I am having a trouble understanding the process of one of my residents.
She is 94, alert and of sound mind. She is capable of making her own decisions.
She came to our LTC facility about a month ago after suffering a stroke that left her, for the most part, unable to swallow. She was going to therapy to assist her with this problem.
She is not able to have a feeding tube because of an abdominal aortic aneurysm but, she was seemingly doing just ok with eating and drinking altho it was difficult.
About a week ago, she was admitted to the hospital for aspiration pneumonia. This did not surprise anyone because of her difficulties.
She returned to our LTC very weak. She was once an easy 1 person transfer. Now, she is bed ridden. She is also NPO now. When I asked her nurse how she gets her nutrition if she is NPO the nurse replied she is hospice, she doesn't get nurtrition at all. She will eventually die.
I am having a hard time accepting this! I know it is NOT my decision. It is really none of my business. My only place in this is to provide care for her and keep her comfortable.
She is still alert and of "sound mind". She asks me to give her a small cup of water so she can suck water from a sponge. I CAN'T do this. I remind her that I am not allowed to.
The nurse has been very clear on my not giving her ANYTHING because she can choke and die.
So, instead, I have to watch her literally die of starvation...and I watch her family all day, every day trying to cope with this.
Tell me something about this process to make it easier. I've search the internet trying to learn more about aortic aneurysm, but nothing is helping. I know it is probably a decision she and her family made, but how do you tell someone they can't have a sip of water when you know they've not had any nutrition in about 4 days.
She passed away 5 days later (she became unresponsive only 2 days after coming back from the hospital)with her family by her side. That's all I know about the process. What her choice was about the whole water issue, I can't say for sure. I DO know it was her choice to refuse food... She had at least one daughter with her from about 5am-8pm everyday who provided all care, we checked in with them regularly. Her family continuously swabbed her mouth with a toothette soaked in water. I said nothing to them and provided toothettes whenever they asked for them.
I can understand not giving nutrition or hydration to actively dying patients, but it sounds like she's far from that point if she's A&O, 1 assist, independent with oral care, so I don't understand why they would allow that to be the process to kill her.
I could understand if she had been hours from dying, but days? That is cruel. We had two patients rapidly tanking from aspiration pneumonia over the weekend and the doctor on call made them NPO when they started death rattling and mottling. It was clear neither one was going to make it overnight.
Red Kryptonite
2,212 Posts
So missingyou, what happened?