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A Hero needs help! Irony vs. the Iron Elder.
This is a crazy story of elder abuse, and it is a warning, because what has happened to this Hero could happen to any of us, whether rich or poor, educated or not, old or...young. Anybody can become vulnerable if they lose -even temporarily- their ability to make informed decisions. It could be because you suffered illness, or it could be because you were in a coma after an auto accident. Once you are appointed a legal guardian to "help" you when you are in that state, it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get out of it. Consider it permanent, and a one-way ticket to the end of life as you know it.
This is the story of a woman under abusive probate court appointed guardianship. And if we don't band together very soon to give her some help, this woman, who dedicated her whole life to helping others from the local to the national level, will lose what little she has left, a final insult before death. A terrible thanks by society for all of the people she has helped. But if YOU help her with a contribution, we can use her success and her story to help other people avoid the same fate. THAT friends, is a very worthy cause!
If you don't want to read the whole thing, feel free to scroll on down, but the message here applies to something that can catch any of us, so it is worth reading.
Be ready to be outraged-
First, meet Roberta "Bobbie" Asplund. Meet her while you still can. She is 92 years old, doing well, and has many years left in her. It isn't age that will get her, it is abusive guardianship. Until a medical event last August, she was living at home, fully independent, driving, using her computer, and contributing to society as she has her whole life. Even today, she wants to do research and activist work to help the neglected seniors in nursing homes. She experienced that hell first hand, needlessly, while her guardian kept her locked away in Long Term Care for 4 months last winter -when no doctor claimed she needed it or that it would help her.
Bobbie is a nurse. She still considers herself a nurse. She always will. It takes a wonderful and special kind of person to be a nurse. But she dedicated her life to helping others, no matter what. With degrees in Nursing, Public health and Education Specialist from Hartwick and Univ. of Michigan, she has held many important positions and used them to create change, to educate, and to help. Starting as a Visiting Nurse after serving the US Public Health Service Corps during WWII, she has been Director of the Ann Arbor VA Emergency clinic where she made many changes in procedure that saved may lives, and she fought to raise defense money for two Filipino nurses facing murder charges based on racial scapegoating and weak circumstantial evidence (they were freed). She was the local Vice President of the League of Women Voters in charge of studies, chaired the State Committee on Public Health, and edited the national nursing sorority newsletter for Sigma Theta Tau. As President of the Washtenaw Heart Association she was a non-smoking advocate, and she taught cessation of smoking without medications at U of M. She taught Community Health Nursing at three other prominent university schools of nursing, was Assistant Director of Nursing at Monroe Health Department, was Secretary of the BoD and instructor of the Well Baby Clinic, was a Pfizer Research Nurse, local Nurse in Charge at the American Red Cross, was Washtenaw Representative to the Comprehensive Health Planning Council, and more...
She even helped save local wetlands and wildlife, and was instrumental in planning the new location of the Ann Arbor Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital.
Bobbie has always been sticking up for the weak and helpless. As an advocate for handicapped rights she helped bring about changes in our society. She even designed and pushed for a new driveway access to the Sanctuary of one of the largest Ann Arbor churches. She went everywhere, video recording major Health Care conferences and the politicians who spoke at them, including Hillary Clinton and Governor Granholm, allies in promoting public health issues. As her friends aged, she stood by them, even appearing in court to try to save them from losing their rights and to help them stay in their homes. She was absolutely resolved that she would NEVER want to live her own days out in a nursing home.
Memento mori: (Remember, we are all mortal...)
And through all of that and more, Bobbie kept a bright, positive attitude, always seeing the best in people, and never saying an unkind word about any of them. That's my mom. A hero to me, and an inspiration to many, many people. I only wish I could tell you more, like details of her work with nursing organizations, but there is a problem... I can't talk to her because her guardian is afraid I'll help her get out of guardianship.
Bobbie has been so full of life that she suffered from one fatal flaw, the lack of a good appreciation for her own mortality. Being so capable, living independently and alone, driving, etc. as a 91 year old, she just never got around to appointing anybody as her emergency Durable Power of Attorney. And then it happened. A blood vessel in her brain leaked and she suffered hydrocephalus. That is fluid on the brain. An aneurysm can happen to anybody. And it knocked her down. The iron mom was stricken.
