The following Sun. morning my mother arrived to find him sitting slumped in a chair with a fever and full of diarrh--. The family of the roommate said they had righted him 3 times and had alerted the staff, but they didn?t do anything. She wanted a doctor called who told the nurse that he should be getting Imodium twice a day and the nurse, looking at his chart stated that it had only been given intermittently. His temperature was 102.5, he was incoherent and weak, his breathing was rapid and pulse ox was low. After insisting, my father was taken by ambulance to the hospital and admitted into ICU with pneumonia, severe dehydration from the diarrh--, and a MRSA staph infection. Our only hope is that something can be learned from this experience. Perhaps another person will be spared. I want to say that many of the individuals involved in his care were very kind & seemed competent. It is possible the staff is simply spread too thin. Nonetheless, there were far too many errors and oversights - poor communication between shifts, events/conditions not recorded, basic safety issues not considered? If this facility were any other kind of business ? an auto repair shop for example ? they would have been run out of business, possibly with lawsuits. Our hearts go out to the patients still in their care and especially those without an advocate for their wellbeing.
more