Dear Editor:
As Father’s Day approaches, I often wonder whether my Father would have been around for this Father’s Day, if the following hadn’t happened.
You see, on a Friday afternoon, he was found injured, tipped over, still strapped into his wheelchair, in the main lobby of a Nursing Home. I was advised that it was an “un-witnessed incident” though there was gossip at the time among the staff that another resident had knocked him over.
Shorty after the incident, I found him in his room, second last room down a long corridor from nursing station, with door almost closed, sleeping in his wheelchair.
Other than the bump on his head and bleeding gash on his right elbow area, he seemed content. When I returned about an hour later he was in bed, in apparent agony, being comforted by two very caring aides, but supervisory staff did not seem concerned. In the evening when I questioned his condition, the shift supervisor commented something like - what do you expect, after all he is 103.
Saturday, (on the weekend) a supervisory staff sent a FAX to his Doctor’s office requesting change to his medications. The Doctor did not respond until Monday when he opened his office. Therefore, on Saturday and Sunday my Dad was given his meds as prescribed which included blood thinning Warfarin even though he was bleeding from the injured elbow and had sustained a good bump to his head.
On Sunday his condition deteriorated, but no supervisory staff seemed too concerned.
That evening I asked my wife, an RN, to intercede and she managed to get some action even after she received some lip from the supervising person.
Monday morning, all hell broke loose, so to speak, but it was most likely too late. He was transferred to the neighbouring hospital over lunch hour where the lab staff, who tried earlier, tried again to get a reading on his INR, (blood clotting ability) but in the end had to send the samples elsewhere for analysis. While in Emergency, he was given an inappropriate IV solution which added to his sodium level instead of reducing it, and when the error was pointed out by my wife, we were told it was correct only to be changed about twenty minutes later without comment. By the way, this incident was not recorded, but has been acknowledged by the Health Region as having occurred.
My Father passed away that Monday evening around supper time. After the fact, when the results of his lab test(s) were available his Sodium level was very high at 180 and his INR was 25, about ten times what it usually was for him. No wonder he bled out.
Later, but still before funeral, when the term “Un-witnessed Assault” was used by the Nursing Home, I requested an Autopsy but the local Coroner that handled the investigation was also an employee of the same Health Region. How could that person be expected to review the actions of other fellow employees as well as the organization from which this individual receives the majority of their income? No wonder the local Coroner found no reason for an autopsy. When I requested the Police to investigate the situation they started but soon told me something like - since it was an un-witnessed incident, chance for conviction was low, and they were dropping the investigation. When I asked the Police if that’s what they would do if a young person had been assaulted on the street and there were no witnesses, they didn’t have a response. A few months later, after I had been able to obtain my Father’s Health Records Chart, including the Incident Reports, which indicated that another resident had been involved in the supposedly un-witnessed incident, I couldn’t get much more reaction out of the Chief Coroner’s Office or the Police.
Elderly people seem to be less important to society than younger people.
My quest to improve the system for the elderly has been going on for nearly a year and a half now. I have been through meetings with the Health Region which included supervisors, Patient Safety and Improvement Committee up to and including the CEO.
I have referred the non-professional attitudes and abilities of the staff involved to the various licensing bodies such as SRNA, RPNAS and SALPN. Still to hear outcome from the last two. I am in discussion with the Ombudsman’s Office, have made the Ministry of Health and the Leader of the Opposition aware of how my Father was treated and hope that some good, for others, will eventually come from this long drawn outprocess.
There is more to this saga, but I have taken up enough of your time for now.
Bob Suschinsky, Yorkton, SK.
