Until about a month ago, my 99-year-old mother was walking,
reading the newspaper, doing crossword puzzles in the newspaper, watching
television, being conversational with a good sense of humor, and being entirely
present with no confusion or dementia noted.
Then about May 25 or so, her ankles began swelling, she had
much more difficulty walking, stopped reading the newspaper, stop doing
crossword puzzles, and had periods of confusion and memory loss.
On June 2, based on results of a 4-day earlier set of blood
tests and urinalysis obtained at home, her nurse practitioner, Susan Ward,
urged me to call paramedics to take her to the emergency room at Banner Boswell
Hospital, due to blood test results such as BMP, an indicator of congestive
heart failure, which read 1,176, while highly normal was 500, and the D Dimer
test, indicative of blood clots, with a high normal of 499, but hers was
reading over 7,000. Susan Ward arranged
for calling the paramedics, as she thought my mother was critically ill.
Long story short, ER refused to admit her for congestive
heart failure, or for potential life-threatening clotting, performing only a CT
scan of her brain to see if clots were there causing a stroke.
I have just recently found out, that blood test taken at the
ER in medical documents that I have requested to review, indicated that the D
dimer test, with the normal high of 499, in a previous high of over 7,600, was
now over 12,000. This is the test for
clotting. Her BNP with the normal high
of 500, and which had read 1,176, at the ER on June 2, was 1,818!
The social worker at the Banner-Boswell ER told me my mother
was being released and she would not be admitted, as my mother had no acute
illness that could be treated at the ER.
I asked how they could possibly release her to home when she had only
very part time caretakers at home, she could not walk now, and was quite
confused and incoherent. I felt at least they could stabilize her condition
rather than just push her out the door.
The social worker told me, that that does not matter, the
doctor stated that she was going to be released now as there was no acute
medical condition that could be treated at the ER, the doctor said she had to
go home now. She told me that my mother
should never have been brought to that ER, because there is no acute condition
that could be medically treated. Yet that same doctor, Matthew Jones, had said
to release her to home with only part-time caretakers would be dangerous. Later, the social worker said my mother would
be released to home anyway.
Subsequently I found out that the reason my mother was not
admitted, is that during a previous hospitalization after a fall which put her
into a convalescent home for 17 days, is that she had signed a “do not
resuscitate” document which precluded aggressive treatment in cases where there
is heart failure or stroke, or coma.
However, the hidden or unspoken protocols of the banner-Boswell ER was
that any elderly person with a DNR would not be admitted to the hospital for
treatment of the underlying issues such as congestive heart failure, potential
clotting, or whatever other condition had led to the patient seeking help at
the ER.
That is, the ER had a protocols which made it impossible for
an elderly person such as my mother in a very fragile state of health, to
receive healthcare, because she was too fragile to be moved to a doctor’s
office by car, sit in a waiting room waiting to be seen, and then be
transported back. That is why Susan Ward
had her taken by ambulance to the banner by ER, because she thought she was too
fragile to be moved by any other mode of transport.
Because of my mother’s fragility, she had failed to make an
appointment with a cardiologist when one
was scheduled a year before. My mother
perceived doctors’ visits as being too stressful and is perhaps
life-threatening because of the stress did imposed.
Thus, the Arizona healthcare system along with the protocols
of Banner-Boswell, have ensured that my mother will soon die of congestive
heart failure and possible blood clotting, because now she is far too weak to
attend any medical appointment except by ambulance, and apparently no ER in the
Banner system, which is most of them in the area, will admit her for treatment
of the underlying conditions, because she does not have a cardiologist to order
a direct admission to the hospital. All
of her care would have to pass through an ER, and all have the same protocol of
not admitting those who have signed a do not resuscitate document.
So at this point, my mother is dying and there is nothing I
can do about it. However, I am going to
cause pain to the Banner-Boswell ER that has ordered her death, and is refused
to provide treatment because they did not want someone to die in their
hospital. It would ruin their
statistics.
Not only that, at no time did anyone at the hospital or at
that hospital ER tell us what the true state of my mother’s health was. They did not tell me a diagnosis. They did not tell me that she had congestive
heart failure. They did not tell me she
had potential clotting. They did not
tell me that she was as sick as she was.
They only stated they are not going to treat her because she does not
have an acute condition other than the bladder infection, that could be treated
at the ER. They said she must go home,
that she should never have been brought into that ER.
There was no frank discussion of the state of her health, or
her terminal trajectory, especially if not provided by any stabilization within
the hospital. To them, she was just dead
meat. And I am very angry.
I am even more angry now today, seeing that the new Senate
Republican health bill is even more evil than the Congressional Republican
health bill, and would result in the decimation of Medicaid, of which my mother
is a beneficiary. I see that the
Republican move is pure evil, cutting 900 billion out of Medicaid and giving it
back to wealthy taxpayers in the form of a tax-cut. I see the same indifference is what my mother
received at the ER, a total indifference to her life and health.
My mother is now lying in her bed at home waiting to die, on
hospice. Michael and I go over to her
house frequently to see how she is doing and make sure she is receiving care,
and once in a while we stay with her overnight to make sure she is okay during
the night. However, I am 75 years old,
with the collapse left lung, and on the CPAP machine, and an oxygen machine at
night, awaiting surgery for a left hip replacement operation that I delayed due
to my mother’s health problem. So my
mobility, and my strength are much diminished compared to five years ago.
This must not stand!
Please, call Jessica, at Banner-Boswell hospital, who is in
charge of patient relations and a complain about my mother’s treatment and
state your opinion about how rotten my mother is being treated, and that you
consider this a prime example of medical malpractice and elder abuse. Her phone number is:
(623) 832-6657
and also leave a message for Warren, chief social worker
there at
(623) 832-5518
Asked them for email addresses to the CEO and to the
ombudsman through which you can mount a complaint.
Thank you very much!
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