Conservatorship: The Racket That Ruined My Father’s Last Years

By Poppy Helgren

One of the greatest things about this country that we live in is the freedoms we enjoy.

Those freedoms were embedded in my parents. They believed in them, serving the country that proclaimed them after growing up in families that served as well. They believed in the Declaration of Independence, which held “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”—otherwise known as the American dream. 

Unfortunately, this phrase is not legally binding. 

Sadly, I have watched as my father’s pursuit of happiness was swept away by the court system in his senior years. His liberty, including his freedom to live according to his lifelong and clearly stated desires, was destroyed by a conservator and attorneys fueled by greed.

The author’s parents, Lester Moore and Lou Dell Hart Moore

He and my mother, Lester Moore and Lou Dell Hart Moore, were both survivors of the Great Depression. They both grew up in the South, experiencing extreme poverty before climbing out and crafting a life and a family together. Carefully and responsibly, they built assets that grew over time and made plans for the future. They could not have known—so few people do—that a system of legalized theft exists that would toss aside their plans and siphon off much of their money. Called conservatorship in some states, guardianship in others, it has stripped away the rights and assets of vulnerable people across the country, including the aged, the disabled, and people labeled with psychiatric disorders. 

Lester was born in Van Buren, Arkansas, the first of nine children. He had one pair of pants and one shirt that his mother would frequently wash so that he could attend school. He wore a pair of hand-me-down shoes. His dream was never to be poor again when he joined the US Navy at age 17 and traveled to California for boot camp. Because he was so tiny, he had to gorge himself on bananas to make the weight required to enlist. 

During the next five years, covering his time during the Korean War, he sent his paychecks home to his parents to help with the expenses of his younger siblings. After separating honorably from the Navy and going home on leave, he decided to return to California to train to be an aircraft mechanic.

My Mother, Lou Dell, was also a survivor of the Great Depression in Texas, and she also spent time in the military. She joined the US Army during WWII, serving stateside. 

My parents met while both working at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, Calif., and were married in 1952.

Lester was very serious-minded and, like most Southerners, he loved his home state and the idea of owning land there. In 1956, not even 30 years old, Lester bought his first 563 acres. The idea of eventually moving back to Arkansas was always on his mind. He would frequently travel there, ranching and raising cattle on his property with his younger brothers. My parents were frugal people, working hard and saving their money. 

My father eventually left Lockheed, beginning his career at Flying Tiger Airline and later working with Federal Express when they acquired it. My mother became a fulltime mom when I was born, their only child, in 1957.

And they thrived. 

In 1993, my parents created the Moore Family Trust, which clearly stated their financial and medical wishes. By then they had several million dollars in assets, including 600 acres of property and four homes in Arkansas, plus $600,000 in FedEx stock, a home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and hundreds of thousands of dollars in CDs, savings accounts, investment accounts, and oil and gas rights on their property. 

My mother passed away in 2001. When my father was diagnosed with dementia in 2010, I assumed the role of Successor Trustee, per the trust documents. My children, spouse, and I live in Nevada, but I knew that my father’s plan was always to return to Arkansas to live on his property. He had no relatives in California and always wanted to “go home to Arkansas.” His siblings all lived there, too. 

But in 2010, a predator female and a lawyer withdrew multiple thousands of dollars from his accounts and attempted to change the trust, and I was advised by an attorney that the only way to stop the harm to my father was to seek conservatorship for him.

I became aware of his dementia when my father reached out to me and asked for my help, as did his physicians at Kaiser Permanente as well as his financial advisor. So I went to California in 2009 to assist with paying his bills, and Dad introduced me to his tax accountant. While going through his checkbooks, I became aware that he was regularly giving large sums of money to Lilo Kruger, his “lady friend.” Dad had met her at a grief group in February 2004. Within three weeks, he had given her a check for $700. 

That was just the beginning. He took her on many vacations—to Alaska, Hawaii, Panama, and Germany. He also gave her cash every two or three weeks. As I dug further, I began to suspect she was a predator who specifically went to the grief group to meet men to exploit financially.

