I am a caregiver for a man that has end stage reinal disease, he is also in a wheelchair 24 hours a day as a result of a back injury and a broken leg with a steel bar in it. He is 67 years old, and has been doing dialysis for over 10 years. On the Fourth of July, he was sitting at the end of his driveway waiting for his transportation to the kidney center, as he always does three times a week. It was 4:45 am when he woke up from dozing off, and looked up just in time to see someone running down the street with his duffle bag that he had on his lap. Besides the keys to the house, Van, and safe, they also got away with his headphones, blanket, and pain meds. He has never ever had any problems with loosing his pain meds or having them stolen. He has never overtaken his pain meds. He always keeps them with him, and is responsible with them. We filed a police report, and I contacted the seattle pain center in everett, wa to tell them what happened. They asked if there was a police report filed, and wanted the case number, I gave them this information. I asked what I needed to do to help the man I take care of replace the 10 days worth of meds that were stolen from him. They set up an appt. for the following day. We went to the appt. and they said they want him to do a blood test, and that they will not replace his meds, also he was getting a disciplinary write up because he was robbed. I said that is BS. The man told me to get out and that I was not welcome to come to Daves appointments any more. Now he is going threw withdrawls and in a lot of pain. I found out that if I was to take him to the emergency room so he could get the meds he normally takes, that they will do more then a write up, because he signed something when he first started going to the pain center saying that he is not allowed to be prescribed any pain meds from any other facility besides them. This would be understandable if Dave had abused his meds in the past, or maybe even if he had just filled his script, and it was full. The pain center should look at the big picture when dealing with each patient, consider all the factors before punishing someone that is a victim of strong armed robbery. I feel helpless having to see him go threw all this pain, and I have no idea how to help him get threw this next ten days, let alone how I'm going to get threw the next ten days. This is beyond unfair, and there has to be something that can be done about innocent people in the same situation.
I am still absolutely putting effort into trying to prevent the pain center from treating other innocent elderly people like criminals. I feel that it should be in their best interest to fully investigate situations like ours, before deciding to punish anyone. I fully understand that there is a huge problem with people abusing pain meds, but there ARE people that have been taking the same meds for years, without ANY questionable circumstances what so ever. It would not take a lot of time for them to pull up some records, and then utilize this to determine how to proceed with the individual patient. The way they treated him wa unacceptable, and he found it very confusing when they showed absolutely no compassion for him, treated him like it was his fault that this happened, and informed him that he was getting a "disciplinary write up." As if he does not have enough problems to deal with. Honestly the fact that they refused to replace the stolen meds, is the least of my concern. I am far more concerned with how he was treated by the pain center. I am not going to just ignore how they treated him, and plan to continue to put effort into correcting their behavior in hopes of preventing other elders from having to deal with the same treatment. Even if I am unable to make progress, at least I will know that I put effort into standing up for Dave. Just like a lt of people his age, in his medical position, he just allows people to treat him like this, because he does not have the will or energy to speak up for himself. For instance, his transportation to dialysis. They used to be SO unreliable. They would show up REALLY late ALL the time, and sometimes just not show at all. If he was just going shopping or something this would not be a huge problem. When he has to have dialysis to keep him alive, and they are not taking their job seriously, then there are problems. Of course if it were not for me he would have never said anything to anyone, he would have just allowed them to continue not getting him where he needed to be until it killed him. After a long year of dealing with no shows and cancellations, making phone calls, sending emails to anyone that I thought would see the seriousness of the situation, and hoping that at least one email would land in the right place, I finally managed to talk to the right person, all my time, determination, and effort actually paid off!! After having to figure out alternative transportation and making complaints more then 30 times, they have finally been reliable for over six months at this point!! I'm just glad that I was able to speak up for Dave when he would not be able to!!
Again, thank you for your time and concern, it is more then appreciated, it is nice to know that people do care!!
Patients are scheduled 3x each week - either the Mon, Wed, Fri group or the Tues, Thurs, Sat group.
Note they did a blood test on this patient. That means the drug levels were not what they should be, another red flag that resulted in cutoff. False reports of theft occur all the time.(Note: this was not a robbery, no deadly force used). I don't know anybody who would be going to dialysis at 4 AM on the 4th of July Holiday. Very phishy.
We also called her primary to see what to do to get the meds replaced, they also
said they needed the police report, and all we had was the case number. So we went to the police station to get it. We were told there you do not get the police report until the
case is closed! And it could take months to solve a case or longer if it goes to court.
I understand the legality of the situation, and that the drs have to protect themselves, but it is not fair to the victim of the crime.
We were lucky that my mil only takes this medication as needed and in the end had enough to cover her thru to the next refill thankfully. I do not know what we would had done for her otherwise if she would of needed them earlier. We immediately secured her prescriptions and cash in separate lock boxes. And as of last week one of moms bracelet was found at a pawn shop by the police, so this is the proof they needed to prove this caregiver was the one that did it and they will be prosecuted.
I pray that you find someone to help your client so that he does not have to suffer with pain and go through withdrawal.