Grandmas has a pressure sore on heel. Any advice?
GMA is in nursing home in WI. GMA, moved with her one daughter, (not my mom), a few states away after GMP passed. That daughter thought, she could handle care. She could not, after isolating her from the rest of us that could. She put her in a crapy little town care facility states away from the rest of us. We took it in stride, best we could.
GMA developed pressure sore on heel. As Aunt began to not care about going to see her, once isolated. This was in summer of '14. GMA, not a complainer, started to need oxy every 4 hours for the pain associated with heel pressure sore. Finally saw a pix of the thing. It is huge. It is BLACK. Distributed photo to family. Have, MD, RN, LPN, ER Anesthesiologist, PT guy in MY extended family.
MD relative told me GMA is likely to need limb cut off at knee, provided there is adequate blood supply at that level. But Dr ordered angiogram at thigh level at appt . at wound care facility in Eau Clare tomorrow after learning of families talents. Soo thinking he thinks thing is going to need cut off at torso. Poor lady is 90. Best person you'd ever meet. My last living GMA.
I want to systematically cut the owner of this "care facility" off at the knees for may years to come, to repay him for cutting off my GMA at the knees. I have family member that is a politician, that rubs elbows with Govenors, Senators, Judges, and the AP in this region of the country. So that's an easy given. I have studied up medicare complaint systems to make sure the fines cost a lot. I have found sites that allow family members to sue for this kind of thing, there are 15 of us qualified. Figure we'll just release it all a little at a time to make sure this guy's life sucks as long as he is alive.
I don't feel that the Fed/State fines, prolonged law suits, negative press this jerk is going to experience for the next 10 years is enough. GMA is THE most angelic person any one could ever encounter. I don't even know if she will endure the surgical attempts to save her life that will ensue.
Any one have some more ammo? I will make this idiot's life not worth living, as he has made GMA's. For all the "little guys", thanks.
28 Answers
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FYI, after one month stay at our only hospital on this island, when it was time to change her pampers, oh my!!! She was on the foley the whole time she was hospitalized. When I opened her pamper, she was super red, painful even for the water to dribble on her private areas. When we turned her to clean the butt area, she had this hole on her right butt!! We panicked and called her home care nurse. It took months to finally stop the hole from going down deep and then to heal. One patch of Duoderm cost $10. We spent over$100, cutting it into smaller pieces.
Moondance, yes, the term osteomyelitis is exactly the term the MD in the family used to express what he wanted her checked for. She had her 1st appointment at a wound care facility a few days ago. They debrided and pared and put her on Keflex. Shot Xray, thought it was definitive from that that the infection was not in the bone, so did not do MRI. (That's the only question in the back of my mind right now, wondering if the wound care Doc is speeding through "step therapy" in order to justify getting on a more aggressive coarse.) Dr. there ordered a recheck with her at 7 days, angiogram on that same day, recheck in 14 days so far. So looks like someone is finally being responsible! She also ordered a specific wash, wrap,
boot, and care routine to be followed at the nursing home. Auntie has been checking in every day, has found that they are NOT doing it unless pushed by her, so far. At least the family is finally all aware and working together. A move will likely be in order after trying to gain some ground by working with the wound care specialist for a few weeks. Smoke still rolls out my ears now and then about this, but yes, gaining ground, (if it is possible), getting GMA situated, top priority. But I do want this reported so they think harder about letting it happen to others! Thanks all!
I hear you're justified anger. May I validate that for you please. The most important issue is to have her taken care of or it could get worse, speaking from years of experience in the medical profession.
I want to reach through this machine & strangle someone now!!!! This did not have to happen...I feel angry now.
Not directed at you~~I so understand...
The rest can be dealt with as soon as she is better, hopefully.
Focus on her now.
You sound as if you have a great support system.
Start to documentate all you can, calls, paperwork, any communication you can obtain. I have found in the past going to a state representative, get immediate results, but I went in the form of an advocate for mentally ill patients of mine.
There are special padded booties which have a Velcro closure and are available everywhere in the US. These should have been put to use with your GMA from the first sign of irritation. Antibiotics, angiograms for circulation and coconut oil, ointments should have been used. Since she is not diabetic there is little excuse for this having progressed this far. The reprobates can no doubt charge more for amputation and subsequent treatment than prevention. It all comes down to the money and our Medicare/Medicaid tax dollars going to the wicked in this corrupt industry.
May they all reap what they sow.
There's the simple fact that pressure sores are notoriously difficult to heal, and the equally simple fact that the amount of plain time required to keep an elderly immobile person adequately hydrated and mobilised is astronomically expensive and does not compute in the typical residential setting… And that's before you add in pre-existing conditions or antibiotic-resistant infections or untoward 'events' that aren't necessarily blameworthy… It's such a can of worms.
