In a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers showed it was possible to communicate with and detect awareness in people in a vegetative state using functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI.

The researchers instructed 16 people in a vegetative state to imagine they were making a fist with their right hand or wiggling their toes, and then measured brain activity while electrodes were attached to their scalp.

“It was possible to detect that these patients were actually aware” despite being diagnosed as being “entirely unconscious” using standard clinical assessments, said Professor Adrian Owen of the Center for Brain and Mind at the University of Western Ontario. Findings from the newer study were published in the British journal Lancet on Wednesday.

Patients in a persistent vegetative state have periods of wakefulness, but they are completely unresponsive and are thought to be unaware.

“We don’t actually know how many vegetative patients there are. It’s now possible to find that out,” said Dr. Damian Cruse of the University of Western Ontario, who led the study.

Full Article and Source:
Scans Reveal Vegetative Patients Are Aware

“When properly prescribed, antipsychotics can offer beneficial treatment for individuals suffering from mental illness,” Kohl said. “However, we have a responsibility to patients and their families to ensure that elderly nursing home residents are free from all types of unnecessary drugs, and we have a responsibility to taxpayers to be certain that they are not paying for drugs that are not needed.”

The hearing highlighted two recent investigations by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) that looked at the prevalent use of atypical antipsychotics in the face of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “black box” warning and the high costs to taxpayers.

In examining medical records over a six-month period, Daniel Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, testified that 14 percent of all nursing home residents, or nearly 305,000 patients, had Medicare claims for atypical antipsychotic drugs and that half of these claims should not have been paid for by Medicare because the drugs were not used for medically accepted indications. He said that for one in five drug claims, nursing homes dispensed these drugs in a way that violated the government’s standards for their reimbursement.

Full press release and source:
Alternatives to Overuse of Antipsychotics in Nursing Homes Focus of Senate Hearing

Watch the Hearing

Dr. William Coltharp, a 55-year-old cardiothoracic surgeon at Saint Thomas Hospital, went missing Oct. 2 while kayaking on Center Hill Lake. He last told his wife he’d be home for dinner, but didn’t show up. His kayak was found the next day about a mile from where he was last seen.

Dekalb County Sheriff Patrick Ray said the search has been called off, but they’re not yet giving up hope he might be alive.

But according to documents filed in Davidson County’s probate court, Coltharp’s wife isn’t as optimistic.

“He is believed to have died on Center Hill Lake, but his remains have not yet been found,” reads a line in paperwork Nicole Coltharp filed to begin dealing with more than $120,000 associated with her husband’s estate. She’s asking a conservator be appointed on his behalf.

Full Article and Source:
Wife of Missing Doctor Seeking Conservator for Husband’s Funds

What should have been a simple project and favor for Diane, turned into a wasted day of everyone’s time. While my friend and I were in the basement trying to figure out the easiest way to hoist a very heavy piece of exercise equipment up a tight flight of stairs, Diane’s brother stormed into the house. To ask for simple pleasantries was immediately out of the picture, as his attitude was as nasty and narrow-minded as some of the e-mails and comments he had sent me. I said hello to him when he came downstairs, and he started asking what we were doing, even though he had already been told upstairs. I have learned that the best way to see the true demeanor of a person is to let them speak. Virtually every word that came out of his mouth was either antagonistic or a straight out lie.

My intention had been to keep Diane’s siblings out of any further articles, but after this incident they both earned their way back in. Law guardian abuse cases are difficult enough. Judges will seize on family dissension as an excuse to wrestle control away from the person who should be the rightful guardian. When you have someone like the brother in this case, then it becomes even more difficult because they will align themselves with the corruption, rather than with what should be done in the best interests of the person put into guardianship.

Full Article and Source:
When Family Abets the Heartbreak of Guardian Abuse

The childless Huguette Clark died in May at age 104 – a last breath of New York’s Gilded Age that produced the Rockefellers, Astors and Vanderbilts.

Her relatives brought the new will to light on Monday: They filed court papers asking a Surrogate’s Court judge to involve them in proceedings about how her money was spent – and by whom – while she was alive.

Clark’s relatives accuse her co-executors, attorney Wallace Bock and accountant Irving Kamsler, of plundering her fortune. The two were among the few who for years had access to the reclusive Clark in her Manhattan hospital room. Clark had left her 42-room Manhattan home – the largest residence on Fifth Avenue – decades earlier, choosing to live undisturbed at the hospital.

A court-ordered accounting of the Paris-born heiress’ finances as overseen by Bock and Kamsler in the last 15 years of her life is “a chilling report of the mishandling, misappropriation and mismanagement” of her assets, the relatives’ lawyer, John R. Morken, wrote in papers filed Monday.

