back to the grindstone...
Jun. 13th, 2007 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaReturning to the office after five days off? I'm not even sure what my job is anymore even after just one day away...not to mention how annoyed I get when I return to clutter, especially in the kitchen. Is it so hard to open the cupboard and put clean cups and plates away? I washed 'em all and put them to drain before I left last week, it would only take 20 seconds to put them away, and you know what - there'd be room for people to do stuff. Amazing. I don't know why they won't touch anything I put in the kitchen, I mean, it's not like anything I put down is sacrosanct or anything. Ridiculous.
Went to see my friend Molly last night, and found her rather stressed. She's usually stressed, mind, because there are a lot of ongoing family issues that weight heavily on her. She's got her youngest son living back at home after the breakup of his marriage - his two-year-old son was diagnosed with leukaemia at just 9 months, and the marriage didn't survive. Her other daughter-in-law is fighting breast cancer, and since her own family isn't terribly supportive, Moll is taking all the strain for that. She's had cancer herself more than once.
It was Moll's husband Tony causing the stress this time. Now, Tony lives in a residential care home, and has done for several years now. He's an alcoholic, and went into a home when Moll couldn't cope with caring for him any more - she'd left him 20 years previously, but they never divorced and she took him back in when he started to deteriorate and let him live in her spare room. But his alcoholism was out of control, and he ended up in hospital - I won't go into all the gory details now - and from there to the home. He's very healthy again now - stabilised on half a bottle of whisky a day, which he never drinks before 6pm. Can't, because that's when it is doled out to him. He needs that, because his body is reliant on it, and going into withdrawal is dangerous to his health, and since at 74 he really isn't ever going to rehabilitate completely, this is as good as it gets for him. He drives Moll mad, because he lives in a little bubble, oblivious to the needs of anyone around him, barely even remembers his own grandchildren's names, is utterly self-absorbed. But he's a very sweet man, very gentlemanly, and has never, ever been violent or aggressive in any way. Denied his alcohol, he gets peevish and ill; he is never violent.
On Saturday afternoon, Tony had a fall in the garden of the home, hit his head and was knocked out, and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance, badly bruised and shaken up. This was about 4.30pm, before he'd had his whisky for the day, so he was completely sober. It's important to remember that. Moll had the grandchildren and was out for the day, and they didn't manage to get hold of her until Sunday to let her know what had happened. And by then things had already got worse. It seems that on the ward Tony was placed on, a party was thrown for a member of staff who was leaving, Saturday evening. Tony managed to wander into this party, a confused old man with a head injury. Instead of simply guiding him back to his bed, they called security who manhandled him out of the room! His arms are covered with bruises - fingerprint shaped bruises.
It's absolutely disgusting that a vulnerable elderly person can be treated in this way. Only a few hours after being admitted with a head injury, he should have been closely monitored anyway, not left alone to wander around in confusion. It seems pretty obvious that the hospital staff simply took one look at the word 'alcoholic' on his notes and assumed the worst, rather than actually treating him as the vulnerable and confused old man that he is. He wasn't drunk; he had a head injury. Since then, they are backpeddling and trying to cover up like mad. He was supposed to be released on Monday, but instead changed their minds and sent him off for a scan very late in the day - two days after being admitted, I think anything a scan could have revealed might have already killed him by then anyway, should there be a problem. Tuesday Moll went to see him on the bus and found him in tears, and ended up having to take him home on the bus he was so distressed at the thought of having to stay there longer while she went home for the car.
He's back at the home now, where the staff are appalled at how he was treated in hospital and want the matter taken further. So does their oldest son, Steven, who is a social worker - action can be taken under the provisions for Vulnerable Adults. It isn't about compensation - it's about ensuring that elderly people are treated with care and respect while in hospital, when they are at their most vulnerable. Luckily Tony is pretty resilient, but a more fragile person could really suffer badly from such rough treatment in a place they are supposed to be safe.
Fingers crossed it doesn't happen to anyone else.
Went to see my friend Molly last night, and found her rather stressed. She's usually stressed, mind, because there are a lot of ongoing family issues that weight heavily on her. She's got her youngest son living back at home after the breakup of his marriage - his two-year-old son was diagnosed with leukaemia at just 9 months, and the marriage didn't survive. Her other daughter-in-law is fighting breast cancer, and since her own family isn't terribly supportive, Moll is taking all the strain for that. She's had cancer herself more than once.
It was Moll's husband Tony causing the stress this time. Now, Tony lives in a residential care home, and has done for several years now. He's an alcoholic, and went into a home when Moll couldn't cope with caring for him any more - she'd left him 20 years previously, but they never divorced and she took him back in when he started to deteriorate and let him live in her spare room. But his alcoholism was out of control, and he ended up in hospital - I won't go into all the gory details now - and from there to the home. He's very healthy again now - stabilised on half a bottle of whisky a day, which he never drinks before 6pm. Can't, because that's when it is doled out to him. He needs that, because his body is reliant on it, and going into withdrawal is dangerous to his health, and since at 74 he really isn't ever going to rehabilitate completely, this is as good as it gets for him. He drives Moll mad, because he lives in a little bubble, oblivious to the needs of anyone around him, barely even remembers his own grandchildren's names, is utterly self-absorbed. But he's a very sweet man, very gentlemanly, and has never, ever been violent or aggressive in any way. Denied his alcohol, he gets peevish and ill; he is never violent.
On Saturday afternoon, Tony had a fall in the garden of the home, hit his head and was knocked out, and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance, badly bruised and shaken up. This was about 4.30pm, before he'd had his whisky for the day, so he was completely sober. It's important to remember that. Moll had the grandchildren and was out for the day, and they didn't manage to get hold of her until Sunday to let her know what had happened. And by then things had already got worse. It seems that on the ward Tony was placed on, a party was thrown for a member of staff who was leaving, Saturday evening. Tony managed to wander into this party, a confused old man with a head injury. Instead of simply guiding him back to his bed, they called security who manhandled him out of the room! His arms are covered with bruises - fingerprint shaped bruises.
It's absolutely disgusting that a vulnerable elderly person can be treated in this way. Only a few hours after being admitted with a head injury, he should have been closely monitored anyway, not left alone to wander around in confusion. It seems pretty obvious that the hospital staff simply took one look at the word 'alcoholic' on his notes and assumed the worst, rather than actually treating him as the vulnerable and confused old man that he is. He wasn't drunk; he had a head injury. Since then, they are backpeddling and trying to cover up like mad. He was supposed to be released on Monday, but instead changed their minds and sent him off for a scan very late in the day - two days after being admitted, I think anything a scan could have revealed might have already killed him by then anyway, should there be a problem. Tuesday Moll went to see him on the bus and found him in tears, and ended up having to take him home on the bus he was so distressed at the thought of having to stay there longer while she went home for the car.
He's back at the home now, where the staff are appalled at how he was treated in hospital and want the matter taken further. So does their oldest son, Steven, who is a social worker - action can be taken under the provisions for Vulnerable Adults. It isn't about compensation - it's about ensuring that elderly people are treated with care and respect while in hospital, when they are at their most vulnerable. Luckily Tony is pretty resilient, but a more fragile person could really suffer badly from such rough treatment in a place they are supposed to be safe.
Fingers crossed it doesn't happen to anyone else.
