Legal Question in Elder Law in California

Elder father held hostage by hospital facility

My father has vascular dementia. Was admitted to a local hospital following a seizure of unknown origin. Has been in the hospital for two weeks. Had an initial improvement and a sharp decline to a delirious state in the past week. Hospital has not kept our family informed, staff is non-communicative or outright annoyed when questioned. Told we have to send him to a facility 75 miles away or Medicare will not pay his bill. My mother is 78 and cannot make such a trip back and forth (the facility is in a mountainous area above oour city) Are we captive? Do we have any recourse??


Asked on 3/04/02, 1:40 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mona Montgomery Mona Montgomery, Attorney at law

Re: Elder father held hostage by hospital facility

I would have to talk to you at length about this (no charge) to determine if elder abuse exists. Off hand it sounds like the hospital is embarrassed about something but there is no evidence of abuse yet. You may be captive if there is no other facility to take care of your father. We would need to talk about it. I may be able to give you a hint about getting through the system.

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Answered on 3/12/02, 1:29 am


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