Murder, She Writes

Read this comment by a reader of My Elder Advocate Blog. Hospitals are complicit in the murder and destruction of our elderly nursing home patient's. WHEN WILL THIS HOLOCAUST END!

A new comment from “Carmen ” was received on the post “A Typical Monday Afternoon at Sheepshead Nursing Home” of the weblog “My Elder Advocate”.

Comment:
It is sad to say that the Nursing Homes are not the only ones abandoning the elderly. My husband was sent to the hospital from the Nursing Home for needed surgery. I had to push them to send him to the hospital but that is another story. While doing the pre-op tests they discovered all kinds of things wrong with him from being malnourished to dehydration and bacterias and more but no one thought to inform me. I had been battling the NH about his daily care and it was like pulling teeth to get information out of them..The "care" was negligible. After his death I was able to get the hospital records and saw all these red flags..I questioned the assistant director about them not calling in social services and his response was that many if not all the patients they get from nursing homes are in poor condition..sort of ..par for the course. It did not occur to the hospital that maybe the condition these patients are in is not due to old age and illness but due to the conditions they are being forced to endure. No one at the hospital questions the state of these patients..It is assumed that they are the way they are due to illness or old age. Patients are being pushed to die sooner by not giving them adequate nutrition and fluids and the hospitals are complicit in their silence. There is no excuse for the hospital not informing the spouse of their findings and then the spouse can make an informed decision about their care...Not wanting to rock the boat, the hospitals are helping the elimination of these patients by their silence. I call these cases Mini-Schiavos..The patient is slowly being starved and dehydrated and the spouse comes in and sees the PEG tube solution and assumes everything is alright..Little did I know that the solution was not adequate for him. I was just being given the illusion that he was being given nutrition...but it was just that, an illusion. Magdalena

Comments

[Rod Newbound, RN]

You are right to be concerned, but regardless of the state, there is a state hot-line number posted prominently in every nursing home. You can call it if you suspect abuse or neglect. The state will send out an investigator to review the entire situation. There may also be a number for the state ombudsman, a volunteer organization that will take a look at your allegations.

As a nurse with 14 years experience working in various aspects of long term care, I can tell you it's fairly common for elderly people to lose their sense of thirst and appetite. And, it's likely there is a tie-in with situational depression - no one expects to wind up in a nursing home! (But that's another subject altogether.)

While responsible staff do everything they can to improve this situation, it's a tough one to overcome. I can assure you we feel helpless when we try over and over to get someone to eat or drink adequately and they just refuse. Once this cycle reaches a certain point, the patient becomes dehydrated very easily. I wrote an article on this subject for subscribers to my blog. It begins with:

Dehydration Invites Disease!

Dehydration reduces your resistance to fight against diseases.

As a result, the likelihood of developing urinary tract infections (especially in women), pneumonia, and other opportunistic diseases substantially increases.

Studies on dehydration and mental performance show that mental performance and coordination are already decreasing at just 1% dehydration, and are consistently and significantly decreased at 2%.

When a disease like a urinary tract infection is added to this mix, the symptoms are almost always a decrease in coordination. This results into increased confusion and often times a fall - leading to fractures (especially of pelvis or hips).

What You Can Do

By all means, call the state if you feel there is abuse or neglect.

Talk with the nurse manager for the unit. It's their job to solve problems and she/he will appreciate any ideas you have.

Make frequent trips (at varying times) to you see your loved one. Show up at meal times and see what's being served. Sit with your loved one and encourage them to eat and drink.

Brainstorm with the nursing staff on ways they can improve the situation. What special foods or drinks does you loved one like. If they aren't available in the nursing home, can you bring some in? (I know of one lady who was losing weight, so the family took her out to the local Mexican restaurant, where she ate well.)

Thanks,
Rod

[mary poole]

i agree on the care of hospitals and drs.not caring for the elderly money and power is in all today but in the medical field it should not be allowed how can these medical people look at themselves in the mirror they dont even listen to the elderly they just roll their eyes and say oh well i would like to be part of this horrendous happenings in the medical field