A scary drug overdose at a California rehab center can absolutely be the fault of the facility. The facility may have made several errors that allowed a patient to overdose after a promise to watch over them 24/7.
Staff members may have allowed patients to gain access to drugs. They may have failed to check in on patients frequently enough to catch an overdose in time. A rehab facility may have taken incomplete action to stop an overdose.
These mistakes and others can leave a drug rehab clinic fully liable for an overdose accident. Victims can seek support to recover and begin a new treatment program. Families who tragically lose a loved one could seek support to pay funeral expenses, leftover medical expenses, and support for the emotional toll.
Treatment Centers Responsible for the Loss of a Patient
Drug rehab centers often make many promises to families when discussing admission for a loved one. But those promises don’t always hold once family members write a check.
By the very nature of the illness, recovery patients will need constant monitoring to have a chance for improvement. It’s especially critical in the detox phase, which can last up to 7 days. But that guaranteed monitoring might not happen and result in nurses catching an overdose too late. It can be a fatal and tragic mistake.
California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) actually requires certain levels of monitoring from licensed facilities. These requirements follow guidelines from the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).
And Negligent Surveillance may not be the only reason victims manage to overdose and lose their lives.
These are just a few of the ways a rehab facility can fail a patient and face liability for a tragedy:
- Failure to search patients checking in properly for contraband
- Failure to search a patient’s room frequently
- Negligent security that allows someone to bring drugs into a facility
- Failure to check on patients at promised intervals
- Failure to catch the signs of overdose
- A delay in calling 911
- Mistakes made in medical treatment for an overdose, including improper administering of Narcan in fentanyl overdose cases
- Improperly trained or certified staff
- Improper background checks for staff
- Failure to follow the facility’s own written policies and procedures
These mistakes and others would leave rehab facilities open to personal injury claims.
However, evidence will be key in any civil claim or lawsuit. Facilities can make gathering evidence difficult for victims and their loved ones. An experienced lawyer can help. A skilled lawyer can gain access to internal documents and emails to help hold a rehab facility fully accountable.
How to Check a California Rehab’s DHCS Licensing & Complaint History
Support for Victims and Families After an Overdose
Victims in rehab clinics may end up in even worse shape than they arrived in after an overdose. They will likely suffer a setback in their road to recovery. They can also have lasting health effects from a dangerous drug reaction.
A California rehab facility found negligent could be responsible for many hardships caused to patients.
An experienced attorney would demand these and other benefits for victims through an injury claim:
- Money to cover all current and future medical expenses
- Support for the victim’s pain experience and further emotional trauma caused
- Support for the reduced quality of life for seriously injured patients
- Money to cover all lost income or a loss of earning potential due to an overdose injury
- Reimbursement for the costs families have already paid for a program
Support Earned for Families After a Fatal Overdose Death
A tragic death due to overdose at a drug rehab center can leave the facility liable for wrongful death damages.
Families could earn support to help them through the coming years. A wrongful death claim would seek support for close family members like a spouse, registered domestic partner, or children of the victim.
A skilled California wrongful death attorney would demand these and other benefits for families who were coping with the loss of a loved one.
- Support for burial costs
- Replacement of the income the deceased may have supported the family with
- Support for the love and care a loved one had provided
- Support for the grief families must continue to cope with
- Support for the special moments with a loved one that have been lost, such as holiday gatherings, weddings, and the birth of children
- Punitive damages
Punitive damages are special penalties a judge assesses. They are levied against a rehab facility that acts with such disregard for patients that it’s almost an intentional level of negligence and malice.
The penalties aren’t assigned for the benefit of family members. However, families do receive the additional money paid through fines.
The fines are meant to punish businesses for their carelessness and encourage them and other clinics not to allow such an abandonment of duties toward patients.
See: Who Can File A Wrongful Death Lawsuit in California
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.