Kathleen A. Gagne

Kathie Gagne died 4,421 days ago.

November 4th, 2013 @ 9:07 am

Health care manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries will pay more than $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil investigations over allegations that they marketed three drugs for uses that were never approved, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday in Washington.

The settlements also cover claims that the companies gave “kickbacks” to physicians and to nursing home pharmacies to promote the drugs’ usage.

The claims involve the drugs Risperdal, Invega and Natrecor.

Holder said Johnson & Johnson improperly marketed the drug Risperdal for treatment of psychotic symptoms in elderly, non-schizophrenic patients, even though the drug was approved only to treat schizophrenia.

He said Rispidol and Invega also were improperly marketed for dementia treatment.

That led insurance companies to pay for claims they never should have been paying, he said.

“(The companies) lined their pockets at the expense of American taxpayers (and) patients,” Holder said.
via CNN.com

This news comes 448 days after mom died, and once again I want to start screaming and punching and kicking.

A Follow-Up

October 31st, 2013 @ 11:26 am

Early on Halloween, 2013, I received an email from a lawyer in Florida who is a family friend and had contacted me the previous week. He wrote:

From: Snipes, Shane
To: Gagne, David
Cc: Rawnsley, Marlia
Subject: Re: Case..
Sent: October 31, 2013 11:26 AM

Just a follow up to make sure you guys hooked up. David, thank you for reaching out again and hope Mrs. Rawnsley can get this taken care of for you. Marlia, Thank you for helping him with this heart wrenching case..

With Great Respect,
Shane

Sending Medical Records via Email

October 30th, 2013 @ 11:11 am

From: Gagne, David
To: Burke, Pat; Ashton, Frank
Subject: Kathleen A. Gagne: Medical Records, etc.
Sent: October 30, 2013 10:57 AM

Dear Frank and Patricia,

I have copies of my mother’s medical records from Woodland Terrace, Halifax Hospital, and several other facilities.

Would you like me to email these to you? The majority of them are in PDF format, which should be very simple for you to receive and open via email.

I’m attaching the Deland Fire Department report here as a test. Please let me know if you have any problems.

Thank you,
David Vincent Gagne

Attachment: Recs – DeLand FD.pdf

Yet Another HIPAA Release

October 25th, 2013 @ 2:46 pm

From: Burke, Pat <burke@jaxlegal.net>
To: Gagne, David
Subject: Document in ProLaw
Sent: October 25, 2013 7:50 AM

Mr. Gagne,

We are in the process of obtaining some additional medical records regarding your Mother, Kathleen Gagne, but we don’t have any signed authorizations for release of information. Would you please sign only the attached authorization and email it back to me — don’t fill out any other information. Once signed, we can make copies as needed. Without this authorization we cannot obtain any of her records.

I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

Thank you,
Patricia M. Burke
Legal Assistant to Frank A. Ashton

Attachment: Doc.doc

Web access

October 24th, 2013 @ 12:33 pm

From: Snipes, Shane
To: Gagne, David
Subject: Web access
Sent: October 24, 2013 12:33 PM

Can you give me the access to Kathiegagne.com site? I will forward over to attorney.

News from Shane

October 24th, 2013 @ 12:25 pm

From: Snipes, Shane
To: Gagne, David
Subject: Case..
Sent: October 24, 2013 12:25 PM

Good afternoon,
I have a meeting in am with Nursing home Attorney that is interested in your case.. Are you free to talk via Phone or email if she needs you tomorrow? I am sorry for the delay she was unable to open my email of our conversation so I hand delivered it to her.

Shane

A New Hope

October 21st, 2013 @ 10:06 am

Just before 9 o’clock this morning I received a phone call from Frank Ashton, the attorney Kelly Mathis had asked to help with the investigation of mom’s case. Mr. Ashton and I spoke for just under an hour; I gave him the abridged version of the events leading to mom’s death and he asked many questions. He also asked me to send him a copy of the autopsy report prepared by Dr. Wolf, which he said Mr. Mathis did not give to him.
Continue reading …

Reaching Out

October 18th, 2013 @ 1:43 pm

From: Gagne, David
To: Snipes, Shane
Subject: Re: Medical Records Review Status
Sent: October 18, 2013 1:43 PM

Hello, Shane,

I haven’t heard from you since this email, but wanted to reach out again.

