Posted on 07/07/2005 3:18:20 PM PDT by tutstar
WRITTEN STATEMENT OF JANE M. POLLACK BEFORE THE UNITED STATES SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING FEBRUARY 11, 2003
Good morning, Honorable Senators. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee. I come here to testify today, in the midst of many trials and tribulations, with the hope that no other family will have to endure the nightmare that we did on behalf of my elderly aunt, Mollie Orshansky.
WHO IS MOLLIE ORSHANSKY?
Mollie Orshansky is a national treasure. My Aunt Mollie is renowned in the areas of statistics and economics. She is best known for her genius in envisioning and developing the federal poverty line formula in 1963, which has enabled millions of the nation's poor to obtain the benefits and the means to sustain themselves and their families. Her own roots in a poor immigrant family served as the inspiration for her efforts. Mollie has been sought out and mentioned by other authors and by Members of Congress. She has appeared on Meet the Press and been interviewed on National Public Radio. Most recently, Mollie and the poverty line were a subject of the television program, The West Wing. During her outstanding 46-year public service career, Aunt Mollie was the recipient of many prizes and honors, including the Distinguished Service Award, in 1976, the highest honor bestowed by what was then known as the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. After retirement, she continued in public service. She served on the Board of the United Seniors Health Cooperative, in order to protect the elderly. However, Mollie has said that her proudest accomplishment was her testimony in 1964, at the request of the Department of Justice, which helped to end the Poll Tax. She showed that a poor family would have to choose between eating and exercising their right to vote.
Mollie was always very strong-willed and fiercely independent. However, Aunt Mollie was a devoted, loving and affectionate sister and aunt, with a special fondness for children.
MOLLIE'S PRECAUTIONS
Aunt Mollie did everything possible to plan for her future. She executed a Health Care Proxy, naming me as her agent. She also established a trust in 1981, which held all of her assets. Aunt Mollie designated her sister Rose as co-trustee, so that her money and assets could be used and administered on her behalf, in the event of incapacity. She purchased an apartment in the same building as Aunt Rose, which is also four blocks from her sister Sarah, my mother, and near her nieces. Aunt Mollie planned to move there when the time was right. This planning was to ensure that she would be able to live at home, near her family, in the event of poor health or diminished capacity. It was designed to let her family, not strangers, care for her and make the necessary health and financial decisions should she be unable to do so.
Aunt Mollie took the recommended steps to plan for her future but she never anticipated that a hospital, court and lawyers could or would overturn all of her carefully made plans.
MOLLIE'S DECLINE
Aunt Mollie's decline began gradually, in mid-2000. The family noticed she was having difficulty keeping track of her mail and paying bills on time, and we intervened. During frequent visits, family members noticed some decline in her personal care, and her apartment was no longer neat and organized. Despite this, Mollie stubbornly refused live-in or part-time assistance, and she did not feel the time was right to move to her apartment in New York City.
Because of her sometimes-disheveled appearance, and rambling conversations, her building management contacted Adult Protective Services. The caseworker told the family that she would be making arrangements for homecare, but this fell through and she failed to notify us. One day, without notifying the family, the caseworker ordered an ambulance and took Mollie, against her will, to the hospital. Although the caseworker and the hospital were aware that Mollie had interested family, the hospital instituted guardianship proceedings.
Upon finally being notified of Aunt Mollie's hospitalization, the family took action to honor her wishes. We prepared her apartment and hired experienced 24-hour homecare, in anticipation of Mollie's arrival. As her health care agent, I arrived in Washington a few days later and presented the proxy. I found Aunt Mollie sitting in the dark, forlornly staring into space, with a large contusion on her forehead, due to a fall in the hospital. She was in four-point restraints. Her hands and feet were strapped to her chair and a sheet wrapped around her waist tied her body to the chair. Her speech was slurred. She was disoriented, confused, and obviously traumatized. I was told that she had to be restrained and was heavily medicated because she did not want to be in the hospital and kept making a fuss and trying to leave for home.
My requests to obtain Mollie's release into my care as her health care agent were denied because of the pending guardianship hearing. I was informed that she was not there for medical reasons, but for custodial reasons, until her scheduled hearing, seven weeks hence. I was also told that they were waiting for an opening in a nursing home, which was against Mollie's specific wishes and arrangements.
I informed the administrator and the social workers of Mollie's wishes, her carefully made plans and her financial arrangements. However, although the Health Care Proxy gave me legal authority to direct that Mollie be released to me and Aunt Mollie had certainly not committed any crime, her discharge was denied and she was held against her will, a prisoner in the hospital. During my visits she often said, "I didn't know they could do this to me. I can't live like this."
