My almost 85 year old father-in-law has been in very poor health for the last 3 years and recently had been diagnosed with Mantle cancer. He is an addict (pain pills and xanax) and was in rehab early 2018. When he received the Mantle diagnosis and was told there really is nothing that can be done, as a family, and his PC, the PC said he would give him a low dose of pain medicine so whatever time he has left he can enjoy that time. He also suffers terribly from rheumatoid arthritis, had open heart surgery about 3.5 years ago and has active Mercer. About 6 months ago, he took more pain pills than he should have and when his live in girlfriend asked where his pills were he told her I stole them. Since then neither myself or his son is allowed to come to the house, help in anyway or be allowed to speak to his doctors. A man who was doing some work around his house, has now become his daily caretaker. This caretaker, we have been told, has received over $500.00 and a vehicle from my father-in-law. He has also purchased additional pain pills off the street for my father-in-law. His live-in-girlfriend is also 85 years old, has terrible knees and needs surgery but has not done so because of his health concerns he is unable to help her if she went forward with her needed knee surgery. She also suffers from macular degeneration and is unable to help him with his medicine because she is unable to read the Rx bottles. She drives during the day on roads she knows by heart and does not drive at night at all. He attempted suicide this past Saturday and when the hospital asked if he wanted to hurt himself he said yes but his so-called care taker talked the doctors out of having him held for a 72 hr watch. On Monday he told his girlfriend they were going to the store to get her the grass seed she wanted and once they got in the car he told her they weren’t going to the store and she needed to take him to the hospital. She went back home and told him she wouldn’t take him so he dialed 911 himself and they came and took him to the hospital. He is out of pain medicine and went to the hospital to try and get more. He has told us that he just wants to die. He was doing good when we were managing his appointments, medicines and explaining to him what the doctors said at any given appointment. We do not believe this so called care taker is really looking out for my father’s- in-law well being. Because he attempted suicide recently and has said he wants to die, we would like to get guardianship of him for health reasons.
When i filed for guardianship I had the certified eldercare lawyer draw up the papers and we made one court appearance and in the end I was granted guardianship. I had a letter from just one doctor, her neurologist, certify that she needed the help. She was referred by our primary to the neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic. It took one visit and a scan for him to diagnose. Of course I had to report back that I had taken care of the judges requirements on establishing the required blocks on DW bank accounts and the judge was satisfied with what the bank and I had done and I received two notarized copies of the guardianship papers.
All of this is required by Nevada state laws. Which included notifying the state law enforcement agencies of DW's condition to prevent someone from trying to use her name to purchase firearms.
We soon after went to DMV to surrender her drivers license and obtain a state ID. This was my idea and it worked. I also provided a copy of the guardianship to our doctors, just to keep that part legal when discussing her health.
You need two different doctors diagnosis to take to the court, then the court would declare incompetency, then you take that to the guardianship court with suggestions of who would be guardian then the court has the right to accept or decline those suggestions. If they decline then they will appoint someone.
Im really surprised the hospital let him go!