little financial incentive to try a case, and that any lawyer who represents us is only doing so out of pity.

Is there any advice or recommendation you can give me? Do you know if there is anyone I can contact that specializes in this sort of thing?

Thank you sincerely,

David Vincent Gagne

Calling Dr. Wolf

December 4th, 2012 @ 8:49 am

On my way to work on the morning of December 4^th, 2012, I tried calling Dr. Barbara Wolf, the District Five Medical Examiner. I wanted to see if she had heard from attorney Steve Phillips, since I have not had any communication with him since an email he sent me on November 8^th.

The woman who answered the phone at her office said that she was unavailable and would be all day. She took my name and number and told me she’d ask Dr. Wolf to call me tomorrow.

Calling Steve

December 4th, 2012 @ 8:48 am

I tried calling my lawyer, Steve Phillips, of Pincus & Currier, LLP, again on the morning of December 4th, 2012. He did not return the voice mail I left him on the 3rd, and even after two voice mails and multiple emails, I have not heard from him in almost a full month now.

He didn’t answer his cell phone, and I chose not to leave him another voice mail.

This is very frustrating.

Calling Steve

December 3rd, 2012 @ 8:39 am

Despite repeated emails and at least one voice mail, I haven’t heard from our lawyer, Steve Phillips, of Pincus & Currier, LLP, in well over three weeks now. I called him again on the morning of December 3rd, 2012 while driving to work and left him another voice mail expressing my concern about his lack of communication. I implored him to return my call to let me know what was happening.

Re: Status Update?

November 30th, 2012 @ 11:15 am

Just before lunch on November 30th, 2012, I sent the following email to Steve Phillips, my attorney:

Dear Steve,

I’m starting to get very concerned. I haven’t heard from you in over three weeks, though I’ve emailed and called. Is something wrong?

Dr. Wolf should have received the final payment for the autopsy today, Friday, November 30th, so that should no longer be a bottleneck.

It’s now been a minimum of six full weeks that we’ve been waiting for Woodland Terrace to provide the medical records, which seems absurd to me.

Please respond.

Thank you,

David