St. Francis hospital - mercy killing attempt!

[HoneySuckle]

Sis is still holding on.  It's amazing.  She was sitting up in bed talking yesterday, and fully aware of what's going on around her.  Last Thursday she was badly off, so it's an up and down thing.

I know she will die eventually, but at least the hospital is doing all they can (which is what she asked for recently), and that pleases me.

[Conan71]

Glad to hear it.  I'm sure you are trying to make each moment meaningful.

[Aa5drvr]

Its a wierd world at the pink palace.  

5 years ago my mother was in palliative care at St Fran for advanced lung cancer.

Somehow the orders were confused and late at night when none of us were there, staff began giving her laxitives for a colonoscopy the next day.
She had lung cancer.  All they would say was "Wrong patient and its being dealt with internally."

She died 2 days later.  

Thats why they call medicine a "practice."

[brunoflipper]

quote:Originally posted by Aa5drvr

Its a wierd world at the pink palace.  

5 years ago my mother was in palliative care at St Fran for advanced lung cancer.

Somehow the orders were confused and late at night when none of us were there, staff began giving her laxitives for a colonoscopy the next day.
She had lung cancer.  All they would say was "Wrong patient and its being dealt with internally."

She died 2 days later.  

Thats why they call medicine a "practice."

yep... wrong order, wrong patient, wrong chart- happens all of the time, everywhere.

[Aa5drvr]

The way I see it, its MY fault for going home to sleep for 2 hours.  I should have been there to intervene.  I wasnt there, my mother suffered, its MY fault.
Of course the staff on the floor were eating pizza from the last family whose loved one had died.....
If you can mis direct charts AND get FREE pizza, then who gives a crap?

[HoneySuckle]

quote:Originally posted by Aa5drvr

Its a wierd world at the pink palace.  

5 years ago my mother was in palliative care at St Fran for advanced lung cancer.

Somehow the orders were confused and late at night when none of us were there, staff began giving her laxitives for a colonoscopy the next day.
She had lung cancer.  All they would say was "Wrong patient and its being dealt with internally."

She died 2 days later.  

Thats why they call medicine a "practice."

That's very sad, but that's where we come in as a family.  I know we can't be there 24/7, but considering how many patients they have, and how understaffed sometimes, we can help by alerting the nurses and doctors to changes in the patient, or problems.

They have been bending over backwards now since all the BIG calls from higher up.  When I left today, she had receiving plasma, and soon to get two blood transfusions.  The physical therapists were also there to get sis up and sitting, and to massage her back, work her legs and arms for circulation.

Had we gone along with their idea of "care" two weeks ago, she would already be dead and buried.

Lesson learned.  Don't matter if sis does not walk out the hospital and ends up dying. At least she was willing to fight and we were too.  She did talk about her funeral arrangements today without anyone bringing it up, so she does understand that there is a possibility of not making it through all the chemo treatments.

I have to say that it was worth fighting for.

[HoneySuckle]

quote:Originally posted by Aa5drvr

The way I see it, its MY fault for going home to sleep for 2 hours.  I should have been there to intervene.  I wasnt there, my mother suffered, its MY fault.
Of course the staff on the floor were eating pizza from the last family whose loved one had died.....
If you can mis direct charts AND get FREE pizza, then who gives a crap?

It's not your fault. How could you know this was going to happen?  

My father passed away at SFH two years ago.  He was admitted on the 25th June.  One night I was chatting with the nurse and asked when last he had a bowel movement.  He was there for a week. She replied that his last was on the 13th June!  I told her this was impossible because he was admitted on the 25th so how could his chart have the 13th?  She checked again and said it was probably an error.  I knew my dad had complained of having lose b.m.'s before the heart attack so it wasn't possible.

I don't care what anyone thinks of my post on this board.  I know in my heart that they were 'hurrying' her journey on this earth, and they're not God!  We stepped in and I'm so glad we did.  We're getting the red carpet treatment.

Call us if you ever need some contacts[]

[brunoflipper]

"We're getting the red carpet treatment."

i can assure you that you are not deemed any more important than any other family... you're getting standard care... but i'm glad you see it that way and i'm glad your sister is stable...