MOLLIE'S INCARCERATION AND ESCAPE
Each day of her incarceration in the hospital compromised Mollie's health. A hospital is an unsafe place to stay for a person who is not ill. Aunt Mollie's risk for infection, disease and illness greatly increased and I had to plead for routine healthcare and vaccinations for the flu and pneumonia (refused). She received little attention. Mollie's physical and mental condition deteriorated. She fell twice, developed a bedsore, sustained two urinary tract infections, her appetite suffered and she became dehydrated. Mollie was forced into incontinence. Her muscles atrophied and she could no longer stand or walk. In addition, when I was not there, Aunt Mollie was deprived of mental stimulation and social interaction.
Mollie's rights were being trampled and her health was put dangerously at risk, each moment she remained captive in the hospital. Despite the repeated refusal of the hospital to officially release Aunt Mollie to me, I relied upon my legal authority as her health care agent to remove her. On the eve of Martin Luther King Day, at 7:40 PM, I rescued Aunt Mollie. With a lump in my throat and my heart pounding furiously, I wheeled Mollie out of her room, past the nurse's station to the elevator and down to lobby. I avoided the security desk and prayed the guard would not notice. I took Mollie to a side exit and pushed the door open. Aunt Mollie was free at last. At 10:15 PM I called the nurse's station to advise them that Mollie was all right and they need not worry. However, 2 1/2 hours after Mollie left the hospital, they had not even realized that she was gone.
PRESSURE TO RETURN
I was fearful of how the D.C. court would react - and my fears were justified. I retained New York and D.C. counsel. The D.C. court was advised that I would commence a guardianship proceeding in New York, so it could be assured of Mollie's continued well-being. However, before my attorneys could file the guardianship petition in New York, the court appointed attorney initiated an emergency hearing.
There, he persuaded the judge to switch his role to Mollie's temporary guardian, telling her there was a large pension and a sizeable account at a brokerage firm. The judge then replaced him as "Mollie's attorney". The court voided Mollie's Health Care Proxy and froze her account. This caused her bill payments to bounce. The judge also ordered the temporary guardian to enlist the New York City Police to have Aunt Mollie immediately returned to Washington D.C.
Our whole family was petrified that Mollie would be kidnapped and brought back to Washington. We lived in fear that Police Officers would storm into Aunt Mollie's apartment and drag her away. We dreaded her fate upon return, of loneliness, isolation and exile from her family.
Fortunately, we were able to obtain an order from the New York court prohibiting Aunt Mollie's removal from the jurisdiction. However, for several very tense days, we were still so fearful that the temporary guardian and the police would arrive at Mollie's door to drag her away, that our lawyer was on-call 24 hours a day to run to Aunt Mollie's apartment with the court order in hand.
THE COURT CASE
I testified regarding Mollie's wishes and carefully made plans and told of the excellent medical and personal care Mollie was receiving at home in New York. However, I lost my counter-bid for guardian/conservator at the February hearing in D.C. Her temporary guardian, a stranger, was appointed as her permanent guardian/conservator and put in charge of Mollie's trust. Not only did Aunt Mollie's court appointed attorney fail to provide her with zealous representation, she failed to represent Mollie at all. Instead, she chose to represent the guardian and supported the court in voiding Aunt Mollie's Health Care Proxy and replacing Aunt Mollie with the guardian as co-trustee of her own trust. Incredibly, "Mollie's attorney" has never met with her or even spoken to her on the phone. She never advised Mollie of the hearing or the results, never told Mollie she could appeal and, in fact, fought the appeal in Mollie's name. Her court appointed guardian/conservator has done nothing for her. I, in essence, acted as the guardian and provided and supervised for all of Mollie's care. Her sister Rose, in essence, acted as the conservator, paying Mollie's bills from the trust. However, the guardian/conservator diverted money from Aunt Mollie's trust and has run up astronomical fees, without benefiting her. In addition, the guardian/conservator and the attorney have hectored and harassed the family.
Fortunately, in August, the appeals court vacated all of the decisions of the lower court, and charged the judge with abuse of discretion. The judge's decision was so egregious and filled with folderol, that the appeals court overturned every aspect of it in a fifty-page decision.
