Not able to be with mother with dementia in hospital due to Covid

Nurses COVID

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My mother was recently admitted for a GI virus, acute dehydration and afib out of control. She has dementia but was able to answer questions so my father and I were told to wait outside and they took her for a week. The ED nurse called to give me updates, but once she was admitted it was a different story. I am her DPOA for everything has anyone experienced this? It is really disheartening!

Specializes in OB.
22 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

My mother said she would rather die of Covid than die of loneliness. That, I think, says it all.

So many hugs! I'm so sorry you're dealing with this.

7 Votes
Specializes in CMSRN.
2 hours ago, Wuzzie said:

My mother said she would rather die of Covid than die of loneliness. That, I think, says it all.

Yep.

2 Votes
Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.

One of my (older) neighbors has given her family strict orders to NOT allow her to be hospitalized if she gets COVID. She would rather die surrounded by family. She lives with her daughter's family, and she figures that if she gets it, it will be because one of the family members brought it in. In other words, she will not be the one putting the others at risk.

4 Votes
Specializes in Registered Nurse.

It's really sad what is happening in nursing homes. I don't understand why the most vulnerable population was not protected adequately. Why not more testing availability for family who wants to enter and see their love ones? There are some rapid test that may be of benefit prior to entry of family to care facilities .

As a matter of fact, why not have more testing for any health care staff delivering care to the general public. Who wants to go to the ER, clinic or hospital where the staff can potentially endanger the patient ?

I have not been listening to as much news lately. Has any of this been addressed ? Has the testing availability issue resolved ?

2 Votes
Specializes in SCRN.

There is no visitors policy in place, and it applies to everyone (couple of exceptions are there for end of life). If you like an update about your loved one's condition, call the inpatient nurse. I do not see why you cannot call the nurse yourself. Inpatient nurses don't routinely call the family members, you have to call THEM. Even better, ask for the doctor to call you. Ask if they do facetime there.

2 Votes
11 hours ago, Marisette said:

It's really sad what is happening in nursing homes. I don't understand why the most vulnerable population was not protected adequately. Why not more testing availability for family who wants to enter and see their love ones? There are some rapid test that may be of benefit prior to entry of family to care facilities .

As a matter of fact, why not have more testing for any health care staff delivering care to the general public. Who wants to go to the ER, clinic or hospital where the staff can potentially endanger the patient ?

I have not been listening to as much news lately. Has any of this been addressed ? Has the testing availability issue resolved ?

Testing availability is better. Even with more available tests, the accuracy of the rapids is in question. There is also some concern that the rapid tests give a lot of false negatives. The research seems to go back and forth about how accurate they are, but some studies have shown the Abbott rapid to miss 1/3 or more of the positives. Some hospitals are refusing to use them at all. My hospital does use them, but for people with higher risk factors, a negative on a rapid in the ED will get you a bed on the PUI unit while waiting for one of the longer tests to come back.

On Wednesday, I got my rapid COVID and blood drawn for antibodies. My hospital is trying to test all frontline workers, but I think the point to study asymptomatic transmission in health care workers, not as an ongoing attempt at infection control. At least at the moment, I don't know when we'll all be tested again, or even IF we will. I wasn't even tested when I was informed of a potential exposure from a colleague; I was just instructed to take my temp twice a day for two weeks.

2 Votes
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

Will the cost for viral or antibody testing fall to private business and individuals primarily? Will there be government funded testing for those without health insurance?

Specializes in Registered Nurse.
7 hours ago, turtlesRcool said:

Testing availability is better. Even with more available tests, the accuracy of the rapids is in question. There is also some concern that the rapid tests give a lot of false negatives. The research seems to go back and forth about how accurate they are, but some studies have shown the Abbott rapid to miss 1/3 or more of the positives. Some hospitals are refusing to use them at all. My hospital does use them, but for people with higher risk factors, a negative on a rapid in the ED will get you a bed on the PUI unit while waiting for one of the longer tests to come back.

On Wednesday, I got my rapid COVID and blood drawn for antibodies. My hospital is trying to test all frontline workers, but I think the point to study asymptomatic transmission in health care workers, not as an ongoing attempt at infection control. At least at the moment, I don't know when we'll all be tested again, or even IF we will. I wasn't even tested when I was informed of a potential exposure from a colleague; I was just instructed to take my temp twice a day for two weeks.

I think no testing after potential exposure, and continuation of work places our patient's, expecially the elders and most vulnerable at risk. How many patient's is a pre-symptomatic healthcare worker exposing ?

I'm not surprised at your employers protocol, sounds similar to other situations I have heard or encountered. Perhaps this is the reason for under utilization of hospital services by the public.

My mother just got out of acute care for her first episode of apparent HE (ETOH abstinent -- by her own choice, yay! -- nearly 2 weeks before AMS was apparent so they didn't think it was late-appearing DTs, no nystagmus), and I was using all of my abilities to access her chart remotely to get information on just what was going on with her. 48-hour delay before lab results show there, though.

I knew her nurses did not have time to go over labs, and certainly did not have the ability to change orders to her care. It was extremely frustrating that the hospitalist never called us, even once -- not just because we were left in the dark, but because her nutritional/digestive status is complicated by a prior bariatric surgery -- higher risk of WE, and she was having extreme ataxia along with the AMS.

Even worse, though, was knowing she was experiencing new-onset confusion, all alone, without any family members to give her any sort of grounding. She wasn't able to answer her room phone without assistance, so during her entire admission she got to speak to me once, and to my sister once.

It's hard but we fought to get her discharged to home and do home health vs dc to stepdown for OT/PT. She still doesn't have all her nouns back so I am still worried about her, but my sister and I both agreed that whatever was causing her confusion, it would be more likely to resolve at home where she knows people love and care about her.

Or at least not get worse from being completely isolated from us.

Edit to add: they did test her for COVID, but she's in the end of the queue and no results back yet. If they're doing that for every pt and not just the elderly, then at least HCWs at this hospital are going to know they've been exposed -- even if they might learn it only when their own incubation period is close to over.

3 Votes
Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.
43 minutes ago, moriahcat said:

HE (ETOH abstinent . . .

AMS . . .


higher risk of WE . . .

OK, please tell me, what is HE, AMS, and WE?

I feel like I'm reading in a different language.

4 Votes
Just now, Kitiger said:

OK, please tell me, what is HE, AMS, and WE?

I feel like I'm reading in a different language.

Oh, sorry. Altered mental status was the best way to describe why we felt admission was absolutely necessary. She was slurring despite no alcohol in 2 weeks, speaking very slowly, lethargic, not responding to complex questions, the day after some unusual hostility after overhearing a conversation and misunderstanding what had been said (a person she disliked was mentioned, she was clearly upset, when asked why she said she didn't want them over for dinner and was very sure we had invited them).

They felt it was just hepatic encephalopathy -- and yeah, once I got to see the labs in her patient-accessible version of the chart, I could see why that would be the first assumption. But the part of her gut that absorbs thiamine is bypassed, and she'd just had a week of vomiting/not eating well from trying to dry out and refusing to go inpatient to do it.

So despite no nystagmus, Wernicke's encephalopathy was a concern of mine -- both in making sure that wasn't what was going on, and ensuring she never *does* get her thiamine reserves completely depleted.

4 Votes

Just wanted to say that I hope your mother will be okay and that I am thinking of you during this time!

3 Votes
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