J's Cafe Nette

Archive for December 4th, 2008

A group of Minnesota teen-aged girls, working in a nursing home have been charged with abuse of some of the patients there.

You can read the dirty details in the above link.

I have an aunt in Georgia who had heart bypass surgery four years ago, her big toe on her left foot amputated two years ago and then the other toes on that foot amputated a couple of months later, and recovered quite well each time. Did I mention she’s a diabetic?

A couple of months ago she was hospitalized and moved to a larger hospital in Florida where they discovered she had liver cancer. After several weeks of waiting the surgeon finally said he couldn’t do anything for her and another surgeon was brought in who operated on the cancerous liver and says he got all the cancer.

This is where the system let her down. She was in intensive care for a couple of weeks and then transferred to a nursing home for rehab. Because the hospital was in Florida she was unable to transfer to a nursing home in Georgia due to the paperwork, so her elderly husband had to drive 38 miles each way daily to visit her.

What he saw he didn’t like, but never got answers to his questions. She wasn’t eating and was talking crazy.

Finally, he got a call that she had been taken back to the same hospital because they could not wake her up.

After tests were run it was discovered she had been given a sedative that had not been prescribed and her sugar levels were almost high enough to have put her in a coma.

Her husband begged the hospital to send her back to Georgia, but was unsuccessful. He decided to pick her up and take her home for Thanksgiving and never take her back. None of her prescriptions were given to him to use on the “visit” home.

He called her doctor and the doctor arranged for a nurse to check her twice a day. What she found was bedsores on her bottom and on the incision. Both were infected. The nurse took photos of the sores and advised my uncle to get a lawyer, not so much for the money as to prevent this from happening to other patients in that nursing home.

Yesterday my aunt went back to a local hospital, where a local surgeon cleaned up her wounds and at last word she was doing well, but in ICU. She heals very slowly due to her diabetes.

I have known of people in nursing homes who get turned every so often and don’t get bed sores. They also get their insulin and regular meds but not sedatives not ordered by a physician.

Today I had to get my allergy shot and as we passed the Presbyterian church, I told my husband if I ever have to go for assisted living or a nursing home that’s where I want to go. They have an assisted living center and a top grade nursing home. I have been into both buildings and I have seen how well the patients are treated. I have insurance to cover either situation.

Because my husband had trouble with varicose veins several years ago he cannot get long-term care and said he’d go where Medi-care put him. I told him I’d spend everything we have to keep him in a good place if needed or we will have someone come in and take care of him, such as our daughter and home health care. As long as I live I will not put him into a situation such as my aunt has been in or such as the patients of those teens were in.

I will not have anyone neglect him or make fun of him by spitting in his mouth, putting their fingers up his rectum or any of the other deeds too dirty to even discuss that those girls did.

We all need to remember that everyone gets old and if you don’t care about those you love, then treat these people with the dignity you would want for yourself if ever put into that situation.

It’s not a far step from abortion to deciding an old person isn’t worth saving. We have turned a blind eye on abortion for so long no one considers what is inside the womb is a real child. Now we are getting immune to the fact old people can give us a lot too, if treated properly.

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Easy, inexpensive ideas for homemade gifts or additions to your holiday gathering menu.

My grandmother never tired of telling us about her first Christmas as a married woman during the Great Depression. There was no money for gifts or a fancy holiday feast, but my grandfather lovingly made her a cup of hot cocoa that morning — the best cocoa she ever tasted — from a splash of hoarded milk and a melted chocolate candy he’d bought for a penny. It was a breakfast she never forgot, and no lavish present ever moved her more.

As we face the holiday season with worries about stretched budgets and shrinking retirement accounts, gifts from the hearth seem more compelling than ever. We’ve put together a varied collection of recipes aimed at pleasing everyone on your list. None requires particular culinary skill or pricey ingredients, and all will say you care in a very special way.

My personal favorite? Microwave Pistachio Brittle but there are several others at the link above.

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