The Photo's Memory Continues

The gentleman that I wrote about a long time ago, the Blog entry about a family photo (The Photo’s Memory) has had a very trying time in the past two months. I cannot get into the details but his health took a bad turn and he had spent some time in the hospital. Here is that little boy, now a man facing issues that he has almost no control over, and sometimes no voice. There were issues that we had to struggle with that had far reaching tentacles. We had moral issues, long-term health issues, liability issues and good practices issues.
What we ran into head on was the moral issues versus the liability issues. Morals are defined as good or right, when judged by the standards of the average person or society at large and morals are based on what somebody’s conscience suggests is right or wrong rather than on what the law says should be done. Liability is defined as anything for which somebody is responsible, especially a debt and legal responsibility for something, especially costs or damages.
It was a horrible tense struggle to make sure we did right by our gentleman. The decisions had to include what would be best for him and not just a financial or easy solution. But those things had to figure into the decision, as they are part of the reality that we live in.
After all the debates our gentleman came home. He is recovering at an amazing pace and he is well on his way to becoming healthy once more. As a life lesson, it is a crappy way to learn for both our gentleman and the staff that work with him. Some of the issues still have to be explored and some kind of guidelines or help will have to exist in order for this not to play out the way that it did. There will be a next time and because of this experience we will be better prepared to do right by the people we serve.