Healing took a while. She was in a rehabilitation facility when she started having symptoms of the hydrocephalus again. I pointed it out to the nurses. They said the facility doctor would know what to do, if anything. But they did nothing, and mom slipped closer and closer to being unresponsive. I would travel there and spend an hour and a half at a time trying to spoon-feed her. Over a month of that and she became very malnourished, lost weight, and slipped further and further away. It was terrifying!
Recovery-
Eventually she was sent to the University of Michigan for treatment of an infection. And indeed, they also found hydrocephalus. I asked them to place a G-Plug (feeding tube to the abdomen) because she had been neglected and starving for most of a month! And yup, they found she had hydrocephalus again. They treated her by placing a shunt (drain tube under the skin) and she started to recover. She started to recover FAST. It was like watching a rocket take off. I visited her almost every other day and could see a measurable difference each time.
And here's where it went terribly wrong. Because my siblings could not get along with me, they caused mom to end up with a legal guardian and conservator being appointed in probate court. When that happens, the guardian and conservator own you like the parent of a small child. You have almost no rights! Not to property, not to your money, not even to decide your life, where to live, or what treatment you get. They can make a life or death decision for you. Literally, a convicted felon has more rights.
Then the guardian went off the rails.
When mom's 100 days of Medicaid ended on January 8, it was discharge time. No doctor said she needed Long Term Care, and her prognosis for full or near full recovery was looking really good. I was at her PT/OT discharge assessment when she demonstrated that she could manage stairs, walk with a walker, and get herself into a car. I was at the meeting where the discharge nurse explained to the guardian that in LTC she would only get maintenance level services, nothing skilled or designed to help her improve. I said I could work with her gradually each day to get her stronger, sooner, and that being around her own stuff would help her memory and cognition more than an unfamiliar hospital-like setting. I could give her cognition exercises. They don't do cognition therapy in LTC. At that time she still needed 24/7 supervision, but was able to live at home with that. I volunteered to share being the In-Home caregiver during the day, and let my brother do the evening shift. And so of course the guardian discharged mom into LTC anyway.
Mom got healthy. She got most of her cognition back by later in January. But to her life felt like being imprisoned. The guardian rarely let her out of the nursing home, only a few times, usually for medical or legal issues. The conservator locked-up her house and wouldn't let her have a key. It was a fight just to get them to allow her 4 hours in her house on her birthday, and we had to pay for a "security supervisor!" On only one occasion was I able to get her out to a store and we had some time, so she asked me to take her to visit her house. She knew she couldn't go in. She sat on her porch and cried.
She was neglected dangerously at the Long Term Care facility. Her hearing aid was lost and the facility was stalling about replacing it. The guardian did little, so it was after her discharge, 7 months after they lost it, that a much cheaper and imperfect replacement came. If mom couldn't hear, she couldn't fight back in court. Mom broke her molar off at the gum line, which was an infection risk. Her dentist was just a quarter mile away, but the facility wanted her to wait and see the once/month LTC dentist, so again the guardian did virtually nothing. A month and a half later my frustrated mom called her dentist and booked the appointment herself! And that feeding tube? It got left in over a month after she stopped needing it! I was pushing hard to get these things addressed, but I had no power. The guardian wouldn't even allow nurse mom to see her medical records! Mom was terrified that it was because she might have some fatal disease! Can you imagine?
She'd had it. She begged me for help. I did two things. I joined V.O.I.C.E., an activist group to fight abusive probate court guardianship, and I did legal research on her options. I discovered the probate court Petition to Modify. It turns out that MI law allows a ward to ask to have the guardian and conservator changed to someone else, and by law the ward has priority to pick who. She wanted me. So we filed. A Hearing date was set.
The guardian and conservator tried to block her from going to her own hearing!
I insisted. When she went, they made her take a paid wheelchair van instead of me driving her, and nobody bothered to dress her for the freezing weather! Just a sweatshirt, calf-length thin pants, and they left the heavy coat, hat and gloves behind. Did I mention it was about 8am on a freezing February 1st, and several inches of snow? It's a wonder they didn't kill her.
