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HARLEM, Ga ()- A woman is sharing her story after facing legal challenges following her mother’s death last year.
Rachel Waters had administered morphine to her mother, a medication provided by a hospice service, which authorities initially claimed contributed to her mother’s passing. However, six months later, these charges were dismissed. Waters is now channeling her experience into a positive endeavor.
Growing up in Harlem as an only child, Waters shared a deep bond with her mother, Marsha Foster. She expressed to NewsChannel 6 the closeness they enjoyed.
“We had planned a grand road trip because I had finally reached a stage in my life where I could afford to treat my mom, as a way to repay her for all the adventures and indulgences she provided me in my childhood,” Waters recounted with a smile.
Foster was battling Alzheimer’s and bone cancer when her oncologist advised transitioning to home hospice care. The hospice company supplied Waters with an end-of-life care kit to use when necessary for Foster.
End-of-life care kits contain several drugs specific to the patient’s needs, including liquid morphine. We spoke to several Hospice nurses who told us they are commonly prescribed to families and caregivers to administer to their loved one.
“You are instructed on how to use them and when to use them. And also all hospice companies have a 24 hour line. So if you have questions about things, you know, they can send nurses out,” explained longtime friend, Alison Stratton.
Stratton is also a Nurse Practitioner certified in Hospice Care. She helped care for Foster when Waters could not.
Waters, who now lives in New York, moved her mother into an assisted living memory care facility. In July 2023, she got the call that her mom was actively dying and traveled back to Georgia to be with her.
She told us she asked for her mother to be given morphine for pain and breathing problems– a request that was denied. So, she put the end-of-life-care kit to use.
“And that is when I called the hospice company and said, ‘These are her symptoms. What is the dose that we use for these symptoms of the sublingual morphine?’ which is just a little dropper under the tongue. And they gave me the dose,” explained Waters.
38 minutes after Waters gave her mother the morphine, Foster died. Waters said she prepared for months for the day her mom passed and had a list of what needed to be done.
She called the funeral home to pick up her mother’s body, but was told the body was being sent to the GBI crime lab. She said that’s when she suspected she may be in hot water.
According to an incident report from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, the memory care facility where Foster died, Marshall Pines Assisted Living and Memory Care, called the police, claiming Foster’s death was suspicious. One of the staff’s hospice providers (a different one than the one who provided the care kit) claimed she believed Waters overdosed her mother on purpose to hasten her death. Waters unequivocally denies the allegations.
Deputies questioned Waters and took her phone and the care kit into evidence. 18 months later she was indicted for Felony Murder and Malice Murder in the death of her mom.
“The real terror set in because those are both subject to the death penalty, as well as life in prison. So, that was a really terrifying moment. That amplified the grief a thousand-fold,” Waters said.
She drove to Georgia and turned herself in. She was granted bond, after which she went back to New York to await trial. The trial never came.
The medical examiner amended Foster’s cause of death from homicide to undetermined. The charges were dropped. Now Waters is working to turn her tragedy into something positive with Marsha’s Law, named for her late mother.
“I realized very soon after this happened to me, that if it happened to me, it absolutely would happen again to another person.”
Marsha’s Law would require home hospice providers to document what medications are included in the comfort kit, dosing ranges, and who is legally authorized to give the medications to the patient. It would also require hospice to provide signed and witnessed documents saying the kit was received and the caregivers trained on how to use it.
“If you don’t see a clear chain of command of, ‘Hey, this person or this family, this caregiver was given a comfort kit,’ it’s a recipe for disaster. They were instructed by hospice to use it with their loved one,” Waters explained. “And in the event of an investigation, it would be really important for that information to be handed over to law enforcement and to medical examiners to know that this is an expected authorized use at end of life.”
Stratton believes Marsha’s Law will protect all parties involved.
“I think people are who are critiquing Marsha’s Law are thinking that it’s going to be a bunch of extra work for the hospice companies. I think it won’t be. I think it’s just going to hold them to task of educating family members. And it’s going to protect both the hospice company and the family member from crazy situations like this,” she said.
Waters has a GoFundMe set up to help with her expenses while she works to make the law a reality.