How To Pick A Lawyer For Wrongful Death Case?

My father passed away while in care of the hospital for septic shock. The hospital blamed the rehabilitation center for the condition he was in. My father was in and out of no less than 3 different rehabilitation centers after having a surgery, mostly because of the poor conditions and bad employees, terrible management.

His health deteriorated really quickly because of the terrible conditions of these terrible places, but I'm not so sure the rehabilitation center is exactly who to blame. My father lived with a hernia for years, and was forced to have it operated on when it became strangulated. His brother almost died of septic shock after having hernia mesh installed years prior. My dad told us that he never wanted the surgery because he believed it would lead him to his death. He was correct - he had the surgery and spent the last 5 months of his life in the hospital and nursing homes.

I believe the mesh/operating procedure is to blame for the sepsis. He started showing signs pretty quickly after he left the hospital, he almost died a few weeks later. The hospital assured us that there was no sign of septic shock because "the wound was clear of signs of infection" and then started to blame the nursing home they sent him to.

It's a very sad ending to the story, where my dad ended up at a speciality hospital for really bad bed sores where he contracted COVID. He didn't die from COVID - he had his vaccines and boosters, and it attacked him very mildly. He kept telling us that he thought something else was wrong. Once he was free from COVID, they moved him to a general part of the hospital, where he lasted another week. We woke up to a call telling us he was in the ICU because he "aspirated on something on the middle of the night". The doctor told us he choked on some food, but this was impossible as my dad could not get up from the bed by himself (his legs were too weak at this point), and there was absolutely no food within his reach. They told us they didn't know how long he went without oxygen and that he could have suffered brain damage.

At this point, they basically told us to pull the plug. They played to our emotions, knowing that my dad once had signed a DNR before the first septic shock incident. After the first day in the ICU, they told us we should give it 24 hours to see if his condition improved, then called us less than 12 hours later to see if we had made "the choice". Meanwhile, they reminded us that if we took him out of the ICU, the services at the hospice are free... Yup, basically that there is a price to a man's life and we should take that into consideration? It feels like they just saw him as an old man occupying an ICU room that could be used for someone else. They never told us he was dying of toxic shock, it wasn't until they issued his death certificate that we found this out. The last time we saw him alive, it was obvious he had sepsis. His skin had swollen, fluid was leaking through his pores, but it still was never disclosed to any of us.

We got the death certificate, and to our surprise COVID was written as the leading cause of death, followed by septic shock and heart failure - no mention of aspirating/choking.

TLDR - I am looking for advice on how to choose a lawyer for a wrongful death suit against a hospital and maybe a rehabilitation center. I was warned by friend who is nurse that some lawyers work in conjuction with the local hospital systems, and will call the hospital to warn them you may be pursuing a case against them. I've asked people for referrals, but no one seems to have advice because they don't like the lawyers they have worked with in the past.