The court assigned an attorney. A new hearing was set. The guardian and conservator asked the court to prevent me, my mom's only advocate, from discussing her finances or the new hearing with her. The guardian sent an email saying there would be no excursions out while the court hearing was pending. Her appointed attorney didn't do much, and when we had the evidentiary hearing in late March he took the opposing side. When the conservator told the judge that it was a hearing about "removal for cause," which it wasn't (and we had not prepared for that), mom's crap attorney agreed to let it be for Cause! It was a lie. Then mom's lawyer told the court that he didn't think her own hand-written, dated and signed letter asking the guardian and conservator to resign was written by her! The conservator testified that she'd never seen it (despite it being submitted by the conservator herself as evidence in another Petition!).
Nobody ever asked my qualifications, and mom's attorney's closing statement complimented the guardian and conservator on what a good job they were doing! The judge didn't follow the law, and ruled against mom, which means the judge failed to follow the law. But judges have that power... Yes, I turned her lawyer in to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission.
Mom was desperate to get out of the nursing home. There were sick and dying were all around; her roommate was always screaming about wanting to die, in between a constant dribble of gibberish. Mom was living in a small room with no privacy, like a hospital room, the door always open, even though she didn't need to be there. And the food. Oh, you can't imagine... And what did the guardian have to say? Oh, Bobbie likes it there. She feels useful as a nurse trying to help the others.
Incredible!!!!!
So there she is, saying she's a prisoner. And there I was, trying to video record her walking, but the nursing home suddenly refused permission to document it. That was January. I did it anyway. Mom got discharged back home in May, and the medical record claimed she needed 24/7 caregivers, was wheelchair bound, and had dysphagia. None of it was true. So of course the guardian and conservator hired that same company from her birthday visit to supply caregivers.
Discharge home - From one prison to another:
Being no fool, in order to determine what was true, I booked mom for a cognition test by her own doctor, for Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy testing, and more cognition testing with the University of Michigan's neuropsychology doctors. Her first appointment was with her regular doctor the same afternoon that she had been discharged by the doctor who made all the bogus claims that morning. And wow! My "wheelchair-bound mom miraculously walked into the building! And then the doctor gave her a cognition test and found her to be in the normal range for everybody. The OT and PT assessments said she didn't need 24/7 supervisors. The doctor eventually wrote a letter saying she didn't think mom needed guardianship!
Hmmmmmmmm...... Is it just me, or might there be a wee bit of "CORRUPTION?"
Oh, and in the meantime, the conservator sold the house mom bought as a starter for my brother, so he left his job and became a paid caregiver. Between him and the other babysitters which weren't needed, mom was paying about $3,500.00/mo. more than her income, and that's not even counting utilities, mortgage, food, etc. After the debt on the house got paid, the balance went to paying the nursing home.
And that isn't even the half of it. Remember, mom now has HUGE debt thanks to these people. They asked me to check prices on stairlift chairs and other safety devices for the home so she could get upstairs to her bedroom and walk-in shower. I had it all down for about $2,500.00. So naturally, in April, before she came home, they decided they'd let my brother have the whole upstairs, and make mom live in her dining room!
Instead of a stairlift chair to her own bedroom with its walk-in shower, they used the money to take out the ground floor's front hall closet and put in a shower there! Who wants that??? Down came the curtains mom made by hand for some reason (they were fine, but were never put back up), and with no pressing safety need, they replaced the old, but working stove, removed the low pile carpets and replaced all of the floors on the downstairs with the same cheap laminate that she had complained about being slippery. I was told that modifying the downstairs for her to live in was done to give my brother "privacy" upstairs... but what about mom's privacy? Mom has to live in a fishbowl? Four months later there still are no curtains on the ground floor where she is allowed. Now she is starting to go up the stairs on her own -without a stairlift chair. She uses the cane less, too.
They wouldn't meet to discuss these changes with mom before doing them (as required by law), saying she'd waste their time by objecting. Mom refused to live in her dining room instead of her bedroom or to use the stupid shower atrocity in the closet, and now sleeps on a lazy boy and washes at the sink. They still won't allow her upstairs to her room and her stuff.
