“Braxton always had a smile and he just, you know, he loved life. He was putting in the time and the dedication… he spent hours at the stairs – ‘Dad, throw some pucks at me, dad’. You know, I think the difference between an athlete and a professional athlete is their heart and their dedication and I think Braxton could’ve been one to take it real far.”
Chuck: “Now let’s go back to the beginning. Braxton needed the surgery for sleep apnea, was Braxton worried?”
Steve Rel: “He always put on a tough face but yeah, he was concerned. He was very worried.”
Chuck: “What did you tell him?”
Steve: “That he was gonna be okay. And it wasn’t true.”
Steve: “We brought Brax home from the hospital and everything seemed fine. You know, he wasn’t complaining much of pain. He was resting and we watched some TV. We sat with him. Watched some cartoons. At about 4 o’clock he said dad, I’m hurting. So I gave him his pain medicine. And everything seemed all right. He fell asleep which seemed normal to me and he woke up at 7:30 and he said dad my chest hurts. You know, I’ll never forget that I sat and just comforted him and I asked him Braxton are you all right? Are you in pain? Do you need something for pain? Do you need something for pain? And he said, no dad I’m fine. That’s the last time I saw him alive. We went months and months without any word from the medical examiner and all we wanted to know was what happened to our son. “
The Rels went for 4 months without answers and then they were forced to seek legal help. The system failed them. 13 months after Braxton’s death all they had was an autopsy report sent in the mail.
Steve Rel: “When I went to get the medical records I was given two or three pages and I was told that they don’t keep anesthesia records and nursing notes. And it just didn’t seem right to me so I talked to some experts and was given some advice on how to get the complete set of medical records. Which I did. You know, it really erodes your trust and it makes you fearful. You think you would have answers right away when something adverse happens to your loved one. It’s been 13 months and we still don’t have all the answers.”
Chuck: “So you don’t have closure?”
Steve Rel: “No closure at all.”
Dennis Quaid: “A lot of times I think the lawyers get involved, the hospital lawyers get involved and the focus seems to be on risk management after an accident occurs. Not to say that they weren’t doing everything they could to right the situation but as a human being I felt that the last thing I want to do is focus on legal issues. And somebody’s liability.”
Steve Rel: “The last thing we wanted was to hire an attorney. Just to get the answers that we should’ve had all along. The NQF Safe Practices states that hospitals and caregivers should reach out to the family within 24 hours of an adverse event. Without any type of communication it makes us feel that Braxton didn’t mean anything to anybody but us. You have to communicate, you know, it’s the most important thing there is.”