Infamous nursing house operator Bob Dean has “important dementia and cognitive impairment” and shouldn’t be pressured to sit down for depositions within the numerous lawsuits focusing on him, in line with letters just lately penned by two Georgia medical doctors.
The letters from a neurologist and hematologist have been filed final month beneath seal in federal court docket, the place Dean faces a slew of lawsuits over his choice to evacuate seven nursing properties for Hurricane Ida and warehouse their 843 residents in squalid circumstances in Tangipahoa Parish.
Dozens of frail individuals who have been evacuated to the warehouse later died, and lots of others have been hospitalized. State officers think about no less than 5 of these deaths to be storm-related.
Dean’s legal professionals submitted the medical doctors’ letters whereas in search of a protecting order to maintain him from sitting for a deposition. They claimed dementia has sapped Dean’s reminiscence and robbed him of his capability to speak. He “not solely unfit to journey, however as a result of his present well being situation, is unable to testify,” they wrote.
Together with defending in opposition to the lawsuits, Dean is preventing the state to revive licenses and Medicaid supplier agreements that the state revoked in early September for his seven nursing properties. Louisiana well being officers stated Dean left his residents in inhumane circumstances and refused to ask for assist — or to permit inspections — as soon as circumstances went south contained in the warehouse.
Dean stays beneath felony investigation by the Louisiana Legal professional Normal’s Workplace. He’s additionally beneath investigation over unrelated animal cruelty complaints involving his Oregon ranch after lots of his cattle died in a latest snowfall.
Because the disaster unfolded throughout Hurricane Ida, Dean fired off a barrage of texts to LDH officers, lots of them laced with profanity and offended threats as they shut down his warehouse.
In these texts, Dean invoked highly effective figures who he stated would help him, together with Gov. John Bel Edwards, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, U.S. President Joe Biden and “a federal marshal” he described as “ pal of mine.”
These cursory communications — a few of which recommend a unfastened grip on actuality — provided clues to Dean’s mindset because the state of affairs devolved.
In an interview final September with The Advocate | The Instances-Picayune, Dean alternated between professing concern for his nursing house sufferers and disregarding worries concerning the ensuing deaths, hospitalizations and grim particulars of nursing house residents languishing in inhumane circumstances.
“I often lose two or three folks a day, that go on,” he stated. “So, 4 of the 5 that’s handed have been hospice sufferers, which, — these are folks which are on their means out.”
The medical doctors’ letters mark the primary suggestion of a medical situation behind Dean’s ramblings and habits, though attorneys for a few of Dean’s former sufferers solid suspicion on the claims.
In a Jan. 6 letter, the neurologist, Dr. Peter Lee, wrote that he’d been treating Dean, 68, since Sept. 28, 4 weeks after Hurricane Ida.
Lee wrote that he’s treating Dean for “important cognitive and reminiscence impairment” since Dean underwent oral surgical procedure final summer time. Dean’s dementia and cognitive issues “trigger him to develop into simply confused, poor reminiscence and recollection points, concern and nervousness,” Lee wrote.
Lee expressed considerations that touring and sitting for a combative deposition “may exacerbate his medical and psychiatric circumstances.”
Dr. Gerald Goldklang, a hematologist in Fayetteville, Ga., wrote in a Jan. 7 letter that he was following Dean “for a situation the place his pink blood cell rely is exceedingly excessive. Because of this he has brief and long run reminiscence points and is unable to give attention to duties or reply appropriately to questioning.” Goldklang didn’t identify the situation within the letter. He didn’t return a message on Wednesday in search of remark.
In his opinion, Goldklang wrote, Dean “isn’t able to sitting for testimony.”
Lance Unglesby, an lawyer who represents Darlene Franklin, a former hospice care resident of Park Place in Gretna, in a unique case, solid doubt on the Dean’s declare. Franklin’s lawsuit claims she drifted out and in of consciousness whereas being evacuated and was “pressured to helplessly sit in her wheelchair for 2 days with out being moved or modified” on the warehouse.
Dean “is preventing to reopen his quite a few nursing properties, but he refuses to even sit for a deposition,” Unglesby stated. “No man is above the legislation, and Dean’s authorized gamesmanship shouldn’t be tolerated.”
H. Minor Pipes, a New Orleans lawyer representing Dean, stated that he “sadly can’t remark” on the problem.
Dean’s try to skirt a deposition got here in a consolidated case involving quite a few plaintiffs earlier than U.S. District Choose Lance Africk. It was rendered moot when attorneys for the plaintiffs withdrew their request to depose him at the moment, court docket information present.
Matthew Hemmer, an lawyer with the Morris Bart agency who represents different plaintiffs suing Dean, described the authorized maneuvers as a sideshow.
“None of those motions change my opinion that he’ll be held accountable and he’ll need to pay,” Hemmer stated.
Hemmer stated plaintiffs’ legal professionals are in search of telephone information from Dean to point out if he’s touring greater than his medical doctors declare he can.
The seven nursing properties that evacuated to the warehouse have been: Maison DeVille Nursing House in Terrebonne Parish; South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab in Lafourche Parish; Maison Orleans Healthcare Heart and River Palms Nursing and Rehab in Orleans Parish; and Park Place Healthcare Nursing House, West Jefferson Well being Care Heart and Maison DeVille Nursing House of Harvey in Jefferson Parish.
Round two dozen lawsuits have been filed in opposition to Dean because the Hurricane Ida incident. Whereas the overwhelming majority of the circumstances have been filed in state courts throughout Louisiana, Dean’s attorneys have sought to argue that all the circumstances must be mixed into one in federal court docket, saying he and his spouse turned everlasting residents of Georgia final summer time.
U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Janis van Meerveld wrote in a Jan. 11 order that she would permit Dean’s attorneys to file details about his well being beneath seal, writing that “the curiosity in sustaining the confidentiality of Defendant, Bob Dean, Jr.’s, delicate and confidential well being and medical remedy info far outweighs the general public’s proper to entry to the identical.”