Saving Daddy

Julie's father has Lewy Body dementia, a newly discovered special kind of dementia.
According to the Mayo Clinic web site above, "Lewy body dementia shares characteristics with both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease."  But it also has a lot of differences.
He understands everything.  His words are almost always jumbled, so you can't understand him, but he knows what's going on.

Daddy was in a care center. He had a bad day on Friday. So they called Hospice. That person recommended morphine, a drug that causes a really bad reaction in Lewy Body patients, like Daddy. Two hours later they gave him another shot of it, only doubled the dose.  He went into a comatose state.

Julie and I stayed with him all night.
After 24 hours of being comatose, not getting any water, not getting his medicine, Julie decided to call the hospital EMT medics and get him to the hospital.  The medics put the sirens on, said he only had two hours to live unless they took action, got him to the hospital, saved him, and brought him out of the comatose state.  Daddy became alert again, smiled, recognized Julie, and was recovering. 

Julie went home to bed after a 48 hour ordeal. Then the doctor went off duty.  Then other hospital staff, ignoring his written chart, gave him another shot of the drug that caused him to become comatose. I repeat the question, how does this happen?

Comments

[Mary Dereshiwsky]

I'm stunned and angry that such a mistake could happen again! Where are the checks and balances in the hospital system? Where is accountability? Am holding Julie and her dad in my healing thoughts!