Respectfully snipped for focus.
Hi Mollyandme. I have a long-winded comment about your post involving Maxs medical records.
It is not necessary for either side in this WDS to go to the FBI/ DOJ/ etc to obtain Max's medical records.
As Ive posted in the past, Dina (and Jonah) as Maxs parents have *full access* to copies of Maxs medical records at any time they wish to ask for them. Each can askthere is not even any need for both to consentthey each had joint custody at the time of death. They have had this right to access since Maxs death in 2011but they have to formally request records. Typically, the electronic medical record is not released to patients/ parents/ guardians in electronic format (like on a flash drive), but is released as a certified hard copy printed on paper. Copies include all labs requests and reports, imaging reports (but not the images unless requested separately, which will be released on a CR-ROM or DVD), all admin documents such as insurance records, cover sheet info, discharge summaries, consults, doc notes, nursing notes and charts, etc. Hospitals will sometimes give one copy for free to a parent/ patient, or guardian (or will send records to another provider if youre seeking a consult at another facility), but in recent years, they charge 5-10 cents a page, or a flat fee for just a hard copy. It takes about 5 days to a week at bigger institutions, but sometimes you can actually physically go to the medical records office, and wait while they make the copies.
There is a great deal of information in Maxs medical records that is pertinent. Certainly Maxs entire records, including the EMS paramedic report (which Dina clearly DID make the effort to obtain, because she has posted it for public view on one of her websites), would have been very helpful in Dinas WDS she filed against Jonah. That lawsuit was recently dismissed with prejudice against Dina.
It would be hard, IMO, to make a case that Maxs entire medical record would be relevant and admissible in the Zahau WDS. However, it would be easy to make the case that *portions* of the record that may provide Dina with an alibi, OR demonstrate that there is no documentation that validates her presence there the night of Rebeccas death, should be admissible.
The actual nurses who cared for Max may no longer work for Rady, may have moved to Timbuktu, may have retired, etc. It is not necessary for them to be subpoenaed and deposed, or even for them to validate what is already in the official medical record documentation. This is not a murder case; it is a civil lawsuit. In fact, the documentation in the record, after such a long interval of nearly 5 years (nearly 6 years by the time of trial), would be considered *more* reliable, than asking a nurse if he or she remembers with absolute certainty that this parent was present on THIS specific night in question, for the ENTIRE night without leaving the room/ bedside. Often there is a place in a pediatric chart to record the presence or absence of a parent, or this can be mentioned in narrative notes, such as mother ABS (mother at the bedside). Nurses are not at the bedside, even in the ICU, continuously, and one day blurs into another when thinking about whether a given parent was at the bedside at a particular point in time.
Remember, even with a prominent family, these staffers care for hundreds of patients over the years. A given nurse, for example, might be able to testify that he or she remembered the patients mother being at the bedside intermittently, or even for long periods, but would be almost impossible to remember that at precisely 8 pm on a given day the mother came, sat by the bed, and never left for the next 9-10 hours. Thats when a nurse would rely on the notes they documented. And if they tried to state they absolutely remembered a parent being in the ICU at the bedside continuously, any good attorney would be able to ask enough simple follow up questions to make a case that the nurse may not have a precisely accurate memory of who was in and out of the patients room 5-6 years ago, unless it was documented in the record at the time.
So, the bigger question about Maxs records, as Ive been posting for 3-4 years now, is WHICH SIDE is going to request his recordsplaintiff, or defendant? Dina can get the records on her own without any kind of subpoena, BUTshe doesnt have to volunteer anything that is, or is not in the records that is not favorable to her and her case. If the Zahaus subpoena portions of Maxs records to look at what was documented about Dinas presence or absence that night, they must share that in discovery EVEN if it clears Dina and provides an alibi. My long winded point is that Dina can get the records and submit them as an alibi any time she wants. The Zahaus would have to go thru the subpoena process.
Dina clearly has some of Maxs records, the EMS run report in particular. She would be absolutely crazy to have not requested Maxs full record up till now, since she filed a WDS against Jonah. So, IMO, those records have already been gone thru with a fine toothed comb for ANYthing favorable to Dinas case/ alibi, and Im guessing there is nothing documented that puts her there, or not there during the hours in question.
There is really no need to track down individual nurses with deposition subpoenas, because if they didnt want to be deposed in a civil case, their attorneys (via their insurance company) would just file motions that the documentation is their statement, and its very likely the courts would approve. This is not a criminal case, and the courts wont just jerk around tangential 3rd parties just because one side or the other wants to depose them, when there is an available record, and the nurses are not being sued for negligence. The insurance company (attorneys) for the nurses has absolutely NO vested interest in this case.
The nurses record is the record, and will stand on its own, UNLESS "someone" can persuade these nurses to volunteer to testify or be deposed, and pay all their costs, time off work, travel costs, etc.
IMO, that's not gonna happen.
