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Denied final farewell; Family barred from being by father’s side while he dies (with video)
Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2011
By KELLY PETRYSZYN
morningjournal.com
MORNING JOURNAL/ANNA NORRIS Jim Kapucinski, of Amherst, front, holds a photo of his brother, Vernon Kapucinski, surrounded by Vernon's children, Vernon Kapucinski, Jr., left, and Georgie Brosky, right. Jim was denied access to see his brother in his final moments before he passed away at New Life Hospice Center of Saint Joseph yesterday because he did not know the HIPPA code. Jim and Georgie both had visited Vernon in hospice many times without being asked for the code by staff.
LORAIN — As Vernon Kapucinski, 60, took his final breaths yesterday morning after battling liver disease, his family was barred from being by his side at the New Life Hospice Center of St. Joseph at Mercy Regional Medical Center.
His brother, Jim Kapucinski, arrived at 5 a.m. and tried for an hour to see Vernon, but was denied access because he didn’t have the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act password.
Defeated by the system, he returned to his Bay Village home, only to receive an apologetic phone call from a nurse asking him to return to his brother’s side because Vernon’s condition had worsen.
But he got back too late to comfort his brother as he died.
Kapucinski wasn’t the only person denied the opportunity to be by Vernon’s side as he died.
His long-time nursing aide, Audrey Reditt, arrived about 5:10 a.m. and was also turned away because she couldn’t give the nurse the HIPAA password. In none of Reditt’s or Kapucinski’s previous visits had they been asked for the code, they said.
Reditt called Vernon’s daughter, Georgie Brosky, to get the password, but the call went to voice mail.
Brosky, of Oberlin, had been with her father until 2 a.m. and missed the Reditt’s calls as well as a 6:13 a.m. call from the hospice saying her father had gotten worse.
While Reditt waited at the hospice, trying to see Vernon, he died at 6:20 a.m.
Yesterday afternoon, a distraught Brosky said when she noticed the missed calls, she immediately called Reditt who passed the phone to the nurse. That’s when she learned her father had died a short time before her call.
“I told her my father had died alone and she said, ‘No, I was with him.’
“I felt robbed. Our family was there every day. That woman took the place of our family. Maybe, he opened up his eyes for a few seconds. I don’t know and who was he looking at? She stole it from everyone of our family members. I’m so upset,” Brosky said.
Up until three days before her father died, he was responsive, she said. She and her Uncle Jim would rotate time with her father, holding his hand and talking with him for hours.
During her phone conversation, she yelled at the nurse and when she arrived at hospice, security was called because the nurse said Brosky was “threatening her in such a way she was fearful,” Brosky said. That kept her from seeing her father’s body for almost an hour.
“There’s no closure,” Brosky said, tears still fresh on her face. “It’s robbing people. The man worked his entire life and died by himself without family. ”
HIPPA is a federal law that requires health care providers to regulate medical information for safety and security reasons. It requires that family and friends have a password to see a patient.
Mercy Marketing Director Kasha Frese wrote in an email statement that to protect patient’s safety and privacy, Mercy requires that “persons visiting patients when the building is secured must have the patient’s code to gain entry.”
She said Mercy issues a private code to each patient and their primary contact person during the admitting process. The patient and their primary contact person can give this code to friends and family members as desired. Frese said the center is open for 24 hours, but is locked down at certain times for safety reasons.
Kapucinski said when he left the hospice at 11 p.m. on Monday, he asked the staff if he needed a code to get in early the following morning and was told no. It was a nurse none of the family is familiar with who was on duty at 5 a.m. and was the one who denied Kapucinski and Reditt entrance.
Kapucinski, his voice raised with anger yesterday afternoon, related how he tried to give them his driver’s license to show that he was related and was still denied entry. When a different nurse called him later at home to apologize, she said barring him was uncalled for and that Vernon was getting worse, according to Kapucinski.
She asked him to come back and sit with his brother, but as he was driving back to the hospice he received another call from a nurse who told him Vernon had died.
“I could have been with him,” Kapucinski said. “It’s not a good system.”
Reditt said she called security to help her get in when she couldn’t reach Brosky, but didn’t get any help. She asked if Vernon was dying and they said he was.
She cannot “believe the lack of love and compassion” shown to the family and Reditt, Brosky said, and added it’s “an ugly thing to do to somebody.”
“I knew he was afraid,” she said, fighting back tears. “He told me sometimes that he was afraid.” Brosky affectionately referred to her father as “crazy.” He would give until he didn’t have any money.” He would make pot roasts and hams for neighbors and send Brosky to deliver them anonymously. She laughs when she thinks of his “rock room” lined with six large shelves displaying the rocks he has collected. “He was a character,” she said. “If he thought you needed something, he would get it.”
Brosky said the nurse who barred them did not apologize, however, the nurse in charge, clinical manager, Tonya Wilson-Anderson, did. “I think she cried for me,” Brosky said, choking back tears herself. She told Brosky that they are going to change the policy. Brosky’s husband, Rob, said the family understands that the law was being enforced, but the situation was not handled correctly.
“All of the sudden you have one nurse who decides to enforce it at the wrong time,” he said. “You can’t allow everyone to come in and out freely. And now the ultimate worst has happened.
He hopes that the nurse follows through on her promise and the policy is changed.
“You don’t want someone else to die alone,” he said. |
