The stupid doctors told us mom had quit eating because of her dementia. She was at end of life and didn't bother to attempt any diagnosis without arguing and us being treated like we didn't know how dementia ended even though my mother is being taken care of at home. Turns out it was the doxycycline making her sick. She started eating 24 hours after her last pill. They had decided to write her off and never got her out of bed for 3 days. After some arguing and me diagnosing her and the doctor agreeing, she is now in rehab to get her strength back after the pnemonia and the negligent hospital just writing her off and leaving her in bed for 3 days.
Good luck to mom in rehab. Hopefully she can make some progress and get her strength back. She's fortunate to have you in her corner. I advocated for my parents for over 10 years in their old age myself.
In the "old days" they used to consider pneumonia the "old person's friend" because it prevented further having to live on in a crucible of torment.
Now we are forced to go on and on and on in total misery. Why? For what reason? It is cruelty in its most extreme form. IMHO.
My belief is that after a certain point, we shouldn’t fight to save a dementia patient’s life.
I will quote him .
“ Doctors don’t always not what is wrong . There is still alot to learn in the medical field . This is why they call it PRACTICING medicine.”
Geriatrics is very complicated , as these people usually have multiple things wrong with them , and if they have dementia they can’t always tell the doctor what they are feeling , in order to give them clues. Same for babies .
Sometimes doctors miss things . I agree that one of the things they usually look at is if a new med could cause an issue . But again with dementia it’s not always clear what is going on , and it can be assumed it’s the dementia causing a change as it can be unpredictable and have sudden step downs .
I have to say the last time we sent my FIL to the hospital we were sorry we did . We should have let him go , he was miserable afterwards . It often seems we “ save them “ one too many times .
The last rally isn’t always good .