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molly14molly Asked August 2014

My Aunt has been placed in a 24 hour care facility by our distant cousin who will give us no info. Any advice?

I'm living in England. Can we, my sister and I request details or see papers giving our cousin POA and Health Proxy - They told us they would give us copies of forms but then decided that we should not have them and have cut off all communication with us and will not give us any information on our aunts health. We have visited the home 3 to 4 times and seen our aunt but there is never any senior official of the home available to talk to us. They reliquinished her apartment and all her possessions and we were told by them that we could not enter her apartment. Our Aunt was a loner and lived a very simple life and liked her own company and we would write and call her from england and visit her but she liked her own space. Unfortunately she got sick and has now been deemed with dementia and our cousins told us 3 months ago that any plans she had asked of us could not now be carried out. What can we do Have we any rights been her only living relatives.

Eyerishlass Aug 2014
I had to look at the date of this post because you posted almost the exact same question several months ago with almost the same wording. The answer is still the same. Nieces do not trump adult children. You are not her only living relatives since your aunt has children, your cousins.

jeannegibbs Aug 2014
How can you be the only living relatives when cousins are acting on her behalf? They must be related somehow? But in the US relatives (other than children or spouses in very particular circumstances) have no automatic rights to private information. If I choose my hair stylist or bartender to hold my power of attorney, they wouldn't have to reveal anything to my sister. Maybe this is a very strange concept in England, I don't know, but if a nursing home has been given a legitimate POA and Healthcare proxy document here they are not likely to take orders from someone else, even a close relative.

Are you being allowed to visit your aunt? To phone her? To write to her?

You absolutely cannot contest this situation without hiring an attorney in the county where Aunt resides. This is the advice you have been given on this forum in past. Have you retained an attorney?

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MaggieMarshall Aug 2014
Frankly, unless you want to hire a state-side attorney, I don't see you getting anywhere at all with your desire to see that information. In fact, sans some kind of legal discovery, I don't think you could -- unless you had some evidence of suspected wrong-doing.

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