Life and Island Times June 28 2016 – Life Threatening Loose Ends
Marlow and his sister, Harvard, have been trying to keep fraying loose ends from totally unravelling, since last December. These were life and death matters for their ward and younger 60 year old brother. He had been living in long term care facilities built and operated by V. Things had turned sour financially and health wise for V, so the facility’s minority owners closed the Virginia Beach, Virginia, facility with very little notice in late February. In point of fact, they had not provided the family the legally required 60 days’ notice and had been actively working with the payers to relocate their brother to another of their facilities behind the guardians’ backs.
So with little time and quite pissed off, Harvard and Marlow embarked on a country wide search for a new place. They had succeeded against all odds in less than three weeks, only with the help of other family members’ expertise and assistance.
The new facility in Richmond, Virginia, would not have a bed available until six weeks after the old facility closed. So, another plan was hatched to put their brother on a therapeutic road trip, a bon mot created for the Probate Court’s approval of their brother’s multi-state peregrinations and eventual relocation. Visiting old haunts, residences and care givers sounded good to the Court, so it sanctioned it and the move in less than three weeks – a scant five days to go before their brother would have legally become homeless, when the Virginia Beach facility closed its doors.
Time coincident with all this flapping about, Harvard and Marlow were putting the finishing touches on the annual filing of close to a thousand pages of accounting, reporting and plans for their brother to the probate court. The court had been jerking them around with ever changing report dates and timeframes, increasing the cost of these processes by thousands of dollars during each of the past two years.
When the court entered a Guardianship Audit Deficiency Notice in March 15th – six weeks before the end of the court’s previously ordered truncated reporting period. Marlow became irate. Searching the County Court records, it became apparent that this judge was the only jurist in that district who used such notices and was more than likely using or tacitly approving their improper use. It also became obvious during oral conversations with their ward’s probate attorney that the clerk of courts and/or the guardian specialist in Lee County were likely working in concert with this judge.
Marlow and Harvard had seen this type of bench behavior before. It was case dumping to clear their dockets. This time, it was more observably blatant.
So yet another stratagem was devised and executed to file draft orders for the court to sign and play a wait-and-see game with the court.
Meanwhile after the brother arrived at his new facility in early May, his new caregivers launched a 360 degree multidiscipline review of his health. What they found shocked and dazed his guardians. There were items that had been long overlooked, conditions not heretofore recognized/treated and weighty issue to be decided regarding his physical well being.
For the past six weeks, teleconferences, visits and doctor consults have been sought. A late-night, mid-June. Emergency Room visit occurred when their brother experienced heart attack symptoms. A long review of this showed it was not such an event, but that more tests, doctor visits were required and additional therapeutic strategies implemented.
Despite being slammed by multiple tsunami waves during a typhoon at sea, Harvard and Marlow feel like they have a handle on the ropes that moor their brother to this world. They are thankful that they have such a good crew of shipmates to assist them.
Copyright © 2016 From My Isle Seat