Lester Moore, top left, and his brothers

At the same time, I learned that Lilo only had specific days and times that my Dad could visit her: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7-9 pm. When Lilo realized that I was aware of what she was doing, she had her friend’s son, attorney William Salzwedel, come on board to change the Moore Family Trust. He removed me as the successor trustee, placing himself as both successor trustee and my dad’s attorney in 2010. This was done nine months after my father had been declared incompetent by his longtime physicians. 

Salzwedel proceeded to change the ownership of my father’s accounts that were originally in my name as the successor trustee of the Moore Family Trust. 

But no longer. 

The Absolute Power of Judge and Conservator

For the record: Lilo Kruger died about a year ago. Court documents show her involvement with William Salzwedel and the changing of the trust, and I have complained to the California State Bar about everything he did, so they are well aware of the havoc he has caused to my family.

My entire purpose, as both my father’s successor trustee and his daughter, was to protect him and to help him move to Arkansas to be with his siblings on his property—which had been his dream since the 1950s. I wanted things to be made right. I wanted the exploitation of my father by these two predators to be stopped. At the time, I believed it would be.

That’s when I sought out legal counsel by obtaining my own attorney, John Barlow. He said that the only way to fight Kruger and Salzwedel was to pursue conservatorship of my dad, even though there was a family trust from 1993, and my father had dementia that was attested to by his two physicians. Per the trust documents, I had already assumed the role of successor trustee. That should have been enough to help him. 

If only I knew back then what I know now, that instituting conservatorship would make the situation so much worse. It literally opened my dad’s estate up to the looting by attorneys and conservators, blessed by a probate judge—all because of the advice of an attorney who, I realized too late, was complicit in the probate abuse in that court. In 2012 the probate judge, after delaying for 18 months, ignored the Moore Family Trust document and placed not me but an outsider, Angelique Friend, as his conservator and trustee.

Lester Moore never again saw his beloved state of Arkansas, not even to attend the funeral of his younger brother Bill in 2016. After the conservator was appointed in 2012, she never allowed my father to leave the state of California, even for a visit. My lawyer repeatedly told me that “we will get things turned around, and you will be put in charge.” It never happened. (As I did with Salzwedel, I have also made complaints against Angelique Friend to the Fiduciary Commission in California. The attorneys that I have supposedly had on my side are very much aware of my complaints against these people.)

None of this was in my dad’s best interest. There were many options for him to live out his life the way he intended. The only people served by keeping him in California were the conservator and the multitude of attorneys involved, all of them billing their hours to his estate.

The Arkansas property was disposed of by the conservator in 2016. Keep in mind that to a Southerner, property is everything. I remember the quote in the movie Gone With The Wind, when Scarlett’s father told her: “Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for. Because it’s the only thing that lasts.” My father’s land was meant to stay in the family forever. There was never an inventory of the ranching equipment, vehicles, antique cars, guns, and houses full of family mementoes that were sold off. All of the excessive fees for the conservator and lawyers were rubber-stamped by the probate judge, who eventually retired, but it all continued with the judge who took over.

The conservator prevented my father from living in the Nevada State Veterans Home, where I am director of nursing, because she would not allow him to leave California. As my Dad’s dementia progressed, I believed that he would be happy near his family.  But that suggestion was disregarded. In 2020, the home in Thousand Oaks was sold over my objections, and my dad was placed in a group home. From February of that year onward, I was not allowed to see my father—with the Covid-19 pandemic cited as an excuse. But the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) never had such a restriction. Families were allowed to see their elderly loved ones. 

Within 11 months, Lester Moore was dead of sepsis, caused by bowel obstruction from a fecal impaction, all resulting from caregiver negligence. This was substantiated by the State of California licensing agency for group homes. 

I was notified—by email!—of my father’s death. 

Over a year later, the judge ruled to hold back $250,000 from the Moore Family Trust assets, in case of further legal costs. Now my father has been dead for two and a half years, and they still have not released that money to me, the heir. Poppy Helgren with her father, Les Moore.

