MY FATHER’S TORMENT, BY FIONA PHILLIPS
TELEVISION presenter Fiona Phillips has claimed a ‘ chemical cosh’ of dementia drugs robbed her father of the final weeks of his life. The former GMTV host described how her father Neville was given a vast cocktail of medicines which left him so heavily sedated he was ‘totally out of it’.
His medication covered two sides of an A4 sheet of paper, she said.
Alzheimer’s sufferer Mr Phillips died earlier this month. His rapid deterioration has led his daughter to question whether the drugs cost him years of his life.
She said: ‘I am so angry at the way my lovely, lovely dad was treated at the end. In his final weeks he was so coshed by drugs that his poor body couldn’t cope.
‘They robbed him of his laughter, then his smile, which was all that he had got left, and I am absolutely furious about that. Then they robbed him of his life.
‘That is what is keeping me awake at night now, it’s the anger. Without the powerful drugs
‘Oh Dad, what have they done to you?’
they used to sedate him he could have had another few years.
‘Maybe I’m being selfish because he wouldn’t have wanted to continue to be dependent on others. But that wasn’t a decision to be made by the medical system on his behalf ... Without those drugs he could still have been healthy and happy, even with dementia.’
Miss Phillips, 51, has endured watching both her parents succumb to Alzheimer’s and has told of her fears she may also develop the degenerative disease.
Her mother Amy was diagnosed in her late 50s and died in 2006, just a few months before Mr Phillips also received the devastating diagnosis. He was in his late 60s.
Miss Phillips, a Daily Mirror columnist, told the newspaper her father had managed a degree of independence despite the disease, and lived in a warden-assisted flat in Hampshire for three years.
But last November he went missing for eight hours after he wandered off alone. Social workers insisted he was sent to a specialist dementia care home.
The placement lasted just 24 hours before managers complained that he had lashed out at a carer. He was moved to a psychiatric hospital, where he was immediately put on a mixture of drugs.
Miss Phillips said: ‘I visited him on December 23 and he was smiling and laughing and said “She’s mine” when I walked in, which had been his way of greeting me for a while.
‘Even though he no longer said my name, he recognised me. All the members of staff said how wonderful he was.’
But when she returned a few days later, she said she found her father slumped in a chair and heavily sedated. She requested a list of his medication and said it stretched to two sides of A4 paper.
Miss Phillips recalled how she asked for the drugs to be reduced and told how her own research had shown two sedatives he was taking were addictive and could cause cognitive decline.
In addition, she said that the antipsychotic drug he was on was known to increase the risk of death in dementia sufferers and was advised as a last resort.
She described her shock on her next visit at her father’s rapid deterioration, saying: ‘He’d put on weight from the drugs and his hair was white. “Oh Dad,” I said, “What have they done to you?” And I broke down in tears.
‘But there was no response, he was totally out of it. His body had been clobbered with drugs.
‘He was like someone out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. My heart was broken. Next time I went his eyes were glazed, his mouth was hanging open and his tongue was lolling.’
Miss Phillips said she alerted nurses to her father’s laboured breathing and high temperature and, six days later, he was admitted to a general hospital with pneumonia. Doctors warned his organs were failing. He died a few days later, aged 77.
Researchers have revealed that more than a quarter of elderly dementia sufferers are being subdued with ‘chemical cosh’ drugs.
They warned earlier this month that some medications can double the risk of early death – leading to an estimated 1,800 premature deaths a year – and treble the risk of strokes. Studies have also found they reduce brain volume and worsen the symptoms of dementia.
The Daily Mail has long called for an improvement in the care of dementia sufferers as part of our Dignity for the Elderly campaign.
Miss Phillips, who has two sons, Nathaniel, 12, and Mackenzie, nine, with her husband Martin Frizell, has become an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society.