Urgent medical advice, please: Are they letting her die because she’s old?
I could ask hundreds of questions about treatment (and sometimes non-treatment) that this person is receiving at repeated hospital stays and could explain at length the many changes I see when a particular medication is working, and others are not. But what amazes me_and this has happened in two different states in the US, is that doctors just expect her to die, and since she’s not dying yet they just keep on telling me she’s on end stage of COPD and CHF. They extubate her apparently much too soon, very quickly remove meds that help her be much more stabilized and even though she very much wants to live, while at home and feeling lack of oxygen and/or other symptoms asks to be taken to hospital, while there is interested in all treatments, etc., with very caring family members present and asking all pertinent quesitons to medical staff, still doctors told me this days ago upon her last hospital discharge: "You know she’s on end stage, next time they she comes into hospital they might not intubate her". I then ask, "Why have different doctors been telling mostly the same for past 3 1/2 years? What am I suppose to do, not bring her?
Their answer "There’s hospice that can come to the house?" I ask if hospice would be intubating her or able to provide tracheastomy. "No" is the answer. And I repeat that at home she does have (as they all know) all the care from four members of family 24 hrs a day. That I take her to hospital for her health problems.
Not to make a newspaper out of this_and leaving out the disheartening opinions from so many doctors, nurses, and even respiratory therapists_I will say that it has been a constant agony for this family to make sure this person lives, mainly due to misdiagnosis at first, then simply negligence in appropriate care from other doctors, and mostly the unwillingness to simply understand it is NOT ONLY the family who wants her to live, but she herself. They know this because her mind is perfectly well for her age and illnessess, and they can see how she wants to be if not cured, made well enough to go back home.
To make matters worse and add salt to the injury, upon her release days ago, when they removed apparently what they call a line from part between thigh and abdomen there was considerable bleeding accroding to family and herself. Nurse didn’t really telll me whole story as I phoned in to find out why she was still there, even when ambulance had gone over to pick her up.
PLEASE, let me know if you know what’s going on here? I appreciate any help. She suffers from COPD, CHF, attrial fibrillation, high blood pressure, and appears to have something wrong with adrenal glands.
Thank you for two answers so far. JESSICA, I am the primary person listed with ALL her doctors and hospital personnel. I had just spent couple of hours at that hospital, speaking precisely with THAT NURSE before I left for home to get everything ready for her return!!!!!
Tagged with: agony • appropriate care • caring family • copd • doctors • family members • health problems • hospice • hospital discharge • lack of oxygen • medical staff • medication • meds • negligence • nurses • respiratory therapists
Filed under: blood pressure treatment
I don’t think they are letting her die because she is old. They aren’t letting her die at all…it is her diagnoses of end stage COPD and CHF that they are trying to manage realistically. Her age is a factor but it sounds like they don’t want to cause her any more suffering. I am a nurse and I work in a long term care facility and just about all of my patients have end stage COPD and CHF. While maintained on certain medications, you also have the think about the quality of life she will have. Not to be callous, but would she want to spend her last days with her loved ones with tubes down her throat…not being able to speak or would she rather be comfortable surrounded by familiar faces and love. Hospice is for people who have less than a year to live…they ensure that the person will have the quality of life they want while they are with us. Sure, they provide medications for pain but also do everything in there power to keep the person comfortable and allow them the dignity to make choices about what happens to them in the end stages of their disease process.
And as for the nurse not giving you much info on the phone about the bleeding….if your not listed as one of the contacts or as a person who can recieve medical info they aren’t going to tell you anything because of HIPPA laws. Legally they can’t.
Sounds all too familiar. My Mother suffers from exactly the same things and has had great difficulty obtaining good care. But my Mother makes it worse by not taking her medications as directed.
The doctors sound like they have reached the end of their abilities to help your relative and can do nothing else to solve the problems. Maybe she would do better to receive alternative medicine in treating COPD and CHF. Of course most health insurance policies will not pay for alternative medicine, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.
Hospice services is only for those people who are beyond medical care and are on their death bed. Meaning they will die very, very soon. Hospice services just provide pain killers to make the patient more comfortable as they are dying and offer assistance and advice to the family members.