neglect or malpractice

[gotquestions01]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? ga

My mother, was taken to the Emergency Room at a local Hospital in , Georgia, on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. My mother had been a patient at a Nursing Home in Georgiafor several years. The hospital contacted the nursing home and asked if she was a DNR. When the nursing home employee said yes, the hospital immediately hung up. Some facts: She was there 6 hours with no food, water, or care. Two of my sisters were with my mother during this time. Both asked for assistance, with no results. Another sister finally called the ER supervisor and asked to get help. The supervisor admitted that they had “dropped the ball” in that my mother’s paperwork was shuffled to the bottom of their pile, and her urine sample was never processed. While there, my mother’s blood pressure remained at a level of approximately 203/98 and the monitor beeped for approximately 40 minutes in warning, but no ER staff responded. The doctor never returned to her room after his initial visit. My sister finally got the staff’s attention when she demanded an ambulance to move my mother to another facility, but after a 30 minute wait, no ambulance was present. My mother died on Saturday, February 27, of a stroke. I do not know if Hutcheson could have prevented the stroke, but the obvious neglect during her stay needs to be addressed.

 

[gotquestions01]

Anyone have a comment on this?

 

[lya]

Comments--yeah, but you're probably not going to appreciate the factual information in the comments because the facts can be disturbing to some. Anyway--here goes:

Emergency Rooms/ Departments are for life-saving emergencies, not for DNR patients with elevated blood pressures.

Nursing Homes are required to follow doctor's orders and if the doc ordered the patient to go to the ED, it had to be done.

A BP of 203/98 in a DNR patient that is a longterm NH patient does not equal an emergency and cannot be managed in an urgent manner. Rapidly decreasing the BP of such a patient is dangerous--very dangerous.

I don't know the age of the patient, but if the patient is over the age of 80, clot-busting drugs are not given--same for a DNR patient.

Six hours without food and water? Really? Like when you're asleep all night with no food or water? Put it in perspective and it's not an unreasonable amount of time. Providing food or drink during the ED time could have been NOT in the patient's best interest, otherwise known as contraindicated. For example, what if the elevated BP was a direct result of some kind of bladder emptying problem? Giving the patient a drink of water would have made the situation and the BP worse! And, ED's don't usually provide food and water--it isn't appropriate in true emergencies.

The beeping monitor. It would have probably benefited everyone's "nerves" if the nurse had gained an MD order to change the parameters on the monitor and stop the beeping.

If a stroke was in progress, there was no aggressive treatment available for your mother--not unless the DNR order was rescinded.

Your mother died four days later--rather on the fourth day--and from your post, I'd have to assume she left the ED and went somewhere else after 6 six hours, but I have no idea where she went.

Someone should have met with you or your sisters or whoever was at the ED with your mother and should have explained to you that nothing could really be gained by your mother's being in the ED. If her BP was to be lowered, it needed to be done by your mother's PCP and most likely carried out in the NH, over a period of days vs. emergency treatment to lower the BP in a matter of minutes.

I understand your frustration and disappointment in the system. In your shoes, I would feel that my mother had been neglected to death. It just isn't what happened.

Oh--and for your protection from a slander/liable claim--remove the name of any facility from your post!

 

[gotquestions01]

No actually I did appreciate it...I didn't know now I do