It is too late, but now doubting whether Hospice was the right choice

[Danyael]

Hello,

Thank you all for your continued hard work and love for human beings!

My mom died on 11/02/16. She's had a series of strokes in the last 2 years with the last in May of this year and that was a brain stem stroke. She was in lockdown paralysis(not sure how much she would have recovered) but she was basically left on a bed in a hospital in SC for 5+ months with no therapy or anything at all! (whole different story).

My sister got her moved up here after a lengthy legal fight (in Toledo). Mom could speak... but it seemed very labored and it was extremely slurred but you could tell what she was saying. she could not eat/drink and had a GJ feeding tube. She had aspiration pneumonia about 5 times in S. Carolina and twice while she was here in Toledo area. (at least 7 documented cases of aspiration pneumonia since May 2016). mom was not able to cough on demand or clear her throat... so much of that mucus and drainage just stayed in her lungs and throat. Occasionally she was suctioned but we did that only when she really needed it.

So my question has to do with aspiration from the feeding tube. Hind sight is always 20/20... and I am tormenting myself for not having thought of this sooner... but could we have not cut back the amount of food from the feeding tube? I don't know what she was doing per day.

I don't have the medical background most of you have... but in my rationalizing, cutting back on the feeding would seem to reduce the amount (if not eliminate) the stuff coming up her digestive system to her lungs...

I am assuming it was doing that because there was an abundance of it... and reducing that amount would keep it on a 'come in, absorb, out' ratio... meaning, the little that comes in would be absorbed and pushed through the bowels before it could accumulate and travel up the esophagus..... I am just wondering if that would have helped (at least with the pneumonia).....

Anyone have any thoughts???

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

So very sorry for your loss. However, per our terms of service, we can't provide this advice. Please contact either the hospice provider or the medical provider.