Drug Rehab patients may overdose in a place where cameras can’t be used, like a bathroom, but that doesn’t mean owners and operators can’t be held liable for a tragic death that results.

After a fatal overdose, families can seek support for funeral costs, leftover medical bills, and the income the loved one can no longer provide to support close loved ones.

To find out about their rights, grieving families should take advantage of a free case consultation. Call us today or fill out a free case review form.

Mistakes that Leave Drug Rehab Facilities Liable for Overdoses

In most health care facilities, cameras are not allowed in bathrooms where patients would have the reasonable expectation of privacy.

But patients who manage to obtain drugs like fentanyl and overdose in a bathroom stall still shouldn’t be blamed for their own injuries or deaths.

Facilities and staff members would have a duty to keep tabs on a patient at risk of an overdose. Proper monitoring of vulnerable patients, especially when in the bathroom, would also erase this danger.

Evidence of negligence in these safety measures and others  could leave drug rehab owners fully liable for a fatal overdose:

• A failure to correctly assess a patient’s risk factor when alone in an unmonitored area.
• A failure to provide a “zero-drugs” environment or an environment where patients are constantly monitored (as often promised to family members)
• A failure to recognize the absence of a patient for a long while
• The failure to respond properly once a patient in overdose is found
  • 911 call and ambulance request isn’t made immediately
  • NARCAN isn’t administered properly
  • Patients’ heart rate isn’t monitored after an overdose (no rescue breathing)
  • Patients aren’t placed in recovery position to make sure they can’t choke to death on their own vomit
• Discrepancies and lying on patient monitoring logs.

See: Other signs that a drug rehab contributed to an overdose death.

Who Is to Blame for an Overdose in a Rehab Bathroom?

These mistakes can point to errors made by staff members, doctors, counselors, and nurses as contributing parties. However, in truth, it’s usually going to be the facility owners who will be held financially responsible.

Parent corporations will have the most money for families left in need to draw from and will also have the largest commercial liability insurance policies.

Employers are liable at any rate, because they will be responsible for seeing that safe and qualified employees are hired. They are liable for seeing that staffers are properly trained.

When these and other safety standards are ignored, the company or corporate owners of drug rehabs are accountable.

Finding Support for Families After a Rehab Overdose

The owners and operators of a drug rehab should be liable for every hardship families face after a tragic death.

Within days, grieving families can be hit with funeral costs and emergency response bills. It comes at a time when a spouse and children may have suddenly lost the financial support a loved one has provided through a weekly paycheck.

A California rehab facility wrongful death lawyer stands up for victimized families and demands full support for these wrongful death damages and more:

• Money to help families pay for a proper funeral and burial.

• Reimbursement for the income a loved one would have supported the family with in the future.
• Support for the love, care, and guidance that’s been lost.
• Support for the major life events that have been altered, such as holiday gatherings, family vacations, and the birth of children.
• Loss of companionship support for parents who lose a child while they are checking in to an adolescent drug rehab center.

Survival Action Damages for Families

A skilled attorney could also file a Survival Action for families that’s related to a wrongful death claim.

They are similar filings, but a survival action is filed for the hardships a patient suffered if they didn’t pass away immediately. It seeks support for the victim as if they hadn’t died.

The proceeds won go to the victim’s estate to pay off any remaining debts and obligations, but the money that remains usually goes to family members.

These awards are based on these and other damages:

• Hospital bills and ambulance fees built up while the victim was still alive
• The paychecks a victim lost while being out of work
• Reimbursement for any property damage

Punitive Damages Against a Grossly Negligent Drug Rehab

In some cases, families can also earn support through punitive damages.

A judge hands down punitive damages to punish an extremely careless rehab facility for dangerously negligent behavior. These fines are assessed to penalize companies further, but any fines paid go to the victimized families.

Punitive damages aren’t a part of most cases, but a skilled attorney could highlight very irresponsible actions by an owner. This might include corporate owners cutting staff to boost their profits. The greedy steps could be the reason a limited staff couldn’t monitor patients as well, allowing an overdose in an unsupervised bathroom.

Contact Us if a California Rehab Facility Allowed Your Loved One to Overdose.

Attorney Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to families who lost a loved one at a California rehab facility.

Call us today or fill out a free case review form. If you need our help, we don’t charge your family anything upfront. We are only paid if we win the case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement that a negligent facility must provide.