And now it gets really sticky. I've been calling them on their abuses. I'm on the BoD of a group that fights this kind of thing. I reported them to Adult Protective Services. But the APS said that they have the legal power to do this. Mom calls me a lot, desperate for support. I try to help. She pleaded with her guardian: "Georgette, you're a mother yourself. How would you feel to be separated from one of your children?"
The guardian and conservator responded by increasing the limitations on when I can see her, claiming conversation about her situation "upsets her." They petitioned the court to restrict and limit our time together. The court believed them because they are professional attorneys. The guardian produced witnesses who committed perjury. (I just added video to back that up. See the update #2 and this link: http://www.randyasplund.com/court/slander ). I fought back on the most egregious by showing the court clear video evidence proving beyond any doubt whatsoever that they were committing blatant perjury to discredit me, and thus prevent me from helping mom. The judge supported.... THEM!
We have another hearing in less than 2 weeks from when I write this (Aug. 22). We might or might not get mom out of guardianship. Only THIS judge can release her. In an order appearing to try to prevent her from escaping guardianship, the conservator and guardian have now limited me to ONE visit with her for 4 hours, one week before the hearing, and I am not allowed to call her or accept any calls from her in the meantime. And yes, they have that power. That's one more reason why guardianship is a TERRIBLE option.
And now, after only 8 months of guardianship, these "professionals" have spent-out a $186,000.00 house, around $30,000.00 for their own fees, and many, many thousands more on unnecessary In-Home caregivers, modifications to the house against her desires and interests, built a tremendous debt, and the conservator says my mom will be out of money by this September (just a few weeks from now!)
So I'm here to reach out to the humanitarians of the world, the people who have hope and care, and who have benefited from my mother's lifetime of fighting for better Health Care and who stood up for fair treatment to elders. I'm reaching out to YOU. Brother/sister, can you please spare some contribution to help save this very worthy woman? The amount I leave to your conscience. She has several more years of life ahead of her. It would be tragic if she were to end up losing everything and becoming a burden on taxpayers as a faceless, lonely and miserable ward in a nursing home, with nothing to do, and nothing to accomplish. Just another shell, forgotten and abandoned.
We need to get over this hump. We are trying to free her from the financial vampire guardians and then make them accountable under the law. She is being treated like total crap. Nobody deserves that. Let's bring her back, and then use her story to save others! She is not the only victim.
THE PLAN:
1) Raise enough money to get Bobbie enough out of debt that she can live on her small pension and social security. My hope is to augment her income by having her share the house and its expenses. To do that we need to get her out of guardianship, or at least into friendly guardianship.
2) Hire a decent lawyer and get her life back on track by terminating or changing guardianship.
3) When she is free from the abusive guardianship we can try to make her tormentors legally accountable in court, possibly have them removed so they can't hurt others, and we can use her story and that of others to help make changes in public awareness and in law.
4) And she still needs that stairlift chair. (About $2,500-$3,000)
5) Settle medical debts/make payment installment plans.
That's a lot of money. I have to set an amount for the goal. It will need to flex with her needs. Whatever you can spare will help save her home and her future. We have a lot of people to draw on, and every cent will go directly to her needs. Nothing will be wasted.
Where your contribution goes:
In order to prevent the conservator from taking the proceeds from the fund-raising and squandering them on needless expenses which help enrich the conservator, the money will be placed in an account controlled only by me so I can pay for Bobbie's expenses directly. My name is Randy Asplund. I'm her oldest son. To know my credibility you merely need to look me up online. You are welcome to ask questions. I have my own web site with contact information, www.RandyAsplund.com.
This is a crazy story of elder abuse, and it is a warning, because what has happened to this Hero could happen to any of us, whether rich or poor, educated or not, old or...young. Anybody can become vulnerable if they lose -even temporarily- their ability to make informed decisions. It could be because you suffered illness, or it could be because you were in a coma after an auto accident. Once you are appointed a legal guardian to "help" you when you are in that state, it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get out of it. Consider it permanent, and a one-way ticket to the end of life as you know it.
