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I've had my 94-year old demented mother in the hospital since a week ago Monday which actually was the second time in a period of four days. They have done what they needed to do to help prevent her passing out from exertion. She was bounced from home to the doctor's office, to an ambulance to the emergency room, then up to ICU because of no beds and then the next day to the regular floor and yesterday up to the rehab hospital. To say that she's confused and wants to go home is an understatement.
The room was hot and I had both my jacket and my coat on. After getting her settled in I was about to leave at 7:30P when the Floor Supervisor came in and started asking her all kinds of questions. First she is hard of hearing, second she is already confused and third, the worst period of confusion for someone with dementia is after dark. Well, six times I told the Supervisor that the woman is already confused because of her hospital stay and she totally ignored me and kept asking questions. I finally said look, I'm tired and I'm beginning to lose my patience so please forgive me. The woman is confused because of her hospital stay. At that moment my mother asked for assistance so the questioning stopped, but when they closed the curtain, I didn't feel well. I started to feel dizzy and nauseous. Took off my coats and sat down on the floor; after feeling worse after about a minute, I got up and went to get a drink in the day room. I sat down for a while and put my head between my legs on my lap. Still the dizziness got worse so I laid down on the floor and put my legs up.
They saw me and came to my aid and took my vitals which were all OK except I had never experienced blood pressure of 100/72; mine is typically between 120 and 130. Anyway my sister unable to get me at home called the place and instead of telling her I was still there but couldn't get to the phone, they told her I was on the floor. They scared her silly. After about 1/2 hour I was feeling better.
My problem is that here was a person who deals with dementia patients all the time and should have not started asking questions of her until morning due to sundowning. And then the stupidity of telling my sister I was lying on the floor. Of course I was; anyone would have been with the stress I've been through in the last several weeks.
I stayed long enough until I was certain that I could drive myself home and I wrote a note to my mom's doctor telling her of the experience. It just seems to me that this Supervisor could have waited until morning.
The room was hot and I had both my jacket and my coat on. After getting her settled in I was about to leave at 7:30P when the Floor Supervisor came in and started asking her all kinds of questions. First she is hard of hearing, second she is already confused and third, the worst period of confusion for someone with dementia is after dark. Well, six times I told the Supervisor that the woman is already confused because of her hospital stay and she totally ignored me and kept asking questions. I finally said look, I'm tired and I'm beginning to lose my patience so please forgive me. The woman is confused because of her hospital stay. At that moment my mother asked for assistance so the questioning stopped, but when they closed the curtain, I didn't feel well. I started to feel dizzy and nauseous. Took off my coats and sat down on the floor; after feeling worse after about a minute, I got up and went to get a drink in the day room. I sat down for a while and put my head between my legs on my lap. Still the dizziness got worse so I laid down on the floor and put my legs up.
They saw me and came to my aid and took my vitals which were all OK except I had never experienced blood pressure of 100/72; mine is typically between 120 and 130. Anyway my sister unable to get me at home called the place and instead of telling her I was still there but couldn't get to the phone, they told her I was on the floor. They scared her silly. After about 1/2 hour I was feeling better.
My problem is that here was a person who deals with dementia patients all the time and should have not started asking questions of her until morning due to sundowning. And then the stupidity of telling my sister I was lying on the floor. Of course I was; anyone would have been with the stress I've been through in the last several weeks.
I stayed long enough until I was certain that I could drive myself home and I wrote a note to my mom's doctor telling her of the experience. It just seems to me that this Supervisor could have waited until morning.