Elderly patient left on bedpan for days

I could see it happening for a few hours if it was happening at shift change, and maybe another pt in the unit coded -- everybody runs, then after the code's over, they find the bedpan -- if I'm doing compressions at the end of a 12 hr shift, am I going to remember "oh, and by the way, Mr. Smith's on the bedpan?" I hope so, but I could also see me getting so involved in trying to intubate/shock/bring someone back to life that I don't even remember I've put someone on the bedpan. New shift gets over the code, starts assessments, finds the bedpan. That's believable. But 5 days where nobody looked at this guy's backside? IN AN ICU?

If you're bedbound and I'm your nurse, I'm going to have a better idea of what your backside looks like than you do -- you will get naked and you will be looked at on your sacrum, heels, shoulderblades and the back of your head, and your ears if you're wearing a cannula as part of my initial assessment. I can't believe that nobody bathed or assessed this guy for a week.

I'm sadden when I hear this. I last saw my dad in his LTC on December 31 when my son was home visiting from the Navy. I was seeing my dad every other weekend (his LTC was near his sister at her request), until November when life just began to happen. However, in November when I saw him, I spoke with the staff about his level of care at the time, my aunt had stopped visiting him 4 times a week because she came out of remission with CA and was unable to see him as she had before.

To make a long story short, December was the last time I saw my dad and he was sitting up and still able to feed himself. On January 28th, I got a call @ 1510 that he was not responsive, and they were to transport him to the hospital, that's not even 2 miles from the LTC but for some reason he didn't arrive at the hospital until 1630. I live an hour from the facility and in Illinois, we were having a terrible winter. When I arrived at the hospital I found my dad, unresponsive, with bedsores from his left ear all the down to his left foot, with a sacral ulcer. He was septic, and the LTC lost his DNR.

My father died the 13th of February and the level of care he receive wasn't fit for an animal and keep thinking I should have done more. I found out the LTC ordered a stat blood work up on him the night before showing he was in renal failure and it took them over 16hrs to notify me (I was his POA).

It doesn't take a rocket sciencetist to figure out to turn an individual every two hours, nor should it have ever taken 16hrs to decide to transport my dad, not to mention losing his DNR; which I had to decide whether to take measures to sustain his life.

I'm in school now for LPN and if we're delivering this type of care now, I can only imagine what it would be like if we have socialize medicine. I've a Phlebotomist for over 20yrs and I always treat my patients the way I would want someone to treat me or one of my family members.

Maybe I'm a bit slow, but what has socialized medicine to do with lack of care??

5cats

It means for five days, there is no bed bath, no linen change, no turning of patient and no assessment. Unacceptable!!!

This is sickening to know that any human is treated in such a way.

I've seen some upsetting things (and filed my share of reports) working in a nursing home, but for the life of me I cannot even imagine how this would happen.

Three shifts a day and NONE of the aides doing ADLs ever looked under this man? Additionally, a bedpan left under someone developing sores is going smell extremely bad after a relatively short time. None of the nurses thought to take a peek?

It'sa beatup.
I do na believe't.

This reminds me of how my friends and I were talking about aging and I said we had a resident who fell and broke her hip and then laid on the floor for 2 days before anyone found her. They were appalled that I worked in such a place that would allow this to happen. I had to explain that the fall happened AT HOME, and that is why she was in LTC to begin with.

That's awful. My granddaddy fell and was on the floor 10 hours and that seemed like a horribly long time. He should have been in LTC well before that point, but he had one of those medical alert systems installed (incorrectly) that didn't work when he needed it. He had nerve damage in one of his arms from lying on it all night.

He got very good care at the nursing home and hospice.

Absolutely horrible ! I don't care what country this happened in...patient care is of the utmost importance. PERIOD!