Diabetic testing falls short.
Widower critical of provincial protocols at nursing homes
HALIFAX — Before she lost her life to dementia-related strokes on June 11, her husband said Penny Dennis was often left black and blue from constant falls at Northwood nursing home.
“The first time, she split her head and had four stitches in her eyebrow and was black and blue from head to toe,” John Dennis said in an interview from his apartment at Northwood Terrace, an assisted living home next to Northwood.
On Feb. 15, he said his wife broke two bones in her left leg in a fall and had to be taken to the emergency department
John Dennis places the blame for her falls squarely on provincial protocols that have led to “criminal” shortfalls in glucose testing and insulin-treatment schedules.
Penny Dennis, who entered nursing care in December because of her dementia, was also a diabetic who required regular insulin injections and glucose monitoring. Before that, Dennis said he was able to control his and his wife’s diabetes through careful monitoring of their blood sugar levels, diet and exercise.
“The problem originates with the province and Nova Scotia health (authority) not giving the nursing homes enough hours and a mandate that they must test diabetics before each meal, and then give them an insulin dosage corresponding to their glucose level and whether or not they eat the meal,” he said.
Instead Dennis said his wife’s glucose levels were checked only once a day, with checks varying each day before breakfast, lunch, supper and before bedtime.
Dennis said his wife’s glucose levels sometimes plummeted to dangerously low levels and other times her blood sugar went “sky high.”
“You can’t treat diabetics like that,” he said, while emphasizing he didn’t blame Northwood staff for the problems.
“The head nurse was phenomenal and she and her staff treated Penny with a lot of care and compassion,” he said, but they are constrained by insufficient staffing hours needed to properly monitor diabetic patients and inadequate provincial protocols.
NO RESPONSE
The Northwood communications office did not respond to emails and phone messages left over two days asking for an explanation of their diabetic treatment routines.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority did not make its diabetes program manager, Charla Adams, available for an interview. Instead a spokesperson sent SaltWire Network a PDF of the health authority’s guidelines for controlling blood sugar. The information gives guidance on when insulin treatment should be adjusted according to changing glucose levels but it doesn’t cover how often glucose levels need to be checked.
Dennis said injuries related to diabetes-related falls are widespread at Northwood.
“I had a staff member there one day, noticing a number of black and blue patients and I said ‘How many of these people are black and blue because of low glucose falls?’ At least 95 per cent or more.”
He doesn’t know if the constant falls and injuries his wife endured in the last months of her life contributed to her death.
“She had had many, many, many strokes because of her dementia. And her last brain scan, done several years ago now, showed damage throughout her brain.”
MARRIED 44 YEARS
Dennis moved into Northwood Terrace in March in order to be close to his wife but soon afterward there was a lockdown on visitors because of the COVID-19 pandemic so their contact was limited to phone calls.
Penny Dennis was diagnosed with COVID-19 but she recovered.
“She was a fighter in a lot of ways,” Dennis said.
Both Halifax natives, they were married for 44 years. He worked extensively in business and property management — including the Eaton Centre in Toronto — and was an active sailboat and powerboat racer.