Poppy Helgren with her father, Les Moore.

Just how long can this go on? The absolute power of the probate judge and conservator altered my dad’s last years and all that my parents planned for their assets. There appears to be no accountability for the predators that exploit the vulnerable elderly and their families. Conservatorships redistribute the victim’s wealth into the pockets of the conservators, the lawyers, and the judges. 

Horrific stories of the corrupt conservatorship/guardianship racket need to be told. The dirty little secret of what happens so often in probate court must not be hidden from the public any longer. We need justice for victims. We need a movement to educate people about the harms. It needs to happen. 

Vultures Lining Up To Pick Off The Bones

How has all this affected me? How do I feel about what has occurred to my father at the hands of those whose primary mission was to gain access to his assets? It is surprising to me, all the many emotions that have surged over the unnecessary suffering brought upon my family by the perpetrators of our misery and the root cause, greed. Over the years, I have felt angry, powerless, shattered, disappointed, and disillusioned. I am heartbroken for what was planned for and supposed to be—but was destroyed by the probate court system.

Initially, I had confidence in the justice system. I unshakably believed that the theft by Lilo Kruger and William Salzwedel would be stopped by someone: the police, adult protective services, Thousand Oaks Senior Concerns, the district attorney, or the probate judge. I had confidence that someone would see the big picture.

The first court proceeding I attended in probate court, I was shocked at all the attorneys present who received assignments from the judge, such as the one in charge of my dad’s assets. As we all walked out of the court into the parking lot, I watched the attorneys in their expensive custom suits and Italian leather shoes, getting into their Mercedes Benzes, Land Rovers, and Jaguars—and it hit me in a way that has stuck with me for years. They were vultures lining up to pick off the bones. It was like a premonition of what was to come. 

All of this was exactly what my father had tried to avoid by having a family trust created in 1993. 

As a result, after the judge placed my father into a private, for-profit conservatorship—instead of adhering to the trust that named me, the only child, the successor trustee—I felt not just disappointed but sickened. I asked myself: how could this happen? No one did what they should have done. They did what they could do. There was no protection of a vulnerable man with dementia; instead, it was done to gain access to his $3-plus million estate. This has become clearer to me as the years have passed, and I have met so many other victims of the same racket in this country.

Poppy Helgren

I have reached out to governors, senators, congressmen, district attorneys, and the state attorney general, only to be told it was a civil matter—or to have it ignored altogether. This is the country that my family has served in the military for generations, from my great grandparents to my parents, uncles, cousins, sons, husband, and myself (as a U.S. Army nurse).

As Winston Churchill once said, “Never give in, never, never, never, never.” I believe that. But I have fought this monster for 14 years. Where do I go from here? Sometimes, things happen that are so out of our control that there is nothing we can do to alter the results. 

My father’s conservatorship did not protect my father, it devastated him and his family.

This can happen to anyone.

Full Article & Source:
Conservatorship: The Racket That Ruined My Father’s Last Years

Bolstering our sense of smell may reduce the risk of dementia

Scientists are studying how a decline in our olfactory abilities can signal conditions such as Alzheimer’s

Whether it is the waft of clove-studded oranges or the crisp fragrance of a fir tree, the festive season is filled with aromas that conjure Christmases past. Now researchers say our sense of smell, and its connection to our memory, could be used to help fight dementia.

Our senses can worsen as a result of disease and old age. But while impairment to hearing or vision is quickly apparent, a decline in our sense of smell can be insidious, with months or even years passing before it becomes obvious.

“Although it can have other causes, losing your sense of smell can be an early sign of dementia,” said Dr Leah Mursaleen, the head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, adding it was a potential indicator of damage in the olfactory region of the brain – that is, the part of the brain responsible for smell.

That has led to researchers examining whether loss of smell could be used to diagnose conditions such as Alzheimer’s long before symptoms such as memory loss set in – an approach, experts say, that could allow patients access to drugs such as lecanemab early in the course of the disease, when they work best to slow cognitive decline.

