My family: the latest victim of medical stupidity

[JM]

My great-aunt is 98 and was in reasonbly good shape until last week. Last Wednesday, she called my grandmother to say her back hurt. My grandmother told her to put heat on it and relax. They spoke again last Friday, and my great-aunt said she was feeling much worse and hadn't eaten in two days. My grandmother called the nurses at the assisted living facilitiy where my aunt lives, and after checking on her, decided to send her to the ER.

When I spoke to the nurses at the hospital on Saturday, they were trying to rule out a UTI infection due to dehydration, and were checking on a bowel obstruction.

I am no medical pro here, but my wife, uncle, and mother are, and it is my understanding they could do two tests for the bowel obstruction. One is a barium swallow, the other would be a CT with contrast or similar.

Yesterday they finally decided to do a barium swallow and x-ray, I can only assume because it cost less than the CT, to check for the bowel obstruction since her numbers were still not great. Keep in mind she had had NOTHING in her stomach for a week. As my family has said, a barium swallow is not easy on a younger, healthier adult, but they chose to do this on a 98 year old.

She aspirated the barium after the x-ray, and is now on life support. My uncle had the "pull the plug" coversation with the doctor, and has so far decided to wait a bit.

Were they going to operate on a 98 year old? No. But given options, they could have kept her comfortable and given her the opportunity to see her family and die peacefully and with some dignity. Instead the opted to take a cheaper, yet more difficult test...

Even though I am blessed to have spent the last 13 years in the same city as my great-aunt, and even though she lived nearly a century, I can't help but feel robbed.

JM

[dorktv]

1. Sorry to hear that dude.

This country's medical system is a nightmare.

[JM]

5. Thank you DorkTv and SaidFred

for your replies. I wrote that as a cathartic release, but it is nice to know DU is a community of caring individuals.

JM

[Red State Rebel]

2. Oh, how awful!

I'm so sorry to hear...

[flamingyouth]

3. I am so sorry to hear this

Good grief, I can't believe they'd make a 98-year-old woman go through a barium swallow. That's not a fun test. My condolences to your family. :hug:

[sui generis]

4. other geriatric "back" pain problems

kidney (renal disease) - if accompanied by nausea or mouth sores

pancreatic problems

vertebral / disk problems if associated with loss of balance or numbness in extremities

Why on earth did they go for a bowel test? Well you did give the answer . . .

[JM]

6. I can only assume...

...they sat and talked with her when she was awake on Friday and ruled a bunch of things in/out.

Either way, I guess I need to get mentally prepped for a big family funeral. With her numbers as low as they are, I doubt she will recover. I am assuming my uncle decided against pulling the life support more as an effort to buy a small bit of time to get everyone in town than anything else, although he has probably seen more than a few bounce back from worse cases in his tenure as a surgeon.

JM

[JM]

7. The latest update

My wife and I went to visit my great aunt at the hospital. I have never had such a tough time. It was bad enough to see her with all the tubes and drips and everything. To make matters worse, she was looking better last night, sitting up, and talking, and today she is on life support and likely neurologically devastated, totally unable to respond.

I met with my grandparents shortly afterwards to discuss the situation, and then met with our rabbi to discuss the funeral arrangements for what we can only assume to be the inevitable.

The most interesting part of all of this, for me anyway, is when we left the hospital. Knowing this hospital is primarily known for geriatric care, it is pretty rare that one would see new mothers leaving with infants. Sure enough though, as we reached the exit, there was a mother and father holding their newborn with gleaming smiles on their faces. I silently hoped to myself this new entry into the world would bring as much caring, strength, courage, love, and longevity to his/her family and community as my great aunt did to ours.

Perhaps it was a sign...

JM