As the title stated, I had a family member die in the hospital. Not recently, it was about 2 months ago. I still have so many questions. Questions the rest of the family do not want to ask. It was my father in law...and I'm just the daughter in law.
FIL had been sick with a cold for about a week and a half. At 76 he was doing well, had his diabetes under control with diet and lantus insulin (good HGA1C #s), no issues with his cardiac status (he had a cabgx3 about 4 years ago), went to the gym 3 days a week and walked for over an hour, cut his grass...etc. MIL and FIL went to the dr for the cold and she got antibiotics, he got Mucinex..his chest xray was negative.
1.5 days later, he was cranky, slightly confused and still was coughing. He made MIL take him to the ER in the evening...they admit with bronchitis for antibiotics, steroids, neb tx and o2. Spent 9 hrs in the ER on telemetry waiting for a bed. Gets to the floor and it took another 2.5 hrs until he was seen by a nurse.
Next day husband visits (I was going to pop my head in the next day) until 9pm, dad was feeling better, mentally clear, feeling better. I would have never thought to come in or even stay overnight.
We get a call in the AM from a friend (yeah, hippa break) to come in...dad is in the ICU. We get a brief report that he was belligerent and confused around 1am, nurse got an order for Ativan that was given around that time. Next time he was seen was 5:30 am and he was cold, blue, pulseless. Full code...cpr started. He was down waaaay to long.
The only time I've ever seen him confused was when his blood sugar was super low. I would expect if he was admitted with bronchitis, hypoxia could have also caused this change. He's never taken sedatives before (aside from the surgeries he has had). After two days of the hypothermia treatment, we pulled life support when he had no brain function.
So...yeah, I know I have issues dealing with a lot of this. Should we have really been told that "they are soo short staffed and the hospital is full" ? That just makes my head spin. This is way after the fact, but what would have been the proper way to ask questions? Who do you approach first? This is a community hospital and at the time, he was being followed by his family practice MD. Does your hospital have a way of helping families deal with this?
I'm not asking for medical or legal advice, just wondering how situations like this are managed.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
I can so relate to this story. A year and a half ago I lost my father due to his injuries. He was a young 78, fairly well controlled diabetic. I found out later the hospital was a leader in inpatient mortality rates. I still wonder if I should have let myself be talked out of flying home as soon as the accident happened. I held off, being told I would be needed more at time of discharge. Now I wonder if I could have advocated for better care.
What jumped out to me in the OP, was that her FIL was on the floor 2.5 hours before being seen by a nurse. That just blows my mind. We all know that short-staffing is associated with failure to rescue.
OP, as much as you would like some answers, I agree with others that you are very unlikely to get any. It's also not productive to blame yourself. I've been trying to let that go, and I hope you can, too. Wishing you peace and healing.
TriciaJ, RN
4,328 Posts
I can so relate to this story. A year and a half ago I lost my father due to his injuries. He was a young 78, fairly well controlled diabetic. I found out later the hospital was a leader in inpatient mortality rates. I still wonder if I should have let myself be talked out of flying home as soon as the accident happened. I held off, being told I would be needed more at time of discharge. Now I wonder if I could have advocated for better care.
What jumped out to me in the OP, was that her FIL was on the floor 2.5 hours before being seen by a nurse. That just blows my mind. We all know that short-staffing is associated with failure to rescue.
OP, as much as you would like some answers, I agree with others that you are very unlikely to get any. It's also not productive to blame yourself. I've been trying to let that go, and I hope you can, too. Wishing you peace and healing.