My 95 year old mother is living in a SNL. She has been a resident of this particular facility since early 2018. I came across a situation last night when I made my daily rounds after work to check on her. On entering room, she was sitting in a wheelchair with her back to the door, but laying forward face first on the hospital bed. The wheels of the wheelchair were not locked, and her call button was completely out of her reach. She has been immobile due to muscle atrophy from waist down for the last two years and requires help when moving around, or adjusting herself in a chair or in a bed. I believe they must have had her down to the cafeteria for lunch and maybe an activity, then brought her back to her room. At some point she had either fallen asleep or possibly fainted (happens sometimes when her BP drops). She was difficult to wake up. Of course, it scared me. No aides were anywhere in the hallways or rooms. Family was finally able to wake her, and were talking with her. She was very spacey though. I pushed the button for help. Help did not show up for 45 min. The excuse was they were short handed yesterday and aids were helping with dinner feeding in another area.
I'm trying not to over-react, however, should I report this to administration? My gut says yes, but I've seen aids purposely ignore patients after conflict with families as retaliation. I can't afford that. Her age and dementia is such that anyone can easily take advantage of my Mother. I did take a picture of my Mother in that state just because it seemed so odd, and I knew from previous events in last several years, that pictures & date/time stamp do help when trying to prove anything to these administrators and staff, and especially after hours, when administration has left for day. I've experienced a lot of excuses from the aides in the past as well as the LVN's on duty. Is this negligence on their part? I would think a patient must have access to a call button for help and an unattended patient should have the wheels locked. Her chair could have rolled away from the bed, and if so, she would have fallen flat face first to floor. Last fall, we had an experience where she fell face first out of the wheel chair in a hallway because it wasn't locked and hit her forehead on the metal foot rest. That event caused an ER visit, 12 stitches, a broken wrist and 10 weeks in cast, then further PT to be able to regain use of that hand.
So opinions anyone?
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