I am appalled by the lack of care given in some nursing homes, and the one my husband is in may be added. He went into the rehab.unit on the 8th of Feb. to try to get him back to where he was when he came home on the 10th of Jan. He had a massive stroke and is paralyzed on the left side with a dislocated left shoulder. I have visited on several occasions, and actually took pictures because I was shocked to see some of the marks and lack of care to my husbands skin breakdown areas and bruises. It was absolutely horrific. My husband is also one who hollers alot at night, and is at the end of the hallway. I went in the other day, and his right hand and arm was shaking and the aide told me he had a hard time waking up that morning, but she still went ahead and fed him his breakfast. I noticed his lack of alertness, and went immediately to the nurses station to ask about the meds. he's been given. She said the 50mg's. of trazadone, adavan and flexeril were all given at 9pm. She did call the dr. for that facility and told him my concern and it was decided to cut down the dosage on the adavan. I was truly concerned because my mom's death was directly linked to a screw-up in wrong amt. of dosage given her in which you know how quick they covered their you know what. I cannot believe these people are even in the caregiving positions, and I am so angry that they don't seem to even care. I did speak with the executive director and social worker the other day by a surprise visit to the room when the social worker and her come walking in when I was visiting my husband. I asked her who she was and she told me she was the exec.dir. and was informed that there were some possible issues I may have wanted to discuss with her.
I informed her of clothes missing; also how maybe they should advise their staff to try to be a little more careful when transferring patients as my husband had the hide knocked off of his left arm which resulted in quite a wound with swelling around it about 2 days later. There was swelling around the wound and his hand and fingers and the wound was white and pussy, obviously infected. Also he is a diabetic in which they do not heal quite as fast either. This was upsetting enough, and my friend had her phone in which I asked her if she would mind taking a couple of pictures. It was also upsetting to see that it was nearly 30 min. before he was tended to after the pt's. brought him back from therapy indicating he needed to be cleaned up and left him in his room. They said they had informed someone already and it would be just a few minutes. Well, I went down at the end of the hall and waited to see how long a few minutes was going to be. If you counted in the time my husband informed the PT's to the time he was actually taken care of you could safely say nearly 45 minutes.They had to pass out lunch trays first before they could take care of any patients because they were getting complaints that the food was cold and that was obviously more of a priority than removing stool and urine off of a patients skin!
I don't know how people that run these places can sleep at night, but all I can say is after this experience, and reading all of your stories, why can their not be something done about the neglect and abuse to these that are unable to fend for themselves? My husbands skin on his bottom was in wonderful condition when he went into this facility, and this was the rehab. unit. I thought there would be no need whatsoever for concern regarding their so called expertise with rehab patients. He is coming home next Tuesday on the 26th, and I truly am going to get somebody's attention even though it no where compares to the other stories shared by rosie123 or msdaisy. I would definitely take some action in both of your situations. We should not let our loved ones have to be subjected to ANY type of neglect or abuse period! sorry, that is just how I think. Those people all the way up to the institution's directors need to be held accountable. And yes, Heads should roll! I said to a lady on the way out that day I would not put my worse enemy in here. She kind of looked at me funny and said "really?" I am going to see if there is any way to find out if there have been any cases reported against this one, and after my husband is home go after them for not taking care of him and anyone else's loved one who has been mistreated in any way. We have got to put a stop to this and stop lookin the other way. I don't know how, but there has got to be more accountability directed to those who are suppose to be taking care of our loved ones, regardless of how much longer they have here.They deserve the dignity by being covered up while being cleaned up, and treated with respect they so clearly deserve, regardless of their illness. We are going to answer one day for all of our actions, and I would not want to be in some of their shoes if they don't change their heart in a hurry.let it be Lord.
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A friend of mine was in charge of marketing for one of these law firms and she saw just how bad nursing homes were. That is why she refused to put both of her parents in any type of home or allow a social worker in her home. She cared for both of her parents for well over 10 years, her mom just passed away last summer.
I know the advice she would give is seek legal assistance, there are law firms that do go after nursing homes and rehab centers. Otherwise they are not accountable to anyone.