Thirty years ago I followed my mother through the world of hospitals & residential/nursing care as she succumbed to early onset Alzheimer's in her 50s. Now my mother-in-law has been diagnosed with dementia in her 80s, so I'm back here again, with some questions but also some past experience of this difficult world.
In the last 6 months this otherwise quite active lady has suffered physical & mental decline, showing a growth in confusion. Following some recent spells in hospital for physical ailments, doctors & social services picked up on her decline in mental capacity and risk at home alone (she is now widowed). Brain CT scans suggest vascular dementia. The biggest problem is that for several weeks she has barely eaten or drunk anything. Complaining of nausea at just the sight of food, and barely sipping her drinks, I'm quietly astonished she has survived with so little sustenance. She was (very unwillingly) readmitted to hospital a week ago with very low Potassium levels, I have to say I think this is just caused by malnutrition/starvation. Potassium levels were restored with a drip in hospital, but dropped again with it removed as they planned to discharge her soon, despite losing even more weight whilst in hospital.
This particular hospital didn't impress us when we visited (we live far away). I've seen a lot of care environments over the 7 years my mother declined with Alzheimer's, but this place was just serving the usual very unappetizing food hospitals tend to offer, and after a few words of encouragement only, would later remove it uneaten. One of the nurses in this 'discharge ward' told me that she'd only drunk 140ml of fluid in the last day. And yet they planned to send her home the next day. This didn't happen as with the drip removed, her potassium levels unsurprisingly collapsed again.
My guess is that the hospital want rid of someone who could otherwise block a bed for ages, being kept alive with IV fluids & nutrients. Her GP is truly awful and will only visit when threatened by us. He says it's the hospitals duty to monitor her once discharged. The hospital says it's the GP's responsibility. The coordination between these and home care agencies (initiated by the hospital when first released before Xmas) and related others, such as the 'virtual ward' nurses who phone us despite living far away to ask how she's doing, is chaotic to say the least.
Can anyone shed any light on where responsibilities lie here? We were privately advised to make a Safeguarding complaint if necessary to get some attention. I am aware of unspoken hospital policies like 'Sending Home to Die' and I am quietly wondering if the hospital simply want a non eating/drinking dementia patient off their hands, whilst the GP etc don't want involvement with a demanding patient likely to deteriorate.
We have a signed consent from her to talk to the GP about her health, but not yet Power of Attorney for Health/Finances. Any advice or experiences on how to handle this distressing situation would be gratefully received.
In the last 6 months this otherwise quite active lady has suffered physical & mental decline, showing a growth in confusion. Following some recent spells in hospital for physical ailments, doctors & social services picked up on her decline in mental capacity and risk at home alone (she is now widowed). Brain CT scans suggest vascular dementia. The biggest problem is that for several weeks she has barely eaten or drunk anything. Complaining of nausea at just the sight of food, and barely sipping her drinks, I'm quietly astonished she has survived with so little sustenance. She was (very unwillingly) readmitted to hospital a week ago with very low Potassium levels, I have to say I think this is just caused by malnutrition/starvation. Potassium levels were restored with a drip in hospital, but dropped again with it removed as they planned to discharge her soon, despite losing even more weight whilst in hospital.
This particular hospital didn't impress us when we visited (we live far away). I've seen a lot of care environments over the 7 years my mother declined with Alzheimer's, but this place was just serving the usual very unappetizing food hospitals tend to offer, and after a few words of encouragement only, would later remove it uneaten. One of the nurses in this 'discharge ward' told me that she'd only drunk 140ml of fluid in the last day. And yet they planned to send her home the next day. This didn't happen as with the drip removed, her potassium levels unsurprisingly collapsed again.
My guess is that the hospital want rid of someone who could otherwise block a bed for ages, being kept alive with IV fluids & nutrients. Her GP is truly awful and will only visit when threatened by us. He says it's the hospitals duty to monitor her once discharged. The hospital says it's the GP's responsibility. The coordination between these and home care agencies (initiated by the hospital when first released before Xmas) and related others, such as the 'virtual ward' nurses who phone us despite living far away to ask how she's doing, is chaotic to say the least.
Can anyone shed any light on where responsibilities lie here? We were privately advised to make a Safeguarding complaint if necessary to get some attention. I am aware of unspoken hospital policies like 'Sending Home to Die' and I am quietly wondering if the hospital simply want a non eating/drinking dementia patient off their hands, whilst the GP etc don't want involvement with a demanding patient likely to deteriorate.
We have a signed consent from her to talk to the GP about her health, but not yet Power of Attorney for Health/Finances. Any advice or experiences on how to handle this distressing situation would be gratefully received.
