Take this as a case study.
Those words from Betty’s text jumped out at me
and I instinctively dialed her cell phone number. Her father is in the nursing
home. Some time ago he broke his ankle in a fall at home and was hospitalized
for surgery. After surgery he moved to this nursing home for care and therapy
with the expectation of returning to his own home.
The surgical incision didn’t heal. We’ll leave the
finger-pointing aside here. The lawyers can do that. Suffice it to say that the picture I saw of the
open incision made me gasp. Once again this 86-year-old man was hospitalized.
This time, because of exacerbating chronic conditions, the surgery was an amputation of
the affected leg below his knee.
Think about it. An older adult, living independently, falls and breaks
his ankle. It results in surgery and subsequent nursing care that raises
serious questions. Subsequently, this man who initially just broke his ankle ends
up losing part of that lower limb.
Those of us who work with older adults, and/or who
read about older adults being hospitalized, and, under
general anesthesia, know the dangers of delirium in such instances. Exacerbating factors are new environments. Carolyn’s dad’s situation fits the bill on all counts.
The family is close-knit and one of Betty’s
brothers asked if he could stay overnight in his dad’s room because of his dad’s
confusion. The nursing home’s response was, as Betty related in her text, “They
are going to let (emphasis mine) my brother stay all
night with my dad for a couple of nights.” Thus my instinctive phone call to Betty with a few words about nursing home regulations, and a few about staff or management using the word“let”.
What do we need to take from this? Consumers (those who use the services of a
health care institution) and their family members MUST know what the minimum
standards of care are in a nursing home so that they can be advocates, either
for themselves or for their family member.
Consumers must be encouraged by advocates to speak
up for the rights of those nursing home residents, to trust and act on their instincts
about whether something is amiss.
Those of us who are not yet in a nursing home
cannot deny the possibility that we may one day find ourselves there. Does not the motive of self-interest prod us
to eliminate the status quo of traditional nursing homes and fight for a place
called HOME?
Or do we think we won’t ever be old, or frail, or
disabled. Are we part of the American
culture that views aging much like ethnicity?
Once Irish, always Irish; Once Italian, always Italian, Once young,
always ------- ?
