Julie says, "It's been one error after another. Is this incompetence or don't they care?"
More errors.
* Two days ago a nurse from the hospital told Julie Daddy's vital statistics signs had declined rapidly. That confused Julie, it did not make sense. When they looked at the patient chart, it was ANOTHER PATIENT'S chart the nurse was citing!
* Today they disconnected Daddy's intravenous fluids, contrary to Julie's orders and wishes. When Julie asked to have the fluids restored, she looked at the patient chart. Once again, the nurse was looking at ANOTHER PATIENT'S chart!
Is this incompetence? Is the written chart outdated? Or is this just the hospital staff wanting Daddy to die and go away?
The doctor who treated (or mistreated) my mother when she had skin cancer on her head just didn't seem to care about her. I think some doctors feel that elderly people are just throw aways. She was so undertreated that the cancer ate through her skull and she was leaking spinal fluid from her brain. This in spite of the fact that we kept going back and he kept saying she just needed to heal and that she was doing fine.
The hospital where she died was wonderful except even though she had a DNR on file, they made us make the decision to take her off life support. That was a very painful decision that she had already made so we wouldn't have to.
Posted by: Terry Newman | March 06, 2008 at 11:35 AM