My mother's 90, too, and I've just three weeks ago brought her home from rehab post-stroke - she's paralysed on her left side. Her heels, big toes, sacrum and (?!?) ears were highlighted by the rehab centre as at high risk of pressure sores, so I've learned to rotate her position, moisturise her skin, check for blanching at regular intervals and cry for help if in doubt. So far so good, and her skin condition is improving. But here's the thing. I HAVE got all day to make her drink, waggle her legs around, stick my head under the bed covers to check on her behind, change her incontinence pad the second it's wet. I've got just the one patient to concentrate on, and I'm here 24/7 with home aides coming in daily to help. The moral is: if this is what it takes to get one step ahead of pressure sores, then what's the cost of one-to-one care?
And if or when my mother does eventually develop a pressure sore in spite of all that, will I still be blaming myself? You bet I will.
Guess I just don't understand. Do they get bad marks if the people need to see a Doc other than the one who makes rounds once a week? Why would they do that? Almost seems like something is being covered up, trying to hide the fall, or pressure sore, or fact no one had time to do the care on her chart, or did she just fall through the cracks? I'm sort of worried for the other people there now.
My grandma died of gangrene; my aunt clipped grandma's toenails to save the expense of having a podiatrist do that. Grandma caught pneumonia and a small nick that would have healed had she been up on her feet turned gangrenous. That's the cause of death on her death certificate: gangrene.
I'm not excusing anybody here, but the frail elderly are prone to all sorts of bad stuff happening because their bodies can't repair themselves any longer.
You might also want to ask if GMA is competent and staff was asking HER what she wanted, she may have refused treatment.
Not trying to say that you're wrong, but if you decide to pursue this, you will hear many different sides to this story, no doubt. Hope grandma is doing better!
I guess I equate the poor little people in there with babies and pets, they're completely reliant on others to do the right basic things. After spending my life fostering, donating, volunteering to help and rehome abused and abandoned pets I am still surprised when I see a wrack of bones near death over a few cents and a few minutes a day. I guess I feel mad that people would understaff this place like that, leave helpless people sit uncared for just to try to keep the $ for themselves rather than spend some on care. I've sure heard of understaffing at hospitals, some bad stuff from family members in the field, it always goes back to the owner's greed. I sure didn't know that her "owie" was getting like that all those months, but they did, and they watched it, and let it happen. A lot of the care on her sheet was skipped, (not done), as it got worse. Their Dr looked at it last week and said to change wrapping every 3 days, he'd look at it in a month! It's necrotic, it smells, it's to the bone. If older family members hadn't driven the 8 hours up there a couple days ago and talked to that Doc to get the order to send her to wound care an hour away she probably would have sat there and died. Surely the staff knows better than this. (?)
It's a question of what to spend your energy on, you see. First things first, get her better. Have you spoken, by the way, to your grandmother's own doctor?
He had a blood clot that was NOT diagnosed in spite of various ER visits.
He had gangrene develop and very quickly grew on his foot.
I was filled with anger, but as my story progressed, I had to chose whether to focus on recovery or "revenge".
He went to ER again various specialist later they wanted to set a stint to prevent clog from going to lungs, then dependent on the circulation, proceed with the amputation. Dad was 89, his circulation below the knee was minimal, the doctors wanted to take the entire leg or at least to the knee. I wanted them to do the least. I knew at his age, any more than the foot would kill him from depression, he needed hope to walk again. I advocated, I pleaded, I prayed and I stayed in the hospital room until I spoke to every single doctor. They amputated half of his foot and scrapped/ removed his heal almost to the bone. He was none weight bearing for close to a year but he worked out every single day and by end of year he walked again.
I will not lie to you the post op year was rough, anesthesia and morphine can make the elderly very batty and combative, but we got past that her recuperated mentally as well.
He lived another three happy years. I can only imagine how guilty I would have felt if he had required and not survived further surgeries, but I really felt he would have made that choice himself....BTW he was cognizant, but afraid and he asked me to decide for him.
I share this in detail, because there are some similarities and I had a happy ending
Advocate for her the best you can, these things are very complicated and you never know how they will work out....the only measure of success is that she know you love her and you are in her corner.
I wish you and your grandmother the very best.
L
As far as the lawsuit, you would need firsthand knowledge of some sort of neglect, documentation that you saw this and you told them and they failed to use due diligence. Too late. All the money in the world won't bring GMA back to good health. Just be closer, make her comfortable if you can. That is what she really needs now.