This is the story of a woman under abusive probate court appointed guardianship. And if we don't band together very soon to give her some help, this woman, who dedicated her whole life to helping others from the local to the national level, will lose what little she has left, a final insult before death. A terrible thanks by society for all of the people she has helped. But if YOU help her with a contribution, we can use her success and her story to help other people avoid the same fate. THAT friends, is a very worthy cause!
If you don't want to read the whole thing, feel free to scroll on down, but the message here applies to something that can catch any of us, so it is worth reading.
Be ready to be outraged-
First, meet Roberta "Bobbie" Asplund. Meet her while you still can. She is 92 years old, doing well, and has many years left in her. It isn't age that will get her, it is abusive guardianship. Until a medical event last August, she was living at home, fully independent, driving, using her computer, and contributing to society as she has her whole life. Even today, she wants to do research and activist work to help the neglected seniors in nursing homes. She experienced that hell first hand, needlessly, while her guardian kept her locked away in Long Term Care for 4 months last winter -when no doctor claimed she needed it or that it would help her.
Bobbie is a nurse. She still considers herself a nurse. She always will. It takes a wonderful and special kind of person to be a nurse. But she dedicated her life to helping others, no matter what. With degrees in Nursing, Public health and Education Specialist from Hartwick and Univ. of Michigan, she has held many important positions and used them to create change, to educate, and to help. Starting as a Visiting Nurse after serving the US Public Health Service Corps during WWII, she has been Director of the Ann Arbor VA Emergency clinic where she made many changes in procedure that saved may lives, and she fought to raise defense money for two Filipino nurses facing murder charges based on racial scapegoating and weak circumstantial evidence (they were freed). She was the local Vice President of the League of Women Voters in charge of studies, chaired the State Committee on Public Health, and edited the national nursing sorority newsletter for Sigma Theta Tau. As President of the Washtenaw Heart Association she was a non-smoking advocate, and she taught cessation of smoking without medications at U of M. She taught Community Health Nursing at three other prominent university schools of nursing, was Assistant Director of Nursing at Monroe Health Department, was Secretary of the BoD and instructor of the Well Baby Clinic, was a Pfizer Research Nurse, local Nurse in Charge at the American Red Cross, was Washtenaw Representative to the Comprehensive Health Planning Council, and more...
She even helped save local wetlands and wildlife, and was instrumental in planning the new location of the Ann Arbor Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital.
Bobbie has always been sticking up for the weak and helpless. As an advocate for handicapped rights she helped bring about changes in our society. She even designed and pushed for a new driveway access to the Sanctuary of one of the largest Ann Arbor churches. She went everywhere, video recording major Health Care conferences and the politicians who spoke at them, including Hillary Clinton and Governor Granholm, allies in promoting public health issues. As her friends aged, she stood by them, even appearing in court to try to save them from losing their rights and to help them stay in their homes. She was absolutely resolved that she would NEVER want to live her own days out in a nursing home.
Memento mori: (Remember, we are all mortal...)
And through all of that and more, Bobbie kept a bright, positive attitude, always seeing the best in people, and never saying an unkind word about any of them. That's my mom. A hero to me, and an inspiration to many, many people. I only wish I could tell you more, like details of her work with nursing organizations, but there is a problem... I can't talk to her because her guardian is afraid I'll help her get out of guardianship.
Bobbie has been so full of life that she suffered from one fatal flaw, the lack of a good appreciation for her own mortality. Being so capable, living independently and alone, driving, etc. as a 91 year old, she just never got around to appointing anybody as her emergency Durable Power of Attorney. And then it happened. A blood vessel in her brain leaked and she suffered hydrocephalus. That is fluid on the brain. An aneurysm can happen to anybody. And it knocked her down. The iron mom was stricken.
Healing took a while. She was in a rehabilitation facility when she started having symptoms of the hydrocephalus again. I pointed it out to the nurses. They said the facility doctor would know what to do, if anything. But they did nothing, and mom slipped closer and closer to being unresponsive. I would travel there and spend an hour and a half at a time trying to spoon-feed her. Over a month of that and she became very malnourished, lost weight, and slipped further and further away. It was terrifying!
