Gary Dean Lack, a 58-year-old White man, died at his rural home northeast of Nora Springs, Iowa, on January 14, 2004. He had advanced colon cancer that had spread to his liver and was under hospice care, and his obituary reported he died at home. His family, however, disputes that cancer was the immediate cause of death.

The family says his condition worsened after those doses, with vomiting and choking on blood before he died. No conventional forensic autopsy appears to have been done before cremation, and the lack of preserved toxicology or other physical evidence prevented independent confirmation of what drugs were present or the precise mechanism of death.

Regulatory agencies, including the Iowa Board of Nursing, Medicare and the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, reviewed the hospice provider; the nurse’s actions were the focus of those inquiries. No arrest, criminal charge or conviction is recorded in connection with his death. The circumstances remain disputed and unresolved in the family’s view.

Does anyone have information about the hospice care provided to Gary Lack in January 2004 or the regulatory reviews that followed?