But just as research has suggested the use of hearing aids could reduce the risk of developing dementia, questions are being asked about whether bolstering our sense of smell could do the same. Could a declining sense of smell be a risk factor for cognitive decline, not just a symptom?

“Olfaction is intimately involved in many brain processes, and especially the emotional processing of stimuli,” said Prof Thomas Hummel, of Technische Universität Dresden. Indeed, smells, memories and emotions are often tightly bound, with research revealing recollections triggered by scent tend to be rooted in our childhood.

“If olfactory function fails, stimuli lose salience, which may affect general cognitive functions,” said Hummel.

Neurons involved in the olfactory system are also involved in other systems in the brain. Indeed, as Hummel and others note, some areas of the brain play a key role in cognitive and olfactory processes. As a result, if the sense of smell becomes dysfunctional, cognitive processing might also be affected.

A coloured transmission electron micrograph of a section through smell receptors (cilia) projecting from an olfactory neurone (blue). This nerve cell is responsible for detecting smell. Photograph: Science Photo Library/Steve Schmeissner/Getty Images

A number of studies have found that exposure to certain odours can either boost or hinder cognition, while work by Hummel and colleagues has suggested smell training in older people can improve their verbal function and subjective wellbeing.

More pertinent still, a small study published last year, by researchers in Korea, revealed that intensive smell training led to improvements in depression, attention, memory and language functions in 34 patients with dementia compared with 31 participants with dementia who did not retrieve such training.

“We’ve already seen some early studies suggesting that ‘training’ our sense of smell, through repeated exposure to strong-smelling substances, could have benefits in improving cognitive performance in certain tasks,” said Mursaleen.

“However, much more research is needed to understand whether things like olfactory training could help prevent or slow down the onset and progression of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.”

Among other problems, intensive scent training takes time and effort. In an attempt to solve this problem, Dr Michael Leon, professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, and his team have come up with a device called “Memory Air that emits 40 different smells twice a night, while people are sleeping – an approach Leon says allows “universal compliance”. The hope is that exposing people to more smells, even when they are asleep, could strengthen their olfactory abilities.

The team is about to start a large trial with the gadget among older adults without dementia, building on a smaller study that suggested the approach could improve memory performance in such participants. “We will then start a large trial with Alzheimer’s patients using that device,” said Leon.

In another small study, Dr Alex Bahar-Fuchs, a clinical neuropsychologist at Deakin University, Australia, is looking at whether training cognitively healthy older adults to distinguish smells using a scent-matching memory game can help improve wider aspects of memory and cognition, compared with using a similar game based on matching pictures. The approach, he said, goes further than passive exposure to odours by setting cognitive tasks for participants.

“We believe that the neuroplastic properties of the olfactory centres in the brain might make it more likely that improved performance on olfactory memory will generalise, or transfer, to memory functions more broadly,” he said.

Meanwhile, Prof Victoria Tischler, at the University of Surrey, is working to learn more about how our olfactory function changes as we age normally.

As part of their work, the team hopes to produce olfactory training kits suitable for healthy older people, those with mild cognitive impairment, and those living with dementia in care homes.

Tischler said it was important to cherish our most enigmatic sense. “I would advise the public to look after their sense of smell, much like they look after other aspects of their sensory health” such as their eyesight, she said.

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Bolstering our sense of smell may reduce the risk of dementia

New California law addressing mental illness, addiction among homeless delayed by Valley counties. Here's why

 by MARIJKE ROWLAND

Community Medical Center's CareLink Mobile Outreach Team leaves water and snacks at an empty encampment in Stockton hoping their patient returns to find the supplies on Nov. 9, 2023.
Vivienne Aguilar/CVJC

Historic changes to California’s conservatorship law, which will expand who can be placed in involuntary care and treatment in an attempt to address the state’s ongoing homelessness crisis, will have to wait in the Central Valley.

The board of supervisors in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties have opted to defer the new law, which otherwise would have gone into effect in January. Officials in both counties will now have an additional two years to comply with the changes.

