My Father's Story - Aftereffects, Hospital, and Beginnings....
Beginnings
The most immediate, or contemporary, beginnings start with several huge factors related to the Canadian medical system.
First of all, my father's personal physician, whom he has been with since approximately 1980, never kept his promise to come see my father when he was unable to get into his office, which would have helped my Dad's progress; nor since July 2 has he even bothered himself to call or mail once. Wonder if those two things are connected, huh. The assmuncher.
His Circle of Willis is clogged with fecaliths.
Through repeated, necessary visits to the hospital over time my father developed congestive heart failure. He beat a crushed pelvis in his 20's, losing a kneecap by being knocked over and beyond a train engine in the 1950's, throat cancer in the 1980's and bladder cancer beginning in the late 1990's. He couldn't beat the machinations of our current medical system; its uninformed and unco-ordinated doctors and services, nor its non-compassionate assistants. Although there were exceptions which I will note here, they were far outweighed by the medical mechanics working every day and night.
The last few hospital stays were precipitated by a preventative treatment for bladder cancer called BCG. The recall of these treatments are particularly bitter because prior to the treatments my father and I were enjoying life together, he was happy and well, and making constant progress. Within 2 days of each treatment, my father was in the ICU suffering from sepsis, massive infection. This was due to the non-sterilization of the tube injecting the chemo directly into the bladder after it has been inserted through the penis. The memory of this makes me ache for those days then when my father would still enjoy a good meal, make jokes, and generally enjoy his life.
What caused the premature end of my father's life, because even though he was 89, and after all the treatments, catching infections in the ICU, pneumonia there several times, (he had a strong consitution, and was well aware that although he had been weakened, his body was not yet at the end point due to age), was the facts that he entered Trillium Mississauga for treatment of a blood clot on the lung, had a catheter inserted in the Emergency department ( from which he caught an infection that then nestled right on the heart valve), was transferred to ICU 2 because fluid had built up in his lungs. In ICU 2 then, as now, there were only 6 patients.
There he was given a massive dose of furosemide, Lasix, in order to drain off the fluids, even though he was allergic to Sulfa, and Septra antibiotics. Prior to this the only problem my father had with his heart was a mitral valve prolapse. No strokes, no cardiac arrests, no heart attacks.
I did not ask because I assumed that he would also be given Potassium, and Magnesium - both essential when Furosemide is administered, in order to maintain a balance of minerals, and stablize the heart. He did not receive either.
Consequently, he suffered a cardiac arrest on a late Wednesday evening due to this amateur treatment. He received the full administration of shocks, etc, tube down the throat, as well. A nurse friendly to me pointed out that night that he had not been given the potassium in particular, and showed me the hospital record book where hispotassium levels had been allowed to drop to 2.4, with a healthy level being between 4 and 5.
Did this alert them to the fact that an 89 yr old man without prior heart trouble ought to have maintained a constant vigilance on his potassium levels until he was wellout of danger? No. Until Saturday of that week, a few days later, my father had that vigilance. From Saturday on he was put on a maintenance dose of Potassium of 60 mg per day, with his blood levels being checked every 8 hours, rather than every 2 or 3 hours.
I argued with the nurses and begged them to alert the doctor that this was not satisfactory, that a maintenance dose of that amount was what he would have taken were he healthy enough to be at home and administering it to himself. Did they listen? No.
Eeven though my father was hooked up to a monitor in his room, which showed the same levels at the nursing station, not six feet away, and he started having not so good heart waves late Saturday afternoon, and began becoming more progressively disoriented, and agitated, far from the cheerful and happy man I'd seen that morning and into the beginning of the afternoon; and despite these facts and that I argued and pled with the nurses about his Potassium dosage, nothing was done. I was told, prior toleaving,' Oh don't worry, we'll watch him." I left by saying," You'd better. That is not enough Potassium. he's agitated, and that usally means something is going wrong in his body because he is typically cheerful and well oriented even through these various ordeals."
I was again assured that he would be watched, and the current nurse even brought her chair right into the doorway and sat there.