Recovery-
Eventually she was sent to the University of Michigan for treatment of an infection. And indeed, they also found hydrocephalus. I asked them to place a G-Plug (feeding tube to the abdomen) because she had been neglected and starving for most of a month! And yup, they found she had hydrocephalus again. They treated her by placing a shunt (drain tube under the skin) and she started to recover. She started to recover FAST. It was like watching a rocket take off. I visited her almost every other day and could see a measurable difference each time.
And here's where it went terribly wrong. Because my siblings could not get along with me, they caused mom to end up with a legal guardian and conservator being appointed in probate court. When that happens, the guardian and conservator own you like the parent of a small child. You have almost no rights! Not to property, not to your money, not even to decide your life, where to live, or what treatment you get. They can make a life or death decision for you. Literally, a convicted felon has more rights.
And then came the warning signs of abuse:
When I first met the conservator, after that first hearing, she told me her plan was to sell mom's house (that she and dad built to live out their golden years in. But we lost dad last summer). I said, "But wait. Every doctor I've spoken with says her best chance to recover is in the comfort and familiarity of her own home, and the elder law attorneys at the caregiver conference say it is always the least expensive and preferable solution if it is possible." Her response was to turn and walk away, saying every moment she spends talking to me costs my mom money.
When I first met the conservator, after that first hearing, she told me her plan was to sell mom's house (that she and dad built to live out their golden years in. But we lost dad last summer). I said, "But wait. Every doctor I've spoken with says her best chance to recover is in the comfort and familiarity of her own home, and the elder law attorneys at the caregiver conference say it is always the least expensive and preferable solution if it is possible." Her response was to turn and walk away, saying every moment she spends talking to me costs my mom money.
Then the guardian went off the rails.
When mom's 100 days of Medicaid ended on January 8, it was discharge time. No doctor said she needed Long Term Care, and her prognosis for full or near full recovery was looking really good. I was at her PT/OT discharge assessment when she demonstrated that she could manage stairs, walk with a walker, and get herself into a car. I was at the meeting where the discharge nurse explained to the guardian that in LTC she would only get maintenance level services, nothing skilled or designed to help her improve. I said I could work with her gradually each day to get her stronger, sooner, and that being around her own stuff would help her memory and cognition more than an unfamiliar hospital-like setting. I could give her cognition exercises. They don't do cognition therapy in LTC. At that time she still needed 24/7 supervision, but was able to live at home with that. I volunteered to share being the In-Home caregiver during the day, and let my brother do the evening shift. And so of course the guardian discharged mom into LTC anyway.
Mom got healthy. She got most of her cognition back by later in January. But to her life felt like being imprisoned. The guardian rarely let her out of the nursing home, only a few times, usually for medical or legal issues. The conservator locked-up her house and wouldn't let her have a key. It was a fight just to get them to allow her 4 hours in her house on her birthday, and we had to pay for a "security supervisor!" On only one occasion was I able to get her out to a store and we had some time, so she asked me to take her to visit her house. She knew she couldn't go in. She sat on her porch and cried.
She was neglected dangerously at the Long Term Care facility. Her hearing aid was lost and the facility was stalling about replacing it. The guardian did little, so it was after her discharge, 7 months after they lost it, that a much cheaper and imperfect replacement came. If mom couldn't hear, she couldn't fight back in court. Mom broke her molar off at the gum line, which was an infection risk. Her dentist was just a quarter mile away, but the facility wanted her to wait and see the once/month LTC dentist, so again the guardian did virtually nothing. A month and a half later my frustrated mom called her dentist and booked the appointment herself! And that feeding tube? It got left in over a month after she stopped needing it! I was pushing hard to get these things addressed, but I had no power. The guardian wouldn't even allow nurse mom to see her medical records! Mom was terrified that it was because she might have some fatal disease! Can you imagine?
She'd had it. She begged me for help. I did two things. I joined V.O.I.C.E., an activist group to fight abusive probate court guardianship, and I did legal research on her options. I discovered the probate court Petition to Modify. It turns out that MI law allows a ward to ask to have the guardian and conservator changed to someone else, and by law the ward has priority to pick who. She wanted me. So we filed. A Hearing date was set.