However, this is not over. A judge still must decide whether to dismiss the case and whether to grant requests for reimbursement of expenses and legal fees from the D.C. guardianship fund or from Mollie, as her "attorney"; advocates in her name. This means that Mollie would pay for the errors of the court, despite her "attorney" previously stating that there would be no irreparable harm. Our family (including Mollie) has, so far, incurred over $160,000 in expenses and bills. This includes almost $50,000 claimed by the guardian fo"services" rendered, over $18,000 for the colleague he hired to fight the appeal, over $6,000 already paid to the guardian as Mollie's original court-appointed lawyer, about $13,000 already paid in guardianship administrative expenses and my legal fees for Mollie's rescue, which are at least $75,000, covering Washington and New York. And the costs are still mounting. That's just the money. The emotional and physical toll is incalculable.
CONCLUSION
My grandparents emigrated from Russia, where they faced poverty and persecution. They truly believed the words of the Declaration of Independence that all people have the "inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Last year, on his trip to China, President Bush declared that, "All the world's people...should be free to choose how they live ...worship...and how they work." My grandparents would feel much deceived and dismayed by the trampling of Mollie's rights and disregard of her wishes and carefully made plans. How ironic that this would happen to someone who devoted most of her life to assisting the helpless.
If you live long enough, infirmity will eventually catch up with you. It is ludicrous to think that any hard working American would want strangers to appropriate their savings or make decisions about their personal care. I am hopeful that Congress will enact legislation to guarantee that the wishes of seniors and their families are respected, so that no other family will suffer the travails that our family did.
Thank you.
ping
thought you might be interested in this article...
Everyone should read this!!!!!!
So Aunt Mollie created that lie called "poverty line"? What a moron.
BUMP
Pretty scary isn't it?
The website I got it from said they're getting so many stories from people about senior abuse they're having trouble getting them posted in a timely manner.
I'm not surprised though. Most states don't require doctors to honor advanced directives and the auditor in Pinellas County Florida isn't allowed to get to all the files he needs to do his job. They are ripping off the seniors left and right!
Don't go out of your way to be nice.
The big nursing home businesses are out there lining up their politicians..
imo
I'm working with state legislators to change the law to require notification of next of kin when such moves are made. Ive certainly been heard, but it hasn't happened yet.
It needs to be stopped. It's theft pure and simple.
That's terrible! I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's a hard road trying to get legislators to do their jobs too. That much I do know.
I'm still looking through the site that had the article. Maybe you can find some info on other situations in your state. They've added a lot of stuff there!
I forgot to add that my brother was suicide several years ago. My phone rang in the middle of the night when that happened. Dead bodies don't don't generate state money.
Oh no!! I'm crying! I can't imagine having to go through that. May God be with you!!
Will you keep me posted if you get the law changed? No one should have to die to get a law changed!!
"The economic reality is that in order to provide Medicare coverage for the baby boom generation as it retires, without massive future tax increases, government payments per beneficiary will not be able to keep up with medical inflation. If the funds available for health care for senior citizens from all sources are so limited, the only possible result will be rationing. Since senior citizens are required to participate in Medicare, this would amount to government-imposed involuntary euthanasia."
"This [guardianship] is an area ripe for fraud and where most fraud abuse has in fact occurred." Karleen F. DeBlaker, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Pinellas County, Florida (4/2004)
Pinged from the dailies
8mm
(click above to view excerpt source)
"Beware the Slippery Slope"
by Christian Medical Association Senior Policy Analyst Jonathan Imbody.
"I interviewed Dutch citizen Henk Reitsema, who related how his beloved grandfather, a cancer patient, naively asked a nursing home doctor in Groningen for relief of a painful thrombosis in his leg. The "compassionate" Dutch physician, trained in a medical culture that has promoted euthanasia more aggressively than palliative care, instead withheld food and water from Grandpa Reitsema while administering lethal doses of morphine."
"Family members discovered the deadly plan too late, and their beloved grandfather died at the hands of a physician who deemed his life not worth living. News media eventually uncovered records suggesting that the nursing home had pursued a diabolical "bed-clearing" policy of involuntary euthanasia."
*snip*
"Americans would do well to examine how the Dutch euthanasia and assisted suicide model has falsely promoted libertarianism and patient autonomy while granting doctors virtually unchecked power over life and death. Physicians today can draw from the highest technological advances in pain relief to provide effective consolation to suffering patients, yet past restrictions have chilled aggressive use of this pain technology. The answer to suffering near the natural end of life is not to empower doctors to kill, but to empower them to ethically and compassionately comfort their patients."
The legacy of Terri is shining a beacon of light brighter by each day.
8mm
You've got to wonder how many more we don't know about. We definitely don't need to take the Dutch road but Americans must wake up to this.
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