After the decline and recent death of my father, I feel the need to comment on the care that he received in the hospitals and nursing home. His medical care was very poor and led to his untimely death. He never had been diagnosed with dementia before entering the nursing facility for rehabilitation of his shoulder after surgery. After a few weeks, he was discharged to home where after another few weeks, he fell and broke his leg. In each case, the hospital physicians prescribed medications that were much too strong for him. Apparently, the doctors were not knowledgeable of drug modifications that are needed for elderly persons. These medications had severe consequences for the mental state and behavior of my father.
The nursing home continued prescribing medications that also were too strong for my father, and did not adequately respond to the family's requests for changes or discontinuation of medications. This led to disorientation and behavior problems for my father. Also, rehabilitation for his surgically repaired leg was discontinued before he ever regained use of it. In fact, he never walked again. He spent many days sleeping due to over-medication. He also was fearful and began crawling on the floor, hardly appropriate for an 82-year old man. No other nursing home residents crawled on the floor, but nothing ever was done for my father except to confine him to a wheelchair.
They fed him pureed foods and thick liquids because they said he could not swallow properly. He lost about 50 pounds. A speech therapist was to provide him with exercises to strengthen muscles related to swallowing. These procedures were done for awhile, and then were abruptly discontinued without informing any family members. Thus, my father had to reenter the hospital for swallowing difficulties soon thereafter. They quit feeding him, and he died.
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