Investigation Uncovers Guardianship Concerns in Saint Francis In Tulsa

An Oklahoma Watch investigation is raising concerns over how some hospitals and state agencies handle power of attorney and guardianship, potentially separating families from loved ones without clear justification.

Reporter Jaycee Hallman joined News On 6’s Jonathan Cooper to break down what she uncovered.

Cooper: What is Oklahoma Watch?

Hallman: "So, Oklahoma Watch is an independent news source based in Oklahoma City. Our pieces get picked up by papers all across the state. And it's one of those rare outlets that focuses on deep dive investigative journalism.

Cooper: Give us some background on this story?

Hallman: Yeah. So it started when I got a tip a couple of months ago about a man named Leroy Theodore, who had had a couple of strokes. He was a quadriplegic. He was in his family's care. They were trained to care for him. By Saint Francis Hospital here in Tulsa. And then he needed medical attention. And he was sent to Saint Francis. And at that point, the hospital sort of seized possession of him and sort of resisted the family having access to him. And there wound up being this prolonged standoff in terms of guardianship orders from courts in a couple of different counties.

Mr. Theodore was eventually sent to a nursing home a couple of hours away in Midwest City. That story ended pretty tragically because Mr. Theodore died when he was still in the state guardianship, and his family wasn't notified of his death until a week after he passed, when the Department of Human Services sent a hard letter to their home rather than. And just hand delivering it, which would have been much faster.

Cooper: Through that story, another family reached out to you as well, right? So tell us about that.

Hallman: Yeah, and more since then, you know that the second one. Well, the first story resulted in several different tips and and and this was a man named Ken Donnelly. And was actually chronologically before Leroy Theodore was back in 2021, a family had taken their father to the same hospital, Saint Francis, and they had attempted to take possession of him.

They sent him to the attached psychiatric facility, Laureate. And eventually, you know, we learned from a source inside the hospital that Laureate might be a receptacle for a number of different people who have been had, have been subjected to guardianship, abuse, or guardianship fraud and are being sent to Laureate in order to hide them.

That's what this source from within the hospital, is is saying. In Mr. Donnelly's case. He was only there for a few days, cause the family fought back and the hospital seemed to give up. They kicked him back out to the emergency room, but he then had a stroke. He was sent to a nursing home, that well, it didn't take particularly good care of him. An investigation was none of that nursing home and and then he was finally sent home.

But he died a few months later, and the family was left feeling that once again, Saint Francis had more or less killed their patriarch. Their father.

Cooper: What is guardianship fraud?

Hallman: So what seems to be happening, and this is like a plague across the country. Big, big cases involving hundreds of people have happened in New York, in Virginia, in Nevada, and in Florida. And there are financial incentives for hospitals and for nursing homes. To take legal control of people who have a lot of resources, they mainly target, you know, individuals who don't have a lot of family or who have a lot of resources and and they can, you know, either take control of the family money or they can wind up getting Medicare or Medicaid money, which means that.

Taxpayers are paying for these seizures, and so what seems to be happening is that this is maybe just getting off the ground here in Oklahoma. It's not widely understood and and so I've come across, you know, you know, attorneys who work in elder care law who've never heard of this and so it's it seems possible that this is only now getting to Oklahoma. But there are hints that there are other investigations.

Q: Did Saint Francis or state agencies respond to the investigation?

Hallman: I reached out to them many times and and when I did finally speak with a public information Officer, I explained I wanted to talk about guardianship issues and and I mentioned the individual Leroy Theater that I wanted to talk about. And I wanted to get to someone who could speak with authority on those subjects, rather than just the public information officer, and I asked for them to get back to me with someone who could speak on those things and and they just never responded.

And we made, you know, multiple outreaches for that first story and multiple outreaches for the second story as well. And not only Saint Francis, but also Adult Protective Services and the Department of Human Services. We're just kind of stonewalled. They did not want to.

Oklahoma Watch Stories:

Eldercare Nightmare: A Tragic Family Story Raises the Specter of Widespread Guardianship Fraud

Failed Seizure of a Vulnerable Vet at Oklahoma’s Largest Hospital Hints at Crisis to Come for Aging Population