The bill from Sen. Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this October, represents the first major changes to the state’s landmark 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act. Signed by then Gov. Ronald Reagan, the legislation upended how California dealt with the “gravely disabled” and ended the state’s previous practice of warehousing those with mental illnesses in state hospitals or psychiatric facilities.

Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties are joined by other Central Valley counties, including Kings, Merced, Fresno, Sacramento and Kern, as with much of the state in postponing implementation. Once enacted, the law will give officials greater leeway in who can be placed in involuntary short-term psychiatric holds, longer detention and treatment programs.

Currently, only those deemed “gravely disabled” can be placed in involuntary mental health care or conservatorship, including 5150 holds initiated by law enforcement or health providers that detain people in psychiatric facilities for 72-hours.

The new law expands that definition to include “severe substance use disorder” without any accompanying mental illness. It also broadens the criteria for those with existing mental health disorders to include those who cannot provide for their “personal safety or necessary medical care.” Previously only those who could not provide for their own food, clothing and shelter could be eligible for involuntary care.

While groups like the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) California and California State Association of Psychiatrists have supported the bill, its signing was not without controversy. Disability Rights California, Human Rights Watch and other disability and mental health organizations have argued it would infringe on the civil rights of an already vulnerable population, and could lead to more mass involuntary conservatorships.

The behavioral health services directors for both Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties successfully asked their supervisors for more time to implement the changes. They cited worries of insufficient capacities at county behavioral health facilities, area emergency rooms and drug treatment facilities among the reasons for the additional two-year window.

Stanislaus County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Director Tony Vartan told the board last week that the changes would have an impact beyond his department. Law enforcement, courts, hospitals and other mental health providers in the region will also have to grapple with the new expanded definition of “gravely disabled.”

He said without sufficient existing treatment programs or care facilities, it would force “hospitals to be stuck with a lot of patients in an involuntary hold,” which could mean less beds for other sick or injured patients.

The California Hospitals Association has reached out to county administrators across the state, including in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, urging them to delay implementation.

In San Joaquin County, Behavioral Health Director Genevieve Valentine said the extra time is needed to build-out infrastructure and staffing. While statewide it is predicted the changes will result in an about 10% conservatorship increase, Valentine said in San Joaquin County they expect an increase of 20% to 25% because of the need in the region.

“I would hate to rush something when someone’s life is at risk — when their civil rights are at risk,” Valentine said. “I want to make sure in San Joaquin County we are very strategic in how we put this into place.”

She called the law another “tool” in their toolkit to help deal with the state’s mental health challenges, particularly among its homeless population. The passage of SB 43 follows the state’s implementation of the CARE Act, which established specialized courts (called CARE Courts) in each county. County mental health providers, first responders, family members and others can petition the court to give individuals with mental illness voluntary services and treatment.

New psychiatric facility planned

Stanislaus County is part of a seven-country pilot program that launched its CARE Court this October. The rest of the state has until December 2024 to finalize the new courts.

While the two laws are not related, they both represent significant changes to how the state handles those with severe mental health disorders in an effort to address California’s ongoing homeless crisis.

To implement SB 43, San Joaquin County officials plan to build a new from-the-ground-up psychiatric facility across from the existing county general hospital. If approved and funded, the up to 90-bed facility would begin construction this coming summer.

In Stanislaus County, supervisors have asked Vartan to return to the board in January to give a more detailed timeline, and possibly earlier deadline, for SB 43’s implementation.

“I look at this as a godsend,” said Supervisor Terry Withrow during last week’s board meeting. “We’re talking about saving lives…I can’t think of a better way for us to spend our time and resources than to try to get this thing up and running as quickly as possible.”

The governor has also been vocal in his displeasure in what he called the “slow-walking” of the new conservatorship criteria. Most counties have opted to delay implementation, which was allowed in the act, with San Francisco and San Luis Obispo counties the only ones so far indicating they’d be ready for the changes by Jan. 1.

