Justice for Lorraine

By Conrad Cohen

Conrad Cohen had just finished a shift as New York City Police officer Nov. 25, 1972, when he walked into a bar and saw herLorraine.

She was on vacation from Richmond, Virginia, where she lived and worked. Less than two years later, the two were married, and for the next thirty-eight years, their love for each other never wavered. They saw the world together, enjoying fifteen glorious cruises.

Even after Lorraine had a colon operation and a stroke, they still made the most out of lifes daily adventures. They were hopeful her health would improve, but she was diagnosed with dementia with psychosis in 2005.

The diagnosis didnt have to be a death sentence, but it would set in motion a series of events that would leave Conrad equating the word doctor with killer. He learned that when a loved one enters a hospital, its the doctors turf, and they do what they want.

Lorraine died December 31, 2009, after she was given medication that the Food and Drug Administration had warned could kill elderly people with dementia. She didnt need to die, but there can still be Justice for Lorraine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abbott Press
• Release date: Mar 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781458214157

Conrad Cohen

Conrad Cohen was born and raised in Coney Island, Brooklyn. He served in the navy during World War II and went on to become a New York City police officer, retiring in 1973. He was a professor of criminal justice for twenty-five years. He now lives in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

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Copyright © 2014 Conrad Cohen.

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ISBN: 978-1-4582-1417-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-1416-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-1415-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014902208

Abbott Press rev. date: 4/9/2014

CONTENTS

Why the Book?

Book Dedication

Foreword

#2 Foreword

To a Very Dear Friend

Background

How We Met and Our Life Since November 25, 1972

Our Life Starts in Century Park, PA then onto Cedar, PA

Hey Houlihan

Cruising

This Time it’s Cruising for Sure

(15 cruises)

How About A Cop Story

Wrestling Ends in Riot at Madison Square Garden, N.Y.C.

Stroke & Dementia

I Had no Knowledge of What Dementia Does

THE COMPLAINT AGAINST THE DOCTOR

First Contact with the Legal Bureau and Subsequent Conversations with Attorney Clark Wayne

Bureau of Profesional and Occupational Affairs Prosecutorial Division, Department of State

Time Line

Decision Not To Sue, To Sue, and Finally Not To Sue

October 31, 2011 letter to commissioner sally falstaff

Belonging

Yeah, By All Means, Let’s Send in the Survey

The survey

Where is Lorraine and the Christmas Trees?

The Long, Long Wait

Why Was My Case against Dr. Camel Closed

The Crime of the 21st Century

Commemorative Activites

People’s Thoughts of Lorraine

Where is the Justice for Lorraine

Counting my Blessings

Lorraine Speaks

Lorraine’s Death

Lorraine’s Legacy

Recollections of Lorraine

Life after Lorraine

Ending

Pages from Lorraine’s Medical Records at Crater Memorial Hospital

WHY THE BOOK?

December 31, 2012 was three years since the death of my wife from Aspiration Pneumonia at Little Forks Hospital. This was the result of 52.5 mg of the drug Zyprexa in five days from October 7 through October 11, 2009. Fifteen of the 52.5 mg given to her on October 11, 2009; 5 mg in the afternoon and overdosing her with 10 mg more in the evening. It was given to her by Dr. Dave Camel, our family doctor and helped by Marjorie Nelson PAC (Physician Assistant Certified) of Psychiatry at Crater Memorial Hospital. They also put a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order on her chart without consulting me. What did we (you and me) get out of this very important book?

I remember one night coming home from The Nursing Home of the Angel where I had to place my wife after Dr. Camel and Nelson, PAC finished with her. I stopped to see a good friend of mine, Dave, and he was eating shrimp and lobster sauce he had gotten from a Chinese take-out place nearby. I said I used to love that a long time ago. I’ll get some when I leave and take it home and I did. At home I ate some and then prepared to go to bed. Then suddenly my face was itching and I looked in the mirror and my face was blotchy.

I called the pharmacist. After I told him what I ate, he told me I must be allergic to seafood and to come down right away. I got dressed and went down to see him. He said I better go to the Emergency Room at Crater Memorial Hospital. They took me as soon as they saw me and were preparing to give me an IV of Prednisone and were ready to put an ID tag on my wrist and I started to yell, You’re not going to admit me, my wife was killed by a doctor at this hospital and I’m not staying!. They called in a woman doctor and she said Your throat will close and you will die. I said, Promise me you won’t admit me. She said, I promise you as a doctor, I won’t admit you. I said, Promise me as a woman because I don’t trust doctors. They kill here and I don’t want to be killed like my wife. She promised as a woman and I let them give me the IV and put the ID on my wrist. I was remembering they put DNR on my wife’s wrist without discussing it first with me for permission.

I was never so scared in my life and to this day, I don’t trust or look up to doctors as I once did. One killed my wife and to me, the word doctor is just a synonym for horror.

The reason becomes clear why I wrote this book. I had to. I had to get my wife’s story out. People have to know what could and does happen to their loved ones when they enter a hospital where it’s the doctor’s turf and he does what he wants.

I carry the horror of what they did to her in my mind. I know about every second what happened in that hospital because I found my answers in her medical records. After she was overdosed, everything became very clear to me what happened to my helpless wife, all done behind my back. If someone made a TV movie about it, only I could play me.

I want people to be safe in the hospitals and that’s only possible when there is trust in those people with whom we leave our loved ones, like the doctors, nurses and other medical staff responsible for the safety of the patients. It is a serious national problem and those in the medical field have to be held accountable for any wrong doing on their part on helpless people. Yes, I certainly am thinking of a non-caring doctor.

Patients have rights. Families should open their mouths when there is something wrong happening to their loved ones. Take action. This is a wake-up call to those who bury their heads in the sand when something happens. Things have to change and people have to change. We have to take control of our lives as far as the medical profession is concerned. I wish there were hearings on the subject and I would go to the head of the line to testify about doctors and those who protect them. I’ve had firsthand experience for over three years and I have plenty to tell. Justice is one word neither the medical community nor those who regulate the medical community cares about. I DO! My wife was taken from me without cause by a doctor and his cohort, a PAC from Psychiatry. I’ll never stop trying to get Justice for Lorraine and I’ll love her and cherish her with my broken heart until the day I die.

BOOK DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my darling wife Lorraine who was and still is more precious to me than all the gold in the entire world. She was the epitome of what men look for in a woman: beauty, intelligence, sense of humor, loving, caring, loyal, great dancer, to name a few of the fantastic qualities she had. We were crazy in love with each other for 38 years from the first time we looked at each other till the day she died. I’ve cried for her every day since.

I was holding her hand when the nurse came into the hospital room to take her vitals and I saw a little ooze from her eye near her nose and tried to get it out. She yelled OH MY EYE. I kissed her and said I was sorry hon. That was the last words she spoke on earth. She had spoken a few words only