The guardian and conservator tried to block her from going to her own hearing!
I insisted. When she went, they made her take a paid wheelchair van instead of me driving her, and nobody bothered to dress her for the freezing weather! Just a sweatshirt, calf-length thin pants, and they left the heavy coat, hat and gloves behind. Did I mention it was about 8am on a freezing February 1st, and several inches of snow? It's a wonder they didn't kill her.
The court assigned an attorney. A new hearing was set. The guardian and conservator asked the court to prevent me, my mom's only advocate, from discussing her finances or the new hearing with her. The guardian sent an email saying there would be no excursions out while the court hearing was pending. Her appointed attorney didn't do much, and when we had the evidentiary hearing in late March he took the opposing side. When the conservator told the judge that it was a hearing about "removal for cause," which it wasn't (and we had not prepared for that), mom's crap attorney agreed to let it be for Cause! It was a lie. Then mom's lawyer told the court that he didn't think her own hand-written, dated and signed letter asking the guardian and conservator to resign was written by her! The conservator testified that she'd never seen it (despite it being submitted by the conservator herself as evidence in another Petition!).
Nobody ever asked my qualifications, and mom's attorney's closing statement complimented the guardian and conservator on what a good job they were doing! The judge didn't follow the law, and ruled against mom, which means the judge failed to follow the law. But judges have that power... Yes, I turned her lawyer in to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission.
Mom was desperate to get out of the nursing home. There were sick and dying were all around; her roommate was always screaming about wanting to die, in between a constant dribble of gibberish. Mom was living in a small room with no privacy, like a hospital room, the door always open, even though she didn't need to be there. And the food. Oh, you can't imagine... And what did the guardian have to say? Oh, Bobbie likes it there. She feels useful as a nurse trying to help the others.
Incredible!!!!!
So there she is, saying she's a prisoner. And there I was, trying to video record her walking, but the nursing home suddenly refused permission to document it. That was January. I did it anyway. Mom got discharged back home in May, and the medical record claimed she needed 24/7 caregivers, was wheelchair bound, and had dysphagia. None of it was true. So of course the guardian and conservator hired that same company from her birthday visit to supply caregivers.
Discharge home - From one prison to another:
Being no fool, in order to determine what was true, I booked mom for a cognition test by her own doctor, for Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy testing, and more cognition testing with the University of Michigan's neuropsychology doctors. Her first appointment was with her regular doctor the same afternoon that she had been discharged by the doctor who made all the bogus claims that morning. And wow! My "wheelchair-bound mom miraculously walked into the building! And then the doctor gave her a cognition test and found her to be in the normal range for everybody. The OT and PT assessments said she didn't need 24/7 supervisors. The doctor eventually wrote a letter saying she didn't think mom needed guardianship!
Hmmmmmmmm...... Is it just me, or might there be a wee bit of "CORRUPTION?"
Oh, and in the meantime, the conservator sold the house mom bought as a starter for my brother, so he left his job and became a paid caregiver. Between him and the other babysitters which weren't needed, mom was paying about $3,500.00/mo. more than her income, and that's not even counting utilities, mortgage, food, etc. After the debt on the house got paid, the balance went to paying the nursing home.
And that isn't even the half of it. Remember, mom now has HUGE debt thanks to these people. They asked me to check prices on stairlift chairs and other safety devices for the home so she could get upstairs to her bedroom and walk-in shower. I had it all down for about $2,500.00. So naturally, in April, before she came home, they decided they'd let my brother have the whole upstairs, and make mom live in her dining room!
Instead of a stairlift chair to her own bedroom with its walk-in shower, they used the money to take out the ground floor's front hall closet and put in a shower there! Who wants that??? Down came the curtains mom made by hand for some reason (they were fine, but were never put back up), and with no pressing safety need, they replaced the old, but working stove, removed the low pile carpets and replaced all of the floors on the downstairs with the same cheap laminate that she had complained about being slippery. I was told that modifying the downstairs for her to live in was done to give my brother "privacy" upstairs... but what about mom's privacy? Mom has to live in a fishbowl? Four months later there still are no curtains on the ground floor where she is allowed. Now she is starting to go up the stairs on her own -without a stairlift chair. She uses the cane less, too.
