Long story, yesterday afternoon I answered my doorbell to find my 85 yr.old neighbor in a panic. His wife, home 5 days from rehab from a UTI, has fallen. I run across the street to find her screaming on the dining room floor, but she recognizes me as soon as she sees me. Pain in neck, shoulders, tingling in arm, cant tell me how she fell. We call 911 and off to the hospital. I drive with my neighbor and we get to local emergency room. I explain as much as possible. Wife is in a cervical collar until cat scan is done. She is also stone deaf. I explain this to everyone that comes in contact with her "please speak in her right ear where she has a hearing aid". I give as much info as I can, I am only the neighbor. As I am relaying info, a CNA comes in to put wife on fracture pan. We have now been in emergency room for about 2 hours. Suddenly we hear wife crying and screaming. We are told she is okay, they are "dealing with her". We are right outside curtain, so husband is turning white with terror. After a few minutes, we return to find that they have inserted a foley. They took a deaf, elderly woman in a cervical collar, and without explaining to her or her husband , cathed her. We know this becasue we were right outside the curtain and never heard the tech or nurse say anything except to scream "Can't you bend your knee?" at her. I ask why she needs a foley and get "well, she is elderly and prone to decubitis ulcers." ooookkkayyy, but she has not been admitted, has not even been seen by MD yet. Fast forward to after CT scan. No stroke, no bleeds, no broken neck, all soft tissue damage. ECG ordered. I stay with her for comfort as she thinks they "put some needles up in there" and has never been made aware of any procedures. She is terrified. Tech comes for ECG and literally strips her naked and leaves her completely exposed to the ED the entire time. I do my best to help her stay covered where necessary. Really???? Is this how we treat elderly injured patients??? I was appalled!!! In the end, she was admitted for observation. They need to find out why she is "so disoriented" Whatt??? The woman reads 3-5 newspapers a day, discusses world events at length and was well aware that she had fallen and needed medical attention. I ask what confusion and get "Well, we ask her questions and she cant answer us. She seems to be in her own world" UMMMM I have explained 7 or 8 times thast she is almost completely deaf and ..... they took her hearing aid out and put it in a box so it would not get lost. So, sorry this is a rant and longer than I intended, but, since when do we treat an injured elderly 85 year old woman in such a manner? I explained that I was a CNA with plenty of experience with the elderly and would help where I could, but this blew my mind. I would be fired if I stripped a woman, left her exposed to the entire emergency room (curtains please) and never ever bothered to explain anything to her or her husband before a procedure. Am I off base here? BTW, I am going to see her in a couple of hours with her husband. They are both very alert, very active people.
I'd be calling anyone and everyone I could. It does NOT matter that you aren't her daughter, you are a very close friend and what was done to her was wrong on so many levels. Go to the ombudman also....and the unit manager.
Who gave the order for the foley and why, also find out the name of the person who put the foley in. If they did not make her aware that they were doing that and also did she sign papers prior to getting admitted for them to be able to put in a foley? Also not explaining such a procedure is absolutely wrong!
They will try to document that she is/was confused so that any backlash to this will appear useless; that they had to do what they did for the patient's well being. Stick with it. You have no idea what I've seen elderly people put through; it's a horrible testament to some of our health care practices and is formulated from fear. Many of us have stereotyped our elderly to the ranks of invisibility to ensure that we may comfortably treat them as we see fit (without their permission).
if she didnt sign for treatment, and the spouse wasnt told that a foley was being put in- I'd say that sounds like battery to me. definitly someone higher up needs to know about this. and use the word " battery" hopefully that gets someones attention.
UPDATE! My neighbor and I visited his wife. She was in a private room and had her hearing aid. Her MD had called the hosp. and given them H#%% as well as ordered the foley removed(we were waiting on that still as we were visited by management). Letter has been filed, and things are looking good. She is in a private room. Her meds were not quite right for her, so she became dizzy and fell at home. Once they have her WNL she comes home with a visiting nurse for a week or so.:yeah:SHE is letting them know just alert and oriented she is, calling the nurses by first name, letting them all know she expects better "from professionals" and "Doesn't anybody around here read USA Today?". Thanks all for listening. We love these people and want them to be with us as long as possible. I have given her husband info. about non medical respite help.
Good for you not only for being so caring, but for standing up to the system.
Too many people treat people like they're idiots nowadays.
My mother is nearly 70 now & she was standing at the very front counter of the chemists one day waiting to be served. All the young girls were just ignoring her, or looking right through her & serving everyone around her (I used to know the owner of the chemist and these girls are notorious for doing this). Now I know ur thinking: maybe they thought she was being served, but not ONE person asked if she was being attended to. My mum said in a loud voice: "Does everyone here think I'm invisible because I'm old?" Well, they scurried over to her, and she spoke in a loud voice to the manager as well. I found out & talked to the owner and he was not happy. Apparently young people (and some others) think older people will just stand for any treatment, no matter how bad it is.
I took my Mom to the ER a couple of weeks ago and was a but unnerved that an ER tech was "triaging" her at the front desk and trying to convince us that it wasn't necessary for her to be there. But then again shortly after that he made the Mom standing behind us undress her baby so he could "assess" the rash on the kid's butt.
I'm so glad that things are starting to get figured out. My suggestion was going to be that besides informing ER manager, hospital/nursing CEO, I would also considering firing a letter to the press.
BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN
1,823 Posts
I'd be calling anyone and everyone I could. It does NOT matter that you aren't her daughter, you are a very close friend and what was done to her was wrong on so many levels. Go to the ombudman also....and the unit manager.