Janet Salas lost her say in her son's treatment when the state turned over custody of him to a case management company.
Adult Protective Services brought a suit to remove Salas as Freddie Nichols' guardian and award guardianship to Erin Ruscetti, owner of Necessity Case Management and Consultation LLC. At the time, the agency's attorney alleged that Nichols was dehydrated and in a "vegetative condition" and had been hospitalized about 10 times during the preceding year for decubitus ulcers, or bed sores.
Salas rejects the allegations that she provided poor care for her son. She contends that her son's bed sores worsened during his stay at a VA hospital. Salas also said she had no opportunity to speak or present evidence at the Aug. 27 hearing. She had a letter from her son's physician who wrote that Salas provided her son with excellent care.
District Judge Richard Brown awarded guardianship to Ruscetti after an Aug. 27 hearing.
Janet Salas paced the sidewalk outside the Raymond G. Murphy Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Albuquerque, demanding that hospital officials restore her son's feeding tube. Salas stood in front of a McDonald's restaurant at Gibson and San Mateo SE nearly all day.
Her hand drawn sign said: "Please Help / The VA is killing my son."
Salas lost the battle when her son, Freddie Nichols, died after Nichols had been without food or water and when hospital officials removed a feeding tube without his family's consent.
Full Article and Source:
Family Opposed To Fatal Tube Removal
Adult Protective Services brought a suit to remove Salas as Freddie Nichols' guardian and award guardianship to Erin Ruscetti, owner of Necessity Case Management and Consultation LLC. At the time, the agency's attorney alleged that Nichols was dehydrated and in a "vegetative condition" and had been hospitalized about 10 times during the preceding year for decubitus ulcers, or bed sores.
Salas rejects the allegations that she provided poor care for her son. She contends that her son's bed sores worsened during his stay at a VA hospital. Salas also said she had no opportunity to speak or present evidence at the Aug. 27 hearing. She had a letter from her son's physician who wrote that Salas provided her son with excellent care.
District Judge Richard Brown awarded guardianship to Ruscetti after an Aug. 27 hearing.
Janet Salas paced the sidewalk outside the Raymond G. Murphy Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Albuquerque, demanding that hospital officials restore her son's feeding tube. Salas stood in front of a McDonald's restaurant at Gibson and San Mateo SE nearly all day.
Her hand drawn sign said: "Please Help / The VA is killing my son."
Salas lost the battle when her son, Freddie Nichols, died after Nichols had been without food or water and when hospital officials removed a feeding tube without his family's consent.
Full Article and Source:
Family Opposed To Fatal Tube Removal
9 comments:
APS "protected" this young man to death.
...Malign and silence the family...ignore the doctors...the abuser accuses the family of abuse....
Not only should this guardian be held accountable for the torture and execution of this precious life, but the judge "overseeing" the case, should be held accountable too.
My deepest sympathies to Janet Salas and her family.
This is outrageous! cruel and criminal behavior.
The system is a failure; it allowed this injustice to happen, leaving the victim's mother with no voice. How cruel!
The guardian and the court is responsible for an innocent veteran's death.
The guardian knowingly went against the mother's wishes for her own son; the guardian did not guard and protect the ward. Why?
My heart goes out to this family and I hope all of those who participated in the tragic death of the son have nightmares night after night for the rest of their lives.
The people that were in on this do not have a conscience, they are not like you and me; they do this again and again, because they can.
They do what they want, when they want, with no regard for others.
They are a group of ego maniacs who believe they are special; they are better and smarter than us, the little people.
I am steaming, just steaming mad. This is cruel and inhumane treatment to the innocent victim and a lifetime sentence of grief and sorrow for the victims family, especially difficult for his mother.
If this were my son, who was intentionally starved to death by agents of the court, I would demand swift justice or I could not face another day on this earth.
My wish is that someone can and will come forward, very soon, and assist this grieving mother.
What's wrong with this picture??? "the agency's attorney alleged that Nichols was dehydrated and in a vegetative condition" so they were then allowed to kill him by dehydrating and starving him. Outrageous that this is allowed to happen in AMERIKA!
Yea, what IS wrong with this picture! They take the VET away from his loving mother by denying her the ability to submit PROOF to the court that she did, in fact, provide excellent care and her son suffered these wounds from his care at the VA. Why?
Because the INJUSTICE system and social services make money off the vulnerable citizens in our society.....it is the new way to get RICH IN AMERICKA
elaine nice point you made there
And we all thought the Terri Schiavo case was something special? I guess not. The old and the disabled are considered disposable in our present day society. A mother can't even protect her son! It's outrageous and omnious for all of us.
Life is precious, not disposable.
This case still haunts me! There are so many questions about what really happened. There is a lot conflicting info & of missing confidential medical information. I'd sure like to read the medical records & the VA Ethics Committee records! (I'm an RN certified & specializing in healthcare quality.) There is too much missing to list here!
In 2007 Judge Brown was the only judge nominated for Gov. Richardson by the Committee, even though the Gov. filed twice with the court to mandate that the committee send him more than one nominee. (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nm-supreme-court/1470776.html)Why? What did the Committee members have to gain by nominating only Brown when there were FIVE reasonably well-qualified lawyer applicants?
On what did Ruscetti actually base her decision? What did she have to gain ? Why didn't she work with the mother instead of against her?
What happened to Freddie during the 3 days between the birthday party the nurses gave him (which they wouldn't have done if he wasn't aware) & the court ruling?
This was a trajedy beyond belief! should never be allowed to happen in any country, especially not in America!
How do we get this case thoroughly investigated so it NEVER happens again???!!!
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