“We can’t afford to wait,” Newsom told reporters last week. “The state has done its job; it’s time for the counties to do their job. … They have to understand people are dying on their watch.”

Full Article & Source:
New California law addressing mental illness, addiction among homeless delayed by Valley counties. Here's why

33-year-old Albright man accused of stealing from elderly woman

KINGWOOD, W.Va. (WV News) — A 33-year-old Albright man is facing 33 felony charges accusing him of stealing about $2,270 from an 87-year-old female.

Tfc. L.S. Hall charged Corey Jackson Uphold with 32 counts of access device fraud and one count of financial exploitation of an elderly person.

Between Aug. 24, 2022, and Nov. 22, 2022, Uphold unlawfully uploaded funds from the female’s bank account using CashApp, Hall alleged.

Uphold withdrew money 25 times and attempted another seven withdrawals, according to the complaint.

Preston Magistrate Patricia Grimm set a $25,000 cash or surety bond.

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33-year-old Albright man accused of stealing from elderly woman

McMinnville woman charged with stealing from vulnerable adult

An investigation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Medicaid Fraud Control Division has resulted in the arrest of a McMinnville woman, charged with theft and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.

As the result of a referral from Adult Protective Services, TBI agents, working with the Murfreesboro Police Department, began investigating an allegation of theft from a home care patient by a paid caregiver in Murfreesboro. During the course of the investigation, agents developed information that Tashius Pleasant, who was employed by a home healthcare company, used the victim’s funds to make personal purchases totaling more than $20,000 during a period from 2022 to 2023.

On Nov. 9, the Rutherford County Grand Jury returned indictments charging Tashius Tarese Pleasant (DOB 02/11/1975) with one count of Financial Exploitation of an Elderly/ Vulnerable Adult and one count of Theft over $10,000. Pleasant was booked at the Rutherford County Jail, on a bond of $52,000.

NOTE: The TBI’s Medicaid Fraud Control Division receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $7,051,938.75 for federal Fiscal Year 2022-2023. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,350,646.25 for Fiscal Year 2022-2023, is funded by the State of Tennessee.

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McMinnville woman charged with stealing from vulnerable adult

Strengthening Protections: Pennsylvania Updates Guardianship Laws with Senate Bill 506

Pennsylvania has recently enacted a significant update to its guardianship laws, aimed at strengthening the protection of the state’s most vulnerable residents. The new legislation, known as Senate Bill 506, was signed into law on December 14th.

This updated law marks a notable shift in Pennsylvania’s approach to guardianship proceedings. Previously, Pennsylvania was among a minority of states that did not mandate the appointment of counsel in these cases. The revision of the law introduces mandatory legal representation for individuals deemed incapacitated, ensuring they have adequate legal support during guardianship proceedings.

The primary objective of Senate Bill 506 is to safeguard individuals who are unable to make decisions for themselves. It aims to prevent unnecessary guardianships and to address potential abuses within the guardianship system. This is a response to concerns about cases where guardians, lacking proper training or oversight, have committed fraud or not acted in the best interests of the individuals they were appointed to protect.

Senator Lisa Baker, the bill’s sponsor, emphasized the importance of guardianship as a means to assist individuals who are no longer capable of managing their own financial, legal, and health-related matters. However, she acknowledged the reported instances of victimization by guardians and stressed that such fraud is intolerable.

One of the significant changes brought by the new law is the requirement for courts to consider alternatives to full guardianship. This approach is intended to allow for lesser degrees of control to be surrendered when appropriate, tailored to the specific needs of the individual.

Under the updated law, when a person is deemed incapacitated, a guardian may be appointed to make decisions on their behalf, encompassing financial, medical, and personal matters. The legislation also includes provisions for the certification of professional guardians to ensure a higher standard of care and accountability.

Furthermore, the law introduces a process for reviewing cases where the incapacity might be temporary. In such scenarios, a hearing will be conducted to assess if continued guardianship is necessary. This assessment will consider various factors, such as the potential for managing the incapacity through medication, rehabilitation, or other means, the possibility of the individual regaining capacity, and expert opinions.

