We owe seniors more than current state of system
Seniors owed more than current state of the system, Leslie Coates says.
The death certificate read: “Cause of Death: Alzheimer’s disease.” I am not a coroner, nor even a doctor, but I know for a fact my mother did not die of Alzheimer’s disease. Here is our story.
On Oct. 28, 2015 in the early evening, I received a call from my sister and all she said was, “Mom’s had a fall, I’ll meet you at the Queensway Carleton Hospital.” I was puzzled as my mother was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease and had been in a wheelchair for more than a year. How was this possible?
The Queensway Carleton staff could not have been more pleasant, efficient or empathetic in letting us know, after the X-rays were examined, that she was literally a broken woman. She was covered in bruises, and her hip and right arm were shattered. Surgery was not an option due to her delicate physical state. They sent her back to her long-term care facility to be “kept comfortable” until her death.
The fact that she was found crumpled in the doorway of her room by the staff at her residence — for how long, no one could tell us — was troubling, though not shocking. For one, she was not mobile. Second, her bed was equipped with an alarm pad which notified the desk if she attempted to leave it at any time. But the reality is, I had arrived for visits many times to find the bed alarm ringing, perhaps caused by a shift in her position or the position of the pad. The ringing has been unanswered. The reality is, with so few workers on the floor, it may have been difficult, if not impossible, to respond to the alarm. Staff may have been with another resident — bathing, feeding, toileting, dressing or perhaps off the floor at a scheduled workshop.
This was a practice we found particularly questionable. Many afternoons we would arrive to what could only be referred to as a skeleton staff on my mother’s floor. Granted, staff were on duty in proper resident-to-worker ratios, but, answering ministry-required training, homes would remove staff from their duties to receive workshops away from their designated work areas, even off their designated floor.
And so my mother returned to her home to be “kept comfortable” and to die. My three sisters and I kept a 24-hour watch — comforting her, snuggling with her and ensuring her medication of fentanyl and morphine were delivered regularly so she was in the least pain possible, and that those medications were delivered promptly, as prescribed.
I must say that at times it was a beautiful gift for all of us. For four full weeks, we sat watch; grandchildren, family and friends came and went. We sang to her, talked to her and loved her. The personal support workers at the facility were patient and understanding of our constant presence and must have appreciated our lessening of their workload. It was evident to all of us that they loved her too.
One of her PSWs asked us if it was possible, given that we are Roman Catholic, for her to perform the ritual of Sunnah, the Muslim practice of bathing the corpse following death.
She even provided us with her phone number so that we could call her if my mother died when she was not on shift.
And so on Nov. 25, exactly four weeks after her fall, she passed peacefully, surrounded by her girls.
Following her funeral, when we received the death certificate qualifying the cause of death as “Alzheimer’s” we were suitably angry — but far too weakened and emotionally drained from our month-long ordeal to question it.
But my mother did not die of Alzheimer’s. She died perhaps of starvation, or thirst or drug overdose. She died of a system that does not put the money, training and qualified, well-paid employees with a manageable workload in place in the vast majority of our long-term care facilities.
Until our long-term care facilities are honest about the events that occur in homes due to overworked employees and under-supported residents; until our homes are less concerned about glossing over critical incidents and possible litigation; we will continue this conversation ad nauseam.
Our senior citizens deserve so much more.