Mom fell while in the hospital, and now that she's home she can't walk anymore. Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks for the post. She is only taking BP meds and Chlor. meds at this time and Magnesium, Potassium. None of which should cause this. According to the dr's. Her legs have become weaken before when she had UTI and Dehydration but this time to dr. at the swingbed said it was normal. I feel like this may still be an issue. Plus her legs are weak from not being able to get up. They would leave her in the chair or bed all day. We went everyday sometimes twice a day between my daughter and I. Everyday we had to fuss because of something. The care for our elderly is horrible!

I found that Mom would have some therapy in the morning and therapy in the afternoon and walked back her back to her room. The rest of the day she was in a wheelchair. I was told she would not be able to walk without assistance. What! She was walking all over her facility two weeks before. I said I couldn't understand how they could expect her to walk when most of the time she was in a wheelchair. Mom got back to the AL and within 24hrs was walking all over.
Have Mom's potassium checked besides meds. Especially those meds the facility doctor may have presribed. I found they don't consult with the primaries.

Dear fajenkins,

I am so sorry to hear about your mom. I'm with Arwen and review the medications. My father was also very sensitive to medications. Statins, metformin, blood thinners, after three months he couldn't eat or walk. After being off the meds he had his appetite and strength back. It was a fine balance. He still needed meds but just different ones.

Unfortunately you've learned one of the shortcomings of hospital placement, apparently w/o family participation. And also unfortunately, family needs to be monitoring on a regular basis to ensure a more favorable outcome, unless the rehab facility happens to be top notch.

Who signed admission papers for your mother to the swingbed facility? Was there any care meeting to discuss goals? Was anyone meeting with the therapists?

These are often mandatory tasks for family to ensure that their loved one gets proper care.

At this stage though what I would do is contact one of her physicians, either her pulmonary doctor or the hospital orthopedic doctor who treated her for her fall. If she has a PCP, that could work as well.

Ask for home care, including a nurse, PT, OT and perhaps a home health aid and/or social worker if you want one. But first do your research. Look up home health care agencies, contact them, tell them what the situation is, ask how they're trained to work with elders (surprisingly some of them think older folks can exercise at the same level as people half their age).

Importantly, ask how they schedule. If they don't assign people until the evening before the appointment, move on to another agency. Companies that do that end up sending someone different on a regular basis; there's no continuity, and the constant change is hard on the caregiver, let alone the elder.

What you want is a nurse to do the initial assessment, then specific people assigned for the various disciplines, and substitutions only for vacations, illness, or emergencies.

Be present at the initial meeting with the nurse and go over your goals for your mother.

I hear you! It happened to my mom very recently, she suddenly looked like a rag doll and couldn't walk without two people helping her, one at each side. Her legs were so weak and she was also very confused. Turned out it was the medication she was under, a combination of diuretics and eye drops for her glaucoma. We stopped the medication and she's now almost 100% back.

Perhaps you should check what sort of therapy they gave to her and the side effects, elderly people can be extremely sensitive.

Wishing you and your mom all the best.