[HoneySuckle]

quote:Originally posted by brunoflipper

"We're getting the red carpet treatment."

i can assure you that you are not deemed any more important than any other family... you're getting standard care... but i'm glad you see it that way and i'm glad your sister is stable...

I know it's hard for you to believe that the care has changed, and the treatment is 100% better, but it is.  The care was nothing like this prior to Rome/DC/OK City's involvement.

[HoneySuckle]

My sis is still hanging in there, and in fact, was able to handle some business on the phone this past week. It's amazing to see how her care has changed, and how the doctors are able to contain her pain without causing her to be zonked out. Why didn't they do this from the beginning?  Has to make you wonder.

I say keep fighting when your loved ones are hospitalised, and be there for them.

[rwarn17588]

Honeysuckle, pain medication is often difficult to get balanced out. People have widely different needs and reactions. It's rare for even the best doctors to get it right the first time out.

[HoneySuckle]

Sis is doing much better than even last week!  They're monitoring her properly now, and even bringing down the new pain meds more as she started responding to the last three sets of chemo (which they did NOT want to do before the outsiders got involved).  She'll eventually die from this cancer, but we're making the most of her time here on earth.  

Thanks for reading.  I still urge people to be very vigilant when your loved one is in the hospital.

[Porky]

quote:Originally posted by HoneySuckle

Sis is doing much better than even last week!  They're monitoring her properly now, and even bringing down the new pain meds more as she started responding to the last three sets of chemo (which they did NOT want to do before the outsiders got involved).  She'll eventually die from this cancer, but we're making the most of her time here on earth.  

Thanks for reading.  I still urge people to be very vigilant when your loved one is in the hospital.

I don't mean to sound callus Honey Suckle but it sounds to me like you are just prolonging something that the Doctors wanted to relieve you from.

May the Good Lord watch over you, your sister and your family during this time. And may you all find understanding as your sisters time comes near.

[brunoflipper]

quote:Originally posted by HoneySuckle

Sis is doing much better than even last week!  They're monitoring her properly now, and even bringing down the new pain meds more as she started responding to the last three sets of chemo (which they did NOT want to do before the outsiders got involved).  She'll eventually die from this cancer, but we're making the most of her time here on earth.  

Thanks for reading.  I still urge people to be very vigilant when your loved one is in the hospital.

glad to know she's comfortable... i can promise you, not a single one of her caretakers had any contact with any "outsider" (papal or otherwise) that caused them to change their careplan for your sister... nor did any san franny administrator come down on any of those caretakers because of your "outsiders"... they may well have responded to you and your family's concerns, but no "strings were pulled"... promise. swear. trust me. bank on it... but it sounds like you're happy with care now and that is all that matters...

[HoneySuckle]

quote:Originally posted by Porky

quote:Originally posted by HoneySuckle

Sis is doing much better than even last week!  They're monitoring her properly now, and even bringing down the new pain meds more as she started responding to the last three sets of chemo (which they did NOT want to do before the outsiders got involved).  She'll eventually die from this cancer, but we're making the most of her time here on earth.  

Thanks for reading.  I still urge people to be very vigilant when your loved one is in the hospital.

I don't mean to sound callus Honey Suckle but it sounds to me like you are just prolonging something that the Doctors wanted to relieve you from.

May the Good Lord watch over you, your sister and your family during this time. And may you all find understanding as your sisters time comes near.

She's not ready to die, it's as simple as that.

Last night she was actually putting on some wrinkle reducing face cream.  If she was totally out of it for a few days straight, I could understand the concept that death was close, but one day she's down and the next 4 or 5 days she's having physical therapy and chemo etc.  Her white blood cell count is up, sugar is down, blood pressure perfect, liver function is very good, so what exactly do you mean by us prolonging her life?

I think the doctors were too quick to give up, to be honest.  If she wanted to quit (I've asked her recently), I would be 100% supportive, considering that most of the burden is on me to look after her finances, home, car etc.