MA Hospital Locked in Battle Over Patient's Guardianship

A lawyer representing North Shore Medical Center filed a motion Wednesday to remove two women as legal guardians of their brother, a patient at Union Hospital, after one of the women caused numerous disruptions in the hospital, the lawyer said.

“(The woman) has interfered with the treatment of her brother... and interfered with the treatment of the other patients,” attorney Robert Ledoux told Judge Spencer Kagan at Middlesex Probate and Family Court.

But the accused woman, Lauren DeCruz, 65, of Lynn, said she is concerned about the way hospitals, including Union, have treated her brother, Richard Bianchi, because he is a diagnosed schizophrenic.

“I just think Richard has the right to be treated the same way someone without mental illness is treated,” DeCruz told the judge.

Ledoux said nurses in the Intensive Care Unit at Union called Lynn Police on DeCruz last week after she caused a disruption in the ICU following an ethics consult regarding Bianchi’s care, and she was given a no trespass order.

“Families of other patients had to be removed because she was so loud,” Ledoux said.

DeCruz said she argued with Union Hospital personnel over their treatment of Bianchi after he stopped breathing. Bianchi, 56, has Stage 4 lung cancer and other ailments in addition to his mental illness. She maintains the police did not issue a no trespassing order, but said she has been sending her husband in her place to prevent more disruption.

“There’s no piece of paper that says I can’t go on the property,” DeCruz said.

Ledoux said his clients believe there is a “do not resuscitate” order in effect for Bianchi, but admitted to Kagan that he isn’t sure where it came from. DeCruz said her brother never signed the order, and, as a mental patient, it should be invalid if he did.

“The (order) was very much misinterpreted, falsified and kept from the family,” DeCruz claimed.

DeCruz, who was a nurse for 35 years, said she plans to take care of Bianchi at her own home with the help of hospice care if she maintains guardianship.

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Hospital Locked in Battle Over Patient's Guardianship