Between a rock and a hard place

[curiousgeorge42]

Hello Nurses,

I'm in a bad place right now. Let me explain. As of today my husband is bothered by the passing of his mother. As a fellow nurse I have spotted errors in my mother-in-law's medical folder. She was a walk-in patient to the E.R. and was admitted to a telemetry floor with a diagnosis of elevated cardiac enzymes/hyperglycemia. She was 60years old. Seven days later she had a MI. Nursing notes indicate she was complaining of pain she described as due to arthritis. The same notes also indicated that telemetry monitoring called and advised that she might be in acute rhythm. It was noted that she was resting with no distress. At 12:22p.m. she again complained of pain at 9/10 to her arms, hands, and feet. She was medicated for pain. At 6:42p.m. she complained of pain to her hands and feet at a 10/10 level. She was again medicated for her pain. Charting was done at 7:30pm 9:20pm and 10:30pm. The next entry in her chart was at 4:30am when she was found unresponsive and cold. The record is somewhat confusing as to the timing of the entries. It seems to indicate that without any notice from telemetry she was simply found unresponsive in her bed, other charting indicates that she was anxious, talking, and trying to catch her breath at 5:20am and then became unresponsive with a faint pulse and a code was called. Long story short she was transferred from the telemetry floor to the icu ward, there she contracted a bacterial infection called acinetobacter.

It wasn't until my husband had my her transferred out of this facility that he found out what was really going on. The new nurse case manager and physician said that his mother had suffered a brain injury called anoxic encephelopathy. Sadly she passed away on Christmas Day. I'm still new in my field of nursing (Peds). I have a feeling that something went wrong on the floor, but I'm not experienced in the area of telemetry and cardiac monitoring of a patient. My husband is a good man trying to figure what happened to my mother-in-law. The facility will not talk or provide any information. Can anyone give me any advice as to what your thoughts are and what to do on both sides of this issue. Anyone out there having or had to deal with the same circumstances. Thanks in advance.

[prmenrs, RN]

We are sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, we cannot advise you on this potentially litigenous matter. You might try contacting the pt advocate @ both hospitals.