Transcript of Episode 57, with André Gauthier

Scott Glovsky:

Welcome to Trial Lawyer Talk. I’m Scott Glovsky and I’m your host for this podcast where we have great lawyers telling great stories of cases that had a profound impact on them. Today, I’m very happy that we have André Gauthier from Louisiana. André is a real stud, an excellent trial lawyer, an excellent human being, and he’s got a heart as big as the state of Louisiana. He’s always interested in learning and growing and getting better despite the fact that he’s already absolutely phenomenal. So let’s get started.

I’m very happy to be sitting with a great trial lawyer and a great man and a good friend, André Gauthier from Gonzales, Louisiana. André, thanks so much for being with us.

André Gauthier:

Well, thanks for having me and saying such nice, kind words about me. I really appreciate that.

Scott Glovsky:

Can you share with us a story of a case that had a profound impact on you?

André Gauthier:

Yeah, I would think that a case that had a profound impact on me, and I know you will probably be asking me in this conversation why, but I’d represented a kid with my law partner, Jody Amedee. His name was Tony. Tony was in a facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Tony was 39 years old in chronological years, but he had the mental aptitude of a four-year-old. The facility killed Tony.

Scott Glovsky:

Share with us how.

André Gauthier:

What they did was they took Tony and they had sent Tony home for the weekend and Tony was the love of his mother’s life. He had many brothers and sisters and I remember when I went into their home, all of the brothers and sisters were … this little modest home, all of their pictures were on the wall. And up at the top, the biggest one up at the top was Tony. And Tony when he was four years old, he suffered encephalitis and it damaged his brain. He stayed at four years old and they put him in this facility.

And so he had went home. He was going home for the weekend and he was like a toddler. He was excited to be going home and he got home and his mother said, “Well Tony, you don’t look well.” He goes, “Mama, I don’t feel good.” So Mama says, “I think we better take you back to the facility.”

And she brought him back to the facility and when she returned there, she said, “I cannot believe that you let me take him home like this.” They said, “Well, what are you talking about ma’am? He was fine when he left here.” She said, “Well, he’s sick and he needs to be taken care of.” They told mom that they would get Tony some attention, medical attention.

The next thing that happened was mom was lying in bed one night and she got a phone call and they said, “You need to come to the emergency room, immediately.” And when mom got to the emergency room, Tony was laying in a bed and he was not conscious. They had all kinds of tubes and things stuck into him and they were helping him breathe and she said, “What’s the matter?” And they said, “He’s drowning.” She said, “What do you mean he’s drowning?”

His lungs had over four liters of fluid. Over 14 days he gained 41 pounds. His lungs were so full of fluid that Tony’s heart was jammed up against the left side of his rib cage. You could see it on the x-rays.

When we asked, “How did he get this way?” They said, “He was fine up until about 15 minutes before we took him to the hospital.” And I knew that couldn’t be true. And then it just got worse.

Doctored medical records. Fabricated medical records. Backdated documents. Lies upon lies. As we investigated that incident, I could see in the medical records over the years where he had been burnt with cigarettes. They wouldn’t put his protective helmet on, had 9 stitches here, 7 stitches here, 15 stitches here. Just stitch after stitch in his head. I’m like, “Why wouldn’t you make him wear the helmet like the doctor said? They say, “Well we made him wear his helmet.”

Just lie after lie. And to do this to someone who is so vulnerable, so innocent, so beautiful in the eyes of so many people, and to treat him like that, it’s left some type of scar on me.

Scott Glovsky:

Where are you in this case? Because I can hear the pain of André.

André Gauthier:

Well it brings back a feeling that I get often. It’s a vibration inside of me. It’s a sickness that’s coupled with an anxiety. It’s a sick feeling in the stomach. An anxiety, a chaos in the chest. And I know that when I feel that it’s something that I accept and it’s just fuel and drives me very, very hard.

Scott Glovsky:

Where does that come from in your past?

André Gauthier:

I think it comes from when, although I was a big kid, I never could mature enough to sort of control my body, so to speak. In other words, I was just a big clumsy kid. My body was always too big for me when I was a kid and I was never a real good athlete. I had people call me clumsy and things like that. I would say that, that just resonates with me with the way that he was treated. Maybe he was treated less than because of his inabilities.

Scott Glovsky:

So if your feelings could talk right now, what would they say?

André Gauthier:

If my feelings could talk right now, I would say most predominantly just sadness, a loneliness, an emptiness, a helplessness, maybe.

I think about him in this moment, and they were trying to substantiate how extraordinary the care was. And I get this orderly and the orderly tells me that when they noticed 15 or so minutes before they brought him to the hospital, which he was perfectly fine before then. I asked him, I said, “Sir, what did you do about it? He says, “Well, Tony was lying in the bed and I got up in his bed with him and laid with him and consoled him.” And to me, this orderly was probably a 38 year old male. And just considering the things that I was seeing in the medical records about the way this facility was run, I’m like, “What in the hell is an orderly doing spooning dying Tony in his bed?” And it just made me sick. That image. Absolutely disgusting.

Scott Glovsky:

And what did you do with that that feeling?

