June Lynne Lacey, Joyce Lacey(Daughter) -Minnesota-June Lynne Lacey Foundation

My mother, June Lacey, was an amazing woman! Not a day went by that she wasn’t volunteering to help someone in need. She’d just returned from the Ms. Senior USA Pageant in Las Vegas, representing Minnesota, and was named Ms. Congeniality! We were volunteering for a walk when her breathing got slightly off. Because it was the weekend, I took her to the ER. When they saw her, they insisted she stay overnight for observation. I wanted the best for her, so I agreed. The next day, in walks a hospitalist doctor, a hospice representative, a social worker and a chaplain. They tried to convince me to put my mother as Do Not Resuscitate, (DNR), place her in a nursing home, and put her in Hospice! As Health Care Directive, (HCD), and Power of Attorney, (POA) for my mother, of course I said

“No”.

The hospitalist doctor, who had never seen me or my mother before, said

“You are a very poor POA! I have wasted 27 minutes on you!”

…then asked…

“By the way, are you the legal guardian?”

…I honestly replied I wasn’t. Before he left, I explained my mother was fully competent and didn’t need a guardian.

I never dreamed he’d go to the social worker, and they’d apply for an emergency guardianship and conservatorship! It seems, he claimed my mother had dementia! She wasn’t given the opportunity to prove she didn’t. The next day, they came in and declared my mother now had a guardian and conservator and was being transported 215 miles to a nursing home far from friends and family! I started getting her dressed to take her away, but security showed up, and I was told I no longer had any say, nor did my mother! We protested, and they forced her compliance with a shot of morphine. I was frantic! I called the guardian 27 times that day to let her know there was a good nursing home just a few miles from the hospital. The guardian wouldn’t pick up and never replied! I later found out the guardians’ company allegedly managed the home they’d chosen, and the ambulance company cost a fortune. Mom was scared. I drove 8 hours every day, four hours each way, to see her. I found an attorney who wanted a $9,000.00 retainer. The bank told me our accounts had been emptied the day before. It appears the guardian had taken all my mother’s money and our joint account, too! The nursing home allowed only a bedpan. No phone, and guests were threatened with arrest if they took her outside her door! Within three weeks, she developed pneumonia, a staph infection, septic blood, UTI, bed sores, 102 temperature, and bumps and bruises! I called Adult Protection Services, (APS), four times, and got letters from County Social Services stating they refused to investigate. So did the ombudsman. I called the local police. The head nurse was furious! The officer said he was sorry, but there was nothing he could do because of the guardianship. He said my mother would have more rights if she were a convicted criminal. The day nurse refused to take my mother to the ER, but the evening nurse called 911, and my mother, near death, was rushed to the hospital. She was given four IV Antibiotics and an enema. This was Monday. By Wednesday, she sat up, smiling, and able to eat. She was to be released Thursday. I found a bed at a nursing home a few miles from the hospital. The guardian refused and forced her to go 80 miles back to the nursing home her company managed. I said:

“I would rather go to jail than have her go back there! They nearly killed her in just three weeks!”

The case worker called security and had me removed from the hospital. When mom got back, I was only allowed one hour supervised visits Monday through Friday! She went downhill fast. I hired an attorney specializing in negligent nursing home cases. The nursing home refused to release records. Their doctor placed mom in hospice. We had the records from the hospital where my mother had no sepsis, staph, pneumonia, UTI, bed sores, high temperature, or bruises. It all happened in the nursing home. Hospice care was no comfort. At a meeting they wanted to take her off her necessary drugs and leave her only on morphine and oxycodone. The guardian approved, but I pointed out she could die, so they continued to give her some of her other medications. Within a few days I saw mom stop breathing. When I called 911 paramedics resuscitated her, but the ER doctor refused her admittance, saying her pulse was too low. The paramedics left, and very shortly, mom was gone. I asked for an autopsy. She died with a blood clot by her heart that could’ve been dissolved if she’d been permitted to go to the ER. She fought to live but wasn’t given the chance. In my moms’ honor I started the June Lynne Lacey Foundation to serve vulnerable adults and children, the elderly, disabled, and our veterans. We strive to uphold and protect their rights. In addition, we provide meals, groceries, necessities, holiday gifts, accessible playground equipment for physically challenged children and scholarships for graduating seniors.