They wouldn't meet to discuss these changes with mom before doing them (as required by law), saying she'd waste their time by objecting. Mom refused to live in her dining room instead of her bedroom or to use the stupid shower atrocity in the closet, and now sleeps on a lazy boy and washes at the sink. They still won't allow her upstairs to her room and her stuff.
And now it gets really sticky. I've been calling them on their abuses. I'm on the BoD of a group that fights this kind of thing. I reported them to Adult Protective Services. But the APS said that they have the legal power to do this. Mom calls me a lot, desperate for support. I try to help. She pleaded with her guardian: "Georgette, you're a mother yourself. How would you feel to be separated from one of your children?"
The guardian and conservator responded by increasing the limitations on when I can see her, claiming conversation about her situation "upsets her." They petitioned the court to restrict and limit our time together. The court believed them because they are professional attorneys. The guardian produced witnesses who committed perjury. (I just added video to back that up. See the update #2 and this link: http://www.randyasplund.com/court/slander ). I fought back on the most egregious by showing the court clear video evidence proving beyond any doubt whatsoever that they were committing blatant perjury to discredit me, and thus prevent me from helping mom. The judge supported.... THEM!
We have another hearing in less than 2 weeks from when I write this (Aug. 22). We might or might not get mom out of guardianship. Only THIS judge can release her. In an order appearing to try to prevent her from escaping guardianship, the conservator and guardian have now limited me to ONE visit with her for 4 hours, one week before the hearing, and I am not allowed to call her or accept any calls from her in the meantime. And yes, they have that power. That's one more reason why guardianship is a TERRIBLE option.
And now, after only 8 months of guardianship, these "professionals" have spent-out a $186,000.00 house, around $30,000.00 for their own fees, and many, many thousands more on unnecessary In-Home caregivers, modifications to the house against her desires and interests, built a tremendous debt, and the conservator says my mom will be out of money by this September (just a few weeks from now!)
So I'm here to reach out to the humanitarians of the world, the people who have hope and care, and who have benefited from my mother's lifetime of fighting for better Health Care and who stood up for fair treatment to elders. I'm reaching out to YOU. Brother/sister, can you please spare some contribution to help save this very worthy woman? The amount I leave to your conscience. She has several more years of life ahead of her. It would be tragic if she were to end up losing everything and becoming a burden on taxpayers as a faceless, lonely and miserable ward in a nursing home, with nothing to do, and nothing to accomplish. Just another shell, forgotten and abandoned.
We need to get over this hump. We are trying to free her from the financial vampire guardians and then make them accountable under the law. She is being treated like total crap. Nobody deserves that. Let's bring her back, and then use her story to save others! She is not the only victim.
THE PLAN:
1) Raise enough money to get Bobbie enough out of debt that she can live on her small pension and social security. My hope is to augment her income by having her share the house and its expenses. To do that we need to get her out of guardianship, or at least into friendly guardianship.
2) Hire a decent lawyer and get her life back on track by terminating or changing guardianship.
3) When she is free from the abusive guardianship we can try to make her tormentors legally accountable in court, possibly have them removed so they can't hurt others, and we can use her story and that of others to help make changes in public awareness and in law.
4) And she still needs that stairlift chair. (About $2,500-$3,000)
5) Settle medical debts/make payment installment plans.
That's a lot of money. I have to set an amount for the goal. It will need to flex with her needs. Whatever you can spare will help save her home and her future. We have a lot of people to draw on, and every cent will go directly to her needs. Nothing will be wasted.
Where your contribution goes:
In order to prevent the conservator from taking the proceeds from the fund-raising and squandering them on needless expenses which help enrich the conservator, the money will be placed in an account controlled only by me so I can pay for Bobbie's expenses directly. My name is Randy Asplund. I'm her oldest son. To know my credibility you merely need to look me up online. You are welcome to ask questions. I have my own web site with contact information, www.RandyAsplund.com.