Alcohol detox centers promise patients and families a place with constant supervision and care. When monitoring duties are ignored, a patient going through alcohol withdrawal can be left in extreme danger.
One danger is delirium tremens, the most severe form of alcohol withdrawal. Patients experience heart issues, tremors, and seizures, and can quickly be at risk of death.
The blame for a tragic death of a detox patient should never rest with the victim. Families can file wrongful death claims to seek justice and support.
How Can Delirium Tremens Claim Someone’s Life?
Delirium tremens (DTs) occurs in Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) patients who suddenly stop drinking. This abstinence can cause a dangerous reaction inside the patient’s body.
While victims are drinking heavily, the body reacts by speeding up the Central Nervous System, including breathing and heartbeat rates. This is to counteract alcohol effects that slow Central Nervous System functions.
When a patient stops drinking alcohol, the depressant effect is suddenly gone, but the Central Nervous System hasn’t adjusted. It continues to speed up heart and lung activity at rates that can be dangerous.
This process is DTs. When patients aren’t monitored as closely as they need to be, and symptoms aren’t treated, patients can lose their lives.
Life-Threatening Detox Symptoms
Recovery from alcohol poisoning and binge drinking can be perilous for many victims. It’s also often a life-threatening journey. The CDC reports that about 178,000 people die from excessive alcohol use each year in the United States.
To end an alcohol dependence, patients will usually have to go through a physically and mentally difficult withdrawal. And when DTs is involved, there are life-threatening consequences that must be avoided.
The CDC explains that DTs can cause these dangerous side effects and more:
- Shaking hands and tremors across the body
- Heart stress
- Confusion, anxiety, experiencing hallucinations
- Combative behavior
- Seizures and status epilepticus (a severe condition of continuous seizures)
- High body temperature
- Vomiting
Evidence that Leaves a Detox Center Liable for a Tragic Death
Patients are not responsible for their injuries or deaths in what is supposed to be a safe and controlled environment. But families will need strong proof of a facility owner’s negligence in a detox center death.
That evidence can be difficult to obtain when it sits behind a drug clinic’s walls. But an experienced lawyer can help families make legal requests for every important detail.
A lawyer would go after things like monitoring logs, medication records, surveillance video, hiring records, and more.
This evidence would show these types of negligence and other mistakes:
- Monitoring logs showing a patient was left unchecked for too long
- Records showing that staff members didn’t react quickly enough (e.g., calling 911, administering medication)
- Failure to administer a Buprenorphine drug like diazepam and lorazepam to help slow the Central Nervous System and prevent Delirium Tremens
- Failure to treat dehydration
- Failure to monitor heart and breathing and to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
- A failure to place someone with DTs in rescue position to keep them from choking on vomit
- Negligent security in keeping alcohol and drugs out of a secure facility if an AUD patient seeks relief and relapses
- Evidence of understaffing that can leave profit-hungry health networks liable for a patient’s death
Frequently Asked Questions
How long can my family wait to file a wrongful death claim after a detox death?
Families with a case involving standard negligence (like a wrongful death personal injury claim) have two years to file a claim. Families filing medical malpractice cases would have a three-year deadline. For more information, you can visit our page explaining the difference between personal injury claims and medical malpractice claims.
Can an alcohol detox facility be responsible for hiring unqualified staff members?
Yes, facilities can be liable for this type of negligent care towards patients, especially after patients are allowed to get injured or die during recovery. Clinic owners might be liable for negligent hiring and not performing adequate background checks. They may fail to confirm qualifications listed on a resume. They can miss a criminal past or a history of past illegal drug use.
What type of wrongful death support is available for families after a death at an alcohol detox center?
Families who tragically lose a loved one to a drug overdose in a facility can ask for help with funeral expenses and in paying all remaining medical bills. They should be helped in replacing the income the deceased may have supported the family with. Family members may also receive support for the care and guidance they’ve lost forever. A detox treatment center may also be forced to pay punitive damages. Any fines paid go to the family.
Contact Us if your Loved One Was Allowed to Die During Alcohol Detox
Families who can prove a detox center’s negligence caused a loved one’s fatal accident can demand full support.
Attorney Martin Gasparian can help hold negligent detox facility owners accountable. He can handle the most frustrating parts of a claim against a giant California healthcare provider, while providing as little disruption to grieving families as possible.
He can also help families seek justice, even if a facility to blame is now shut down.
Mr. Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to all family members. There’s no obligation, but all families should know that there are no upfront costs to hire a skilled lawyer. We don’t get paid unless we win your case. Then our fee comes out of the settlement that a detox center must provide.