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Are nurses at hospitals & hospices supposed to treat the elderly like this?
My great grandma is 95 yrs old. she has been in the hospital numerous times in the past few months for breaking her hip & neck. She fractured her neck and its well now, she has a sore on her foot that won't go away, first the doctor said just leave a sock on it and let it get will, then they said it was gangrene then it isn't. She can't walk because her foot. She doesn't talk to anyone and she barely eats. I think she feels lonely or depressed about her health problems? Idk, we try to talk to her and she doesn't talk, sometimes we try to get her to eat and she doesn;t eat. She just lays down, not saying anything & sleeping or slouched staring into space. She doesn't want to get up and she's always cold even though it's literally 105 degrees outside and its not cold inside. She doesn't like for them to change her diaper, feed her or anything. Her doctor told my aunt that my great grandmother had gangrene, but then we took her to te hospital and they said that she didn't have it, she just had a blockage in her foot. She has bad nutrition from refusing to eat, so they said that they can do anything or cut her leg off because it will kill her faster. My great granddmother didn't start having these problems with her leg until she went to the hospital and the doctors there never treated her for her leg pain, they didn't care if she ate either. She is in the hospice now, they don't give her any blood pressure medicine or any medicine she needs. They don't feed her or care if she eats. She's always dirty (they treated her this way in the hospitals too). yesterday when we went to see her, she wouldn't wake up for ANYTHING. We talked to her in her ear & tried to wake her, we wiped her face and the doctors even moved her, but she wouldn't wake up, she was sleeping heavy and snoring. My family & I believe that the nurses are giving her medicine to knock her out all day, so she won't cry about pain in her leg from the blockage or anything. She doesn't even drink water or urinate that much. Are the nurses at the hospital & hospice doing the right thing for her? Are they just trying to kill her faster?
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There may be more to this than you are aware of. I would have to be there to look in her records to see if she has a living will and just what it spells out as far as what care she wants provided.
As for not doing general care, bathing her, changing her diaper and things of that nature. You are correct this is very wrong. Part of Hospice care is death with dignity you, if you are of age, you or parents, Aunts or Uncles need to complain to Hospice and the hospital management people.
As for the other things, like the missed diagnosis, I cannot address that either without being there and looking at her medical records. There maybe more things going on then you are aware of. I understand your concern but sometimes, depending on how old you are, parents try to shield children from somethings.
If the misdiagnosis is the cause of your Great Grandmothers declining health and ultimately her death. This is something your parents and other adult relatives would have to decide if the want to pursue with a lawyer.
I'm sorry I could not be of more help to you.
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Most nurses dont take care of their elderly patients and most places arent run right.
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Because of her age, doctors would do something like that. Some doctors don't value patients of that age because it could simply be a waste of their time and resources. You should consider taking her to another doctor and getting a different opinion. Hopefully they won't treat her the same way.
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