While Clark was confined to a hospital room, her spending amounted to about $1 million each month, Morken said, citing the figures.

Monday’s filing, which was first reported by msnbc.com, included a will signed in March 2005, about six weeks before another will that Bock and Kamsler filed shortly after Clark’s death.

Full Article and Source:
Huguette Clark, Montana Copper Heiress, Signed Two Conflicting Wills Before Death

See Also:
Huguette Clark Left $34mil to Nurse

“You do realize that’s illegal,” Cole said she told the man.

But his response was blunt: He was forced to pay for bodies, otherwise he wouldn’t fill his beds, she recalled.

During the final meeting of the state’s ALF work group Monday afternoon, owners and advocates for residents — many from South Florida — said the practice of paying kickbacks to fill their homes was rampant throughout the state, even though so-called “patient brokering” has been illegal in Florida since 1996.

The problem was among dozens recounted during the packed session at Florida International University before the task force members, who are expected to offer solutions to an industry that has been under fire with revelations of squalor and abuse in assisted-living facilities across the state.

Full Article and Source:
Some ALF’s Pay Kickbacks for Residents,Task Force Told

This post will lay out, document by document, just one recent example of this egregious action, and by the time you’re done reading, you should be outraged at what lengths a court will stoop to harm in order to protect itself.

In a recent post, I’ve made reference to how Tennessee Homeland Security has, in effect, caused my ejection from the state of Tennessee. In this on-line pleading I will demonstrate what this entails, how it happened, and all parties involved in this illegal, fraudulent and malicious action. You will be outraged and, I would hope, further compelled to join me in my effort to have Judge Randy Kennedy impeached.

Judge Phillip Smith is involved, 4th Circuit Court, Davidson County, TN, whose divorce/child support courtroom is right down the hall from Judge Kennedy’s, and whose abuse of robes appear to be marching orders of retribution, and this allegation was also suggested to me by attorney Michael Hoskins, but will outrage the reader by the time you’ve “followed the paper trail”, and see how these illegal practitioners will unconscionably use children as pawns in their acts of judicial retribution, in cooperation with DCS and especially Child Support Services.

Full Article and Source:
ImpeachRandyKennedy: Pauper V Probate – Children as Pawns for Judicial Retribution

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In Pauper v. Probate: THE SURPRISE ENDING!, Tate discusses the “trademarks of abuse and corruption represented in this story” and connects the dots of players involved. Estate of Denial® encourages you to check out the great reporting on this story by WSMV Channel 4′s Nancy Amons as well as Danny Tate’s experience-based analysis.

The cast and mechanics have been seen before and this Nashville crew has counterparts in large and small counties across this country. In her reporting with regard to probate actions, Amons says “One woman ended up losing everything, and it could happen to anyone.” She’s right.

Source:
Danny Tate Analysis of Newly Exposed Jewell Timmon Nashville Probate Case

See Also:
ImpeachRandyKennedy – Pauper V Probate: The Surprise Ending

After nearly 61 years of marriage, Esco’s Texas-born dream girl – nicknamed “Sunshine” – died after a 13-day stay at the El Dorado Care Center in Placerville. Recuperating from a bout with pneumonia, Johnnie Esco, 77, was expected to return home with her husband after some rest and skilled-nursing care.

Don Esco buried his wife instead.

The nursing home and its former owner, Horizon West Healthcare Inc. – a Rocklin-based company with a history of licensing violations and run-ins with regulators – would soon be at the center of another legal storm.

Johnnie Esco’s death on March 7, 2008, led to a contentious civil lawsuit, investigations by California’s Department of Justice and Department of Public Health – and the exhumation of her body from Arlington National Cemetery.

Last week, amid inquiries from The Bee, the state Department of Justice reopened its criminal investigation into Johnnie Esco’s treatment at the facility.

The case also raised questions about an aspect of nursing home care that many patients and families take for granted: the integrity of medical records.

“They were just penciling in what they wanted to,” said Esco, who obtained his wife’s medical records after her death.

He summed up his findings during the lawsuit in one word: “Fabrications.”

Esco’s suspicions about his wife’s care at El Dorado Care Center mushroomed into a broad lawsuit filed in 2009 against the facility and its owner, alleging elder abuse, wrongful death and fraud. An integral aspect of the suit, filed by Esco and his three grown children, accused the facility of falsifying, altering and improperly handling the woman’s medical charts as far back as her day of admission.

“It’s really one of the most egregious cases I’ve ever handled,” said the family’s Sacramento attorney, Lesley Ann Clement.

Full Article, Video, and Source:
Woman’s Death Raises Questions