My mom got aspiration pneumonia in assisted living. I revoked hospice to take her to ER and hopefully get IV antibiotics and IV meds to ease her shortness of breath. The ER physician asked if their in-patient hospice doctor could talk to me. The hospital’s hospice md stated my mom could get the IV antibiotics and be kept comfortable if admitted to in-patient hospice. My mom’s breathing was extremely labored the 3 days she was there with her last hour using even her neck muscles to breathe. During the stay I had to request the dilaudid for her discomfort due to dyspnea. If I did not ask for it the medication was not given. The nurses did not come in periodically to assess my mom’s comfort but when I would ask if she seemed comfortable they would say yes even though my mom’s breathing was extremely labored. I’ve since found there is a Respiratory Distress Observation Scale used to assess dyspnea in unconscious patients. If this scale was used my mom should have been receiving much more medication. I am haunted by the knowledge that my mom probably was suffering the whole time. I don’t think this hospital should be allowed to continue their hospice program until they have protocols in place to ensure patients do not suffer. Is there a regulatory agency that looks into this kind of negligence and could I sue for the suffering of my mom?
The body will attempt to breathe whether the patient is conscious or not. If you did not hear calling out, groaning, grimacing, then your mother was almost certainly medicated below the level of awareness.
I cannot know if you have seen death before. Like birth, it is not always an easy transition for the body.
There have been many studies of the respiratory distress scale if you're speaking of the one I am familiar with; when lungs are impaired there is often no way to prevent gasping, nasal flaring, and etc short of KILLING SOMEONE. No amount of medication can prevent the body's attempts to oxygenate itself while it lives. This scale is "up for discussion by experts" but if your mother's eyes were closed and she was not making attempts to sit up, best medical guesses at this time (which would be in court considered the norm and the state of our understanding) is that she was medicated below the level of CONSCIOUS distress.
I am sorry. It is/can be, dependent, very difficult to look upon the face of death. I would, were I you, join a grief support group. I wish it were otherwise, but current state of things Hospice will not kill someone to save you distress. I am so thankful for our MAiD laws coming to the fore now so that we CAN kill ourselves before coming to this for our families in many circumstances.
You have my sympathy and my condolences.
If it will make you feel better to see attorneys then go ahead and do so with free consults, but no case such as this will ever move to the courts.
This is your grief talking. You want to shut down an entire hospice program because you THINK your mom MIGHT have been suffering when dying from pneumonia is not a good death.
Hon, grief is hard. Losing a parent is hard. Watching someone die is hard.
Please reach out and find some grief therapy.
If the standard of care is followed, you cannot sue.
You also can’t prove she was suffering. You feel she was suffering— you imagine she was suffering. It’s a thought you have.
Im sorry your mom died. Hospice cannot guarantee everyone an easy death as death is a very individual process.
”I’ve since found there is a Respiratory Distress Observation Scale used to assess dyspnea in unconscious patients. If this scale was used my mom should have been receiving much more medication”
Respiratory distress is what happens during the death process when someone like your mom gets pneumonia— it is part of dying from pneumonia.
Lawsuit, lawsuit lawsuit! People seem to think it's easy to sue anyone for anything. It is not. It's a complicated and expensive process, and it will make your life miserable for its duration. But for what? Mom is gone, sad but true. She's not coming back. She was on hospice. That means she was expected to die soon, and she did. Hospitals have good lawyers, teams of lawyers, and they will point out the obvious. You will spend money for nothing. And mom will still be dead.
Go see a lawyer, who will tell you all of the above and more. Then get back to your own life and hug those of your family who are still with you.
If you've heard the term Death Rattle, or Cheyne-Stokes, or witnessed it, it's the sounds of labored breathing in the final hours or even days before death. It's gruesome to listen to, almost as if the person is struggling to breathe underwater. If you read about the phenomenon, there is no pain involved to the patient at all when CS breathing is going on. If there was pain in this matter, or in the matter of your mom with the pneumonia, there would be outward signs such as grimacing, groaning, very high blood pressure, squirming in bed, etc. While the sounds emanating from their bodies is horrible for US to witness, they are doing just fine, in reality. Pneumonia was once called the Old Mans Best Friend because it took him w/o pain.
In my personal belief, the dying persons immortal soul has already transitioned to perfect peace with God by the time we're witnessing their mortal bodies shutting down.
I'm so sorry you had to witness such a wretched sight with your beloved mother. I did the same with both of my parents and will never forget those sounds. Every time I think about it, I switch my thoughts to a fond memory of them laughing instead. I wish you peace as you try to accept all of this, death is rarely a pretty sight.
My own Dad had passed from aspiration pneumonia a few years back. After a short stay in the hospital, we brought Dad back to his Memory Care facility, and Hospice had already been notified. Dad passed peacefully a couple days later at 96 yrs old. Yes, Dad was breathing heavily but that was part of the pneumonia and at his age he didn't want anything to interfere, he was ready to go. That was his choice.
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