He’s 79. We have been spending as much time at the hospital as humanly possible. The bone-head errors are mind-numbing. I came in one day and he didn’t have his oxygen on. The had moved him to a chair and took his oxygen off then never put it back on when they put him back in bed until I asked the nurse about it... we have dozens and dozens of these documented.
I’m going back to patient relations today. I went Friday and they told me to set up a roundtable with the appropriate docs which I attempted to do by contacting the discharge nurse (she never got back to me.) We’ve been trying to get questions answered about his spine for weeks with no joy. At 4:55 Friday (just before the three day weekend) the hospitalist came in and said he’s not a candidate for surgery so he’ll be going to a skilled nursing facility in 1-2 days and after 4-6 weeks of therapy we can have a consult with a spine specialist.
We haven’t ruled out contacting a lawyer but how do you sort through all the ambulance-chasing, slime-balls? We’re physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted trying to help my dad. This is occuring at a brand-new hospital in the Bay area, by the way. We really expected exceptional care.
Get your father out of that hospital, first and foremost. Then document your experiences and find an attorney. You don’t want to get down the road and have their attorney ask why you never transferred him if the conditions were so terrible. They can arrange an ambulance. Threaten to carry him out on your back on the 5 o’clock news if they refuse or keep stalling. Sadly, I am serious. Have the other hospital examine him for injuries and make recommendations.
My almost 88 year old Mom broke a hip and had surgery at Eisenhower Medical Center here three weeks ago, and had been in skilled nursing for the ensuing period - in a very pointed "Non Weight Bearing" status (NO standing or weight on that side).
She developed pneumonia Sunday and was re-admitted to Eisenhower via the ER....and as of yesterday, a physical therapist was about to get her up on a walker and start exercise......the "Non Weight Bearing" stuff got totally lost in the shuffle between the facilities.
Good luck - you're gonna need it. You might also check for some sort of Medicare ombudsman.
And on the note of knowing the environment well ... try not to get yourselves too worked up until you know the facts. The big question I would have is “did he fall?”. If there was a fall involved then the hospital has some serious answering to do. If not - you will never find evidence that your father was “manhandled” unless you are able to produce an eye witness or hospital a document that establishes clearly such an event occurred. A patient with a history of compression fractures is at risk for future fractures simply by being alive. Many elderly people who “fall and break their hip” actually do so in reverse order ... their hip bone shears and then they fall and hit the ground. Some people's bones become so brittle and frail that they can't support their own weight without breaking a bone. Your father may be one of those people. The history of compression fractures is kinda defacto evidence of such.
It's good that you kept a list of “errors” you have seen yourself. Once again, keep a couple things in mind. It has been my personal experience that most, if not all, of the things you perceive as “errors” are not errors at all unless you are a health care professional yourself and you understand what you are looking at. Issues such as replacing an oxygen supply device are not “errors” unless the patients clinical situation demanded oxygen at that moment. Maybe it did - I'm not saying you are wrong - I'm only saying that you should be prepared for many of your concerns to be deemed irrelevant either because a medical professional would not testify in court that it was an error or because it does not pertain directly to the back injury in question.
Get some professional help, be open to what they say, hold those responsible accountable for what was done or not done (did somebody leave him unattended and he fell out of bed??), but also resist the temptation to extort money from the hospital and health care providers if they happened to be unlucky enough to be caring for your father when an inevitable injury occurred.
This happened to my mother. She kept telling the nurse on duty that it wasn't on, the nurse kept insisting that it was.
Hours later, when the repiratory therapist arrived to treat my mother, his first remark was, "My God, your oxygen is turned off."
The next day, my mother had a stroke and died.
What did your father say about how the fracture happened? Can’t he inform you if he has been man handled?