Senator Baker highlighted the personal nature of guardianship reform, citing communications received from family members and friends of those under guardianship. For these individuals, the reform represents a deeply personal and significant issue.

Full Article & Source:
Strengthening Protections: Pennsylvania Updates Guardianship Laws with Senate Bill 506

Louisiana grandmother goes to hospital with headache, wakes up with no memory of past 30 years — and thinks she was teen still in ‘80s

By Social Links for Nicholas McEntyre

A Louisiana grandmother who went to the hospital with a headache claimed she cannot remember her memories from the past 30 years, believing she was a teenager in the 1980s when she woke up in a wild extensive amnesia case.

Kim Denicola was 56 years old when she developed an intense headache and blurry vision while at a bible study group in Baton Rogue, La. in Oct. 2018.

When she awoke in the hospital emergency room, Denicola had no recollection that she was married and had two children.

“I’ve lost a lot of Christmases, so it’s a big deal,” Denicola, now 60, told WAFB.

“It’s unbelievable to me as it probably is to other people,” Denicola added.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I get up and go to bible study and think I’m going to wake up in the hospital and I’m going to be 60 years old.”

Denicola was unaware that computers existed and that the country’s leaders had changed hands several times when she woke up. 

“‘Do you know what today is, what year are you in?” Denicola recalled a nurse asking.

“I said, ‘Yeah, 1980.’ And she said, ‘Can you tell me who the president is?’ I said, ‘Yes, Ronald Regan.’ And she stopped.”

“TVs are now smart. The TV I remember was a box that sat against a wall that we had to get up and go change the channel,” she told the outlet two months after her medical scare.

Denicola was diagnosed with extensive amnesia, officially transient global amnesia or TGA, but doctors still can not determine the exact cause even after extensive tests and scans, according to the outlet.

Denicola sits besides her husband as they look through old family photos, two months after she lost her memory in 2018. WAFB/YouTube

Five years after she suffered the migraine that changed her life, the nearly 60-year-old grandmother has still not recovered memories.

Doctors are afraid she will never get her memory back.

“They told me, if by now I haven’t gotten it, then I probably won’t,” she told outlet.

TGA is a “temporary, anterograde amnesia with an acute onset” that mostly affects individuals middle-aged and older, according to the National Library of Medicine, with 5.2-10 people of 10,000 suffering annually with the number rising to 23.5-32/100,000 individuals over the age of 50.

Even though she lost her years of memories, Denicola looks forward to each Christmas so she can make new ones with her family. WAFB/YouTube

It often occurs during periods of “particularly strenuous activity, high-stress events, or coitus, but it can be seen with migraines.”

The memory condition is often a temporary event and can reoccur, but death is very rare.

Denicola has been reading journal entries in a bid to remember her life but says it feels like reading about someone else.

Denicola has rekindled her love for her husband and watched her children grow up through her stories and pictures.

Denicola has been reading journal entries in a bid to remember her life but says it feels like reading about someone else. WAFB/YouTube

While it seems she lost 30 years of her life, Denicola is still living each year the best she could.

“I may have lost my memories, but guess what? We can make new ones,” she told WAFB.

Full Article & Source:
Louisiana grandmother goes to hospital with headache, wakes up with no memory of past 30 years — and thinks she was teen still in ‘80s

Merry Christmas

 

How we investigated Maine’s probate courts

By Samantha Hogan

The Maine Monitor spent a year reporting about the state’s probate court system. Here’s why and how we did so.

Photo by Fred J. Field.

We spent a year reporting and writing “Maine’s Part-Time Court” to understand the lives and death of residents in probate court. 

Maine’s 16 independent, county-run probate courts are not a part of the state judicial branch. The probate courts are run by part-time, elected judges responsible for monitoring the well-being and financial futures of adults and children under guardianship and conservatorship, as well as the estates of the deceased.

Our interest in the probate courts stemmed from two observations. 

