Quirindongo had lived overseas for decades as she followed her husband around the world for his job working for IBM. After his death in Florida, her health declined. In Charlotte, where her family moved her to be near her son, she was supposed to receive medicine to reduce fluid buildup in her lungs as well as hydromorphone, an opiate, for pain relief and to treat difficult or labored breathing. But her family’s lawsuit said she did not receive those drugs in the hours before her death. She suffered greatly, panicking and attracting attention from other residents with her moans, as her children sat by helplessly, calling for help from staff and from an outside hospice nurse in the middle of the night, according to the complaint.
