How My Father Died
Note: This is a non-A.D.D. related post about the recent death of my father.
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Before I explain how my father died, it is important that we first do our "amens" and "hallelujahs."
This is the greatest country in the world. Now you say "Amen."
Americans are the smartest people on Earth. Again, you say "Amen."
We have the best health care system in the world. Let me hear you say "Hallelujah!"
Now…let the story begin.
On January 4, 2008, my father was admitted to a nursing home in Florida. Some time during the previous month he had a small stroke1 that made it impossible for him to walk ("shuffle" is a more apt description). The nursing home stay was meant to be rehabilitative so that he could learn how to walk again. The first week he was making enormous progress and then things starting to go wrong. One day he had a large gash on his nose. Another day it seemed that he was given his day medications at night which kept him awake all night long. Another time his new sneakers suddenly disappeared.
By the second week at the nursing home something was terribly wrong and he was rushed to the hospital. The doctors gave him 48 hours to live. His kidneys had stopped functioning. He had a fever and a urinary tract infection. They determined he was completely dehydrated. The hospital administered an IV drip and antibiotics. I was in constant phone contact with my brother down in Florida (I live in New York) who told me that all the funeral arrangements had been made and now they are just waiting for him to die. I made arrangements to fly down as soon as possible. By the time I got down to Florida (about 72 hours after he was admitted into the hospital) his kidneys were functioning and he was like a chatterbox, talk with everyone in the room and making jokes.
As I later found out, the nursing home had failed to keep him hydrated. Since most stroke victims have trouble swallowing2 a thickening agent is added to liquids because the stroke victim has a better chance controlling the flow of the thickened liquid so that it flows into the esophagus. At the nursing home they did not care how much thickening agent they added to the liquid. It turns out, they added so much thickening agent that my father could not drink at all. (Oh…did I forget to mention? A lot of stroke victims drink using a straw.) The gash on his nose was a result of him falling out of his wheelchair. (Ooops…someone forgot to strap him in.) Though he was diabetic, they gave him lots of orange juice (a no-no for diabetics because of its high sugar content).
After several days in Florida I flew back to New York thinking that a crisis had been averted. My father was sent to a different nursing home for rehabilitation. About a week later he was back at the hospital. His body was riddled with infections and his kidneys shut down again. The hospital put him on antibiotics and, even though he was fully hydrated, his kidneys were not functioning. It was determined that his body could not handle the stress of a dialysis machine. A DNR was signed, he was placed on a morphine drip and, after eight days, he died in his sleep around 10:40pm on the evening of February 12, 2008.
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As news of my father's death started to become common knowledge among the doctors that had known him, they were startled to hear of his death. He had a very strong heart and his kidneys had always worked fine. In fact, prior to being admitted to the nursing the first time around, he had just completed a blood test which showed that he was slightly anemic and nothing more.
My mother has been gathering up copies of all his medical records from the nursing homes and the hospital. She's contemplating a lawsuit against the first nursing home. I will leave it up to her as to whether she should or should not pursue it. I'm not sure what I would do. On the one hand you have to go on with your life, on the other you want to see some justice in an unjust world.
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To complete the circle we must end this post the way it started. Let's say our our "amens" and "hallelujahs."
This is the greatest country in the world. Now you say "Amen."
Americans are the smartest people on Earth. Again, you say "Amen."
We have the best health care system in the world. Let me hear you say "Hallelujah!"
- He's had a series of strokes over the past five years. [↩]
- The epiglottis does not function normally, thereby potentially allowing food or liquid to enter the lungs which can become a source of bacterial growth and lead to aspiration pneumonia. See: Dysphagia. See also this abstract about a study of swallowing abnormalities after a stroke. [↩]
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