The detox stage during a drug rehab is a very dangerous time for vulnerable patients, and they often lose their lives without proper monitoring and treatment.
Patients can face severe withdrawal symptoms from opioids like Fentanyl and Heroin or from Cocaine, and even alcohol.
Health risks such as breathing problems, heart issues, and choking risks/asphyxiation are all possible. A California detox center’s failure to provide proper care during such a critical time can definitely contribute to a rehab death.
Types of Withdrawals with Different Drugs
Detox is the process of how withdrawal is managed. It occurs as Substance Use Disorder (SUD) patients try to shake a dependence on a harmful drug. The body flushes out chemicals, and the abstinence from drugs causes a painful and difficult physical reaction.
It’s a difficult process that can take weeks, and patients who are suffering through it are at great risk and can be pushed into relapse without proper supervision.
The type of drug or drugs victims ingest will determine the type of withdrawals they experience and the potential serious injuries they could develop.
Opioids: These include opioids derived naturally, such as morphine and heroin, or those made in a lab such as Fentanyl. Prescription painkillers like Oxycodone and Hydrocodone are included. Withdrawal can bring slowed breathing or can stop a patient’s breathing. Patients can also become unconscious.
Stimulants: Cocaine and Methamphetamine (meth) speed up the body’s functions. Adderall (a type of amphetamine) is a stimulant. The Cleveland Clinic reports that patients may experience muscle tremors while coming off Cocaine. Withdrawal can bring paranoia and leave patients out of touch with reality. They can harm themselves and others.
Benzodiazepines: These drugs calm the central nervous system. They include Xanax, Klonopin, and Valium. Patients working through detox can experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, and rapid heartbeats.
Medications used to curb drug urges: MOUD prescription drugs (medications for opioid use disorder) used to treat opioid withdrawal are often opioids themselves. Patients can overdose on Methadone. They can mix Buprenorphine with other drugs for deadly highs. These drugs can also cause their own dangerous withdrawal symptoms.
California detox facilities are supposed to help patients through these difficult periods. When they are negligent in their duties to patients and their paying families, they can be held liable for serious injuries and the tragic loss of life during withdrawal.
Who Is to Blame for a Fatal Withdrawal Reaction at a Detox Center?
Vigilant supervision is not an add-on option at any California Detox Center. Detox clinics are supposed to provide constant monitoring and care to see that every patient is protected from the temptation of drugs.
Facilities should keep patients safe from harm while they are physically and mentally weakened.
When a patient is lost in a detox center death, it points to the negligence of staff members.
These and other lapses would all leave a facility fully liable for a tragic detox death:
- Negligent security that allows drugs into a detox center
- Negligent staff who don’t monitor patients closely enough during withdrawal
- A failure to monitor a detox patient’s heart rate during recovery
- A failure in administering medication
- A failure to put a patient in a recovery pose while a risk for vomiting and asphyxiation
- A failure to administer rescue breathing on a detox patient in cardiac arrest
See: Why patients can be at higher risk of an overdose death while in detox.
Support for Families After a Detox Facility Death
Showing these conditions and other mistakes can be critical to a family’s attempt to seek justice. Close relatives are allowed to file wrongful death claims, but will need strong evidence to show a California drug detox center’s negligence.
Strong evidence builds a strong case that corporate lawyers and insurers for those at fault can’t dismiss. It also allows families to seek support to cover everything they’ve been through and the financial difficulties they’ll see in the years ahead.
A skilled California wrongful death attorney would demand these and other benefits for families:
- Complete payment for a funeral and burial
- Replacement of the income the deceased may have supported the family with and would have continued to support the family with
- Support for the love and guidance a loved one had provided
- Support for the grief families must continue to cope with
- Support for parents who lose a teen while they are checked into an adolescent detox center
SEE: Who Can File A Wrongful Death Lawsuit in California?
Contact Us if your Loved One Was Allowed to Die During Detox
Families who can prove a detox center’s negligence in a loved one’s overdose death can demand full support. Attorney Martin Gasparian can help with that and make sure families receive the maximum support possible
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 a drug treatment center must provide.