André Gauthier:

That feeling, it morphs into just an internal vibration. It’s a vibration that is used. I’ve always used it. I’ve always felt it. And it’s just a fuel. It’s just a hard driving. I believe that there are, there are chemical associations with it. I think it is a form of the production of adrenaline in the body. So it’s a chemical and the chemical fuels me and drives me such that in my mind it is just a relentless pursuit of getting down to the bottom of it.

Scott Glovsky:

So you’re in this story and you’ve discovered this horrific pain and these lies that you’re facing. What happens next?

André Gauthier:

What do you mean what happens next?

Scott Glovsky:

In your work on the case? It sounds like you’re in depositions and being lied to. Where did it go?

André Gauthier:

Yeah, so what I want to do is I want to relive as much as I can about the case in order to understand it. I want to become Tony. I want to become mom. I want to be the orderly. I want to be the fluid in his lungs. I want to be able to visualize the, I think they called it a mediastinal shift, which happens when they try and remove that much fluid. When you remove the fluid, you either let the person drown or you just punch a hole in the side of their chest cavity and you drain the fluid, but it results in mediastinal, I think is the word that they used. It’s been years, but it’s a shift and that shift will kill you.

When they punched the hole in Tony, the fluid hit the ceiling. When they punched him in the side of his chest cavity, there was so much pressure when they tried to put the tube in, the fluid squirted onto the ceiling of the hospital room. So, I want to be able to visualize that. I want to be able to see it. I want to be the orderly. I want to be the scalpel that cuts into his chest.

We use our psychodramatic techniques to help us get there. And it gives me a better understanding. It allows me to see it, and when I see it, I can begin to try and describe what I’m seeing so that I can use words to help people understand what I saw and experienced.

Scott Glovsky:

And it sounds like he passed away.

André Gauthier:

Yeah, he died the night that he was brought into the hospital. He sure did.

Scott Glovsky:

So how do you deal with the pain that comes from the caring and the connection to Tony and his family?

André Gauthier:

You know, I don’t know if I ever specifically dealt with that pain of what I experienced in that case. I’ve been more consumed with dealing with the pains that I’ve suffered over my personal life and trying to deal with those pains. I’ve found that the pains that I’ve suffered as a child have impacted me far more than the pain that I may see in a case like this. I’m not really sure how to answer that question except to tell you that the effect of the case on me was just to … I’m not quite sure how to answer this. The pain, the pain that I felt was … it was the pain of the way human beings would treat another human being and then lie about it and fabricate to cover it up. And that hurt me but I think that pain came out in anger.

And so I was able to not just go in front of a jury and just begin to vomit anger on them, but I think that during the trial, the jury understood the anger. As time proceeded, they could see the anger. I believe that through that process, that was probably the process of the trial, was probably a cathartic thing for me. To see a jury understand and be able to relate and take care of my people. I think that heals me and brings me some bit of closure.

Scott Glovsky:

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, because that’s inspiring. Seeing your connection to your client and your dedication to learning the story and your caring, is really a role model for all of us. Thank you very, very, very much.

André Gauthier:

Well, thank you so much for having me here today. I’ve never been a part of a podcast. I’ll watch God Friended Me and it involves a podcast and I love the series. So it’s kind of interesting to be here talking into a mic like God Friended Me. But I appreciate you having me today. It’s kind of strange to be here and having someone asked me about my case because there’s a part of me that’s like, “Should I even be talking about my case? Should I do this?”

I mean, is it against what I’m trying to do in my personal life? And that’s not to be braggadocious and that sort of thing. I just appreciate you being interested in me. You’ve always showed an interest to me. One of my first psychodramas with you had a profound impact. It was a profound impact. It brought about an anxiety producing moment where I shut down and I’ll never forget you and I appreciate you for it.

Scott Glovsky:

Well, right back at you. I love you brother. And I also want to share with you and with our listeners what you shared with me a few minutes ago. That you’re devoted to being in service to other people and through this interview you are being in service and helping lawyers around the country become better lawyers and therefore help their clients. So thank you.

André Gauthier:

Yeah, I want to be in service. I know that being in service is being in service, but really it’s a selfish motive. Because I know that one of the ways I can keep myself sober and straight and in between the ditches is if I’m in service for other people. It actually helps keep me grounded. So I appreciate it. I appreciate your interest and I love you so much.

Scott Glovsky:

I love you too.

André Gauthier:

Thank you.

Scott Glovsky:

Thank you. What a what a wonderful afternoon I’ve just spent and we’ve all spent. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us today for Trial Lawyer Talk. If you liked the show, I’d really appreciate if you could give us a good review on iTunes and I’d love to get your feedback. You can reach me at www.scottglovsky.com. That’s S-C-O-T-T, G-L-O-V-S-K-Y.com and I’d love to hear your feedback. You can also check out the book that I published called Fighting Health Insurance Denials: A Primer for Lawyers. That’s on Amazon. I put the book together based on 20 years of suing health insurance companies for denying medical care to people, and it provides a general outline of how to fight health insurance denials. Have a great week and we’ll talk to you in the next episode.