Over the course of August and September we actually managed to get the paramedics, the hospital, and one of the nursing homes to release all of mom’s medical records to us.

Unfortunately almost nothing has happened since then, and just today I learned that the lawyer with whom I’ve been working since the beginning of the year was recently convicted of running a gambling ring (or something like that). Kelly Mathis was my attorney and he emailed me today to let me know he would no longer be able to help me with the case, although he does feel that there is a strong case to be made against the nursing home where my mother died, especially considering the wealth of documentation I have regarding the circumstances of her death.

He recommended another attorney, but I thought I’d touch base with you again.

Thank you in advance,

Inconvenience

October 18th, 2013 @ 9:16 am

I’ll be honest with you: I did not see this one coming. I just received this email from the lawyer who has been handling mom’s case since the beginning of the year:

From: Mathis Kelly <kmathis@mathislaw.net>
To: Gagne, David
CC: Perez Katherine <kperez@mathislaw.net>
CC: Frank Ashton <ashton@jaxlegal.net>
Subject: Kathleen Gagne claim
Sent: October 18, 2013 9:16 AM

David,

As a result of personal issues that were unexpected and beyond my control I will not be able to assist you further in connection with the claim arising out of your mother’s passing. I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. You can find the details by doing a web search of my name.

As I had indicated to you earlier, we had enlisted the assistance of Mr. Frank Ashton, Esq. in connection with this claim. Mr. Ashton has also been investigating and confirming that a strong claim exists. I recommend that you contact him for further handling of your claim. His contact information follows:

Frank A. Ashton
Hardesty Tyde Green & Ashton, P.A.
320 N. 1st Street Suite 703
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250
Phone: (904)249-9030
Toll Free: (877)398-2212
Fax: (904)249-9025
ashton@jaxlegal.com

Please be aware that Florida law requires that lawsuits arising out of a claim for wrongful death must be brought within 2 years of the date of death.

Again, I apologize for the inconvenience and wish that I could continue the representation.

Kelly

Of course I immediately Googled “Kelly B. Mathis, Esquire”.

I’ll save you the trouble of doing the same and just link directly to the most relevant search results:
Kelly Mathis, Lawyer Accused In Veterans Charity Fraud, Says Arrest Ruined His Life (VIDEO)
Kelly Mathis, Attorney Convicted In $300 Million Gambling Scheme, Could Face Dozens Of Years In Prison

I emailed Mr. Ashton as soon as I finished processing this new development:

From: Gagne, David
To: Frank Ashton <ashton@jaxlegal.net>
CC: Mathis Kelly <kmathis@mathislaw.net>
CC: Perez Katherine <kperez@mathislaw.net>
Subject: Re: Kathleen Gagne claim
Sent: October 18, 2013 10:55 AM

Dear Mr. Ashton,

I just called the phone number provided by Kelly and the woman who answered the phone said you and your assistant were both unavailable.

At your earliest convenience, please call me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Waiting

October 17th, 2013 @ 9:45 am

I hadn’t heard anything from Katie Perez, the legal assistant at K.B. Mathis, P.A., since September 26th — more than two weeks — so on Monday, October 14th, I sent her an email asking for an update.

It’s been three days since then, so I forwarded that same email to Katie again and added this note:

From: Gagne, David
To: Perez, Katie <kperez@mathislaw.net>
Subject: Fwd: Update
Sent: October 17, 2013 9:45 AM

Dear Katie,

As far as I can tell, I haven’t received a response to the below email. I’m just checking again to see if there has been any update from the external counsel Kelly has asked to help with the case.

It’s now been over ten months since Kelly agreed to help me with this case, and I am feeling very desperate and frustrated.

Anything you can tell me — anything at all — would be a welcome change from the status quo.

Thanks in advance,
dvg

I received the following email from her, in response to Monday’s email, about forty-five minutes after sending that:

From: Perez, Katie <kperez@mathislaw.net>
To: Gagne, David
Subject: RE: Update
Sent: October 17, 2013 10:29 AM

Mr. Gagne:

Mr. Mathis and the consulting attorney have been playing phone tag yesterday and today. I will let you know as soon as they catch up with each other.

Thank you for your continued patience.