One, Maine voters passed a constitutional amendment 56 years ago that would make probate judges full time, but in the five decades since then, the legislature has not completed the steps necessary to implement the will of the voters. 

Two, we uncovered systemic problems with other aspects of the state’s courts and justice system, including the lack of a statewide public defenders office and the recording of nearly 1,000 confidential attorney-client phone calls in county jails. 

The probate courts are a corner of the state’s judicial system that has been long overlooked despite serving thousands of Mainers.

In April, we sent a survey with 18 questions about staffing levels, the number of guardianships being overseen by the probate court, and financial reviews of conservators to each probate court. The Maine Monitor received responses from 10 probate courts, including Androscoggin, Cumberland, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington and York counties.

The survey revealed that many probate courts do not know how many adults are under guardianship, or if those people are alive or dead. And many probate courts do not audit conservators or have a method to detect attempted theft.

We observed proceedings at the Cumberland County Probate Court in Portland and Kennebec County Probate Court in Augusta. We also traveled to Bangor and Brunswick to spend the day with two women who shared their stories about being under guardianship, and how the mandate for probate courts to consider a less restrictive alternative to guardianship known as “supported decision-making” affected their lives.

Our observations were supplemented with interviews with 60 people, including probate judges, registers of probate, guardians, adults under guardianship, lawyers, disability advocates, family members, state officials, legislators and a former state Supreme Court associate justice. We also spoke with fraud detection experts in Florida and Minnesota court systems. We made multiple requests to interview the leaders of Adult Protective Services in Maine and were denied each time.

The Maine Monitor’s reporting showed that the challenges facing those who require the services of Maine’s probate system are only getting worse, one advocate said. Photo by Fred J. Field.

To broaden our understanding of the probate courts, we reviewed hundreds of pages of online probate court records and dozens of attorney discipline decisions where the probate court was mentioned. We also read state studies about financial exploitation of adults, demographics and characteristics of adults who get exploited, and seven decades of government research on ways to overhaul the state’s probate court system. 

The Monitor also made public records requests to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for data about the causes and circumstances of all adults who died under the state’s care of a public guardian between 2018 and May 2023.

We received an anonymized dataset of more than 200 people. The vast majority of deaths were deemed natural or accidental. The data revealed, however, that medical examiners had rarely done examinations of the deaths of people under public guardianship prior to 2021. 

The attorney general’s office also inadvertently sent the Monitor a spreadsheet that contained the names of seven people the medical examiner’s office deemed to have died in “undetermined” ways and one death medical examiners labeled as a “homicide.”

We read 300 pages of probate court records about the eight individuals; tracked down living relatives for interviews; contacted assisted living facilities, veterans homes and private adult foster homes where the eight had died; asked police about their investigations of the deaths — often to be told there was none; and interviewed the leader of the attorney general’s Healthcare Crimes Unit.

Unlike many states, death certificates are confidential in Maine and can only be accessed by family members. The attorney general’s office asked the Monitor not to publish the eight names, but the Monitor decided to publish their full names and details about their deaths to bring public attention to the state’s secretive system responsible for the well-being of some of the state’s most vulnerable people.

In response to the Monitor’s reporting, state lawmakers held a 3½-hour public hearing on Oct. 25 about how the state’s guardianship system operates.

Officials from the probate courts, Maine Department of Health and Human Services, medical examiner’s office, attorney general’s office and Disability Rights Maine were asked to come and speak. The hearing concluded with calls from legislators for more oversight of guardians.

This series “Maine’s Part-Time Court” was supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. The investigation was also made possible by support from Report For America and the Investigative Editing Corps, which allowed Alan Miller and Mike Wagner to join as project editors. Samantha Hogan has been a reporter with The Maine Monitor since June 2019.

Full Article & Source:
How we investigated Maine’s probate courts

See Also:
Probate courts ripe for reform

Against Their Will: Maine’s probate courts lack a method to detect fraud. Some other states have robust audit systems.

Eight deaths raise questions about oversight of Maine’s public guardianships