I got an early morning phone call, saying my father had suffered a massive heart attack, had been without vital signs for 5-7 minutes, maybe longer, and I ought to come in. No explanation was ever offered as to why he had been without bvital signs for such a period, in the ICU where there are monitors in the room, and at the nursing station, and one-on-one nursing care. One nurse simple said to me, "When I came in he had no vital signs for almost 10 minutes. Oh well, he has a dying heart anyway."
Full of compassion, understanding, sensitivity, and a deep awareness. And this was 2005, not 1905.
Skipping forward.... before the story of his hospital stay in Trillium Mississauga...
My father was to be placed in some sort of rehab from the 4D floor. The people suggesting various sites wanted to keep his time in them to a minimum, always with the admonition about staying too long in a hospital, and catching something else, or having something else go wrong. This undermines what the hospital is supposed to do which is basically fix those who are broken, by suggesting that they not only might not get better, they might catch something more debilitating. If you were to challenge them on what they could accomplish in that time, it would be all glory and wonder about their record.
Behind this push for a short-term stay which encouraged overlooking any individual needs or speifics to a great degree was the unspoken statement about the bureaucracy being pressured to not keep people in longer than necessary. When I would ask why are you telling me this, why am I being told this in every single conversation about rehab, the answer was always the same: well, some people don't have a home and they want to stay. When I would say that you know my father has a home and I will be taking care of him, helping him take care of himself, so why are you telling me again, the answer was always the same: well, you know some people don't have a home, etc. In other words, self-justifying circular bullshit by morons who could care less whether your relative or friend got the time necessary to get better and recover fully. All they wanted was to preserve their jobs and careers, and not come under the scrutiny of the money managers.
They also said that my father would not be sent home until he was fully able to function and in good health. As long as it was within the two month time limit specified by management. When I asked how management could know whether a person would recover in two months, the head nurses would always tell me that was their experience as well.
I guess none of them were working when my father was in rehab in 2002 from early March until the end of July before he was deemed fully recovered with sufficient strength to function on his own, and with help. But that's not quite right... Judy, head of the rehab unit was working there then. And even his doctor, Dr.Welland, once my father was in rehab, suggested he only needed a month
So I had discharge planners telling me they were thinking a month would be long enough - remember this was an 89 yr old man whose trach was only out by 6 weeks at this point, who had a major heart attack and 4 cardiac arrests in their care, and whose physical therapy consisted of usually a 5 minute walk every seond day or so. You looking forward to entering our government based healthcare system in the future?
I had to insist on at least two months, the allowed maximum. When I asked what would happen if he wasn't ready to go home then, I was told well he'd have to go to a nursing home, or to another longer term rehab unit in the same hospital where they did not get physiotherapy. In other words, if he isn't ready, tough shit.
Yes, this is Canada. This is our healthcare system, run by assholes who most likely would never visit their own parents except to recover checks and clothing. And yes, this was happening in 2006, not 1956, not 1906.
If you get sick, you'd better recover when the government says; within their time limit, and not much more than a week longer. If you don't, you'll be deprived of the services for which we are so heavily taxed; and if your health, and thus your recovery, suffer because of this, well too bad.
*My Dad felt same way about government - so do I.. my Dad fell on night of June4/5, and bruised himself but was still mobile to a degree - so what did physio, provided by damn government do... why they cut it out because he couldn't manage the exercises, at the time he needed it most.. just made it worse, cause two weeks later, he wasn't here. *
our government as far as I am concerned is made up of the people in grade school and high school who thought they knew it all, wanted to be important, didn't have any common sense, and needed a kick so hard in their arses they'd be wearing them for a hat
Thank you Canada for introducing more and more immigrants into our system to the degree that it becomes so stretched the budget doesn't allow for a leeway of recovery for those people like my father who are anything but malingerers, who helped build this country with their strength, character, and morals.
The government has become so fascistic that if you do not fit within their frame of reference, dictated by a budget, that when you are in the direst need, you will be abandoned once outside that time limit. Is this what we're paying for?
Ask the question: who's responsible. Answer: not the nurses, not the nurses' assistants, not the hospital staff, not the bureaucracy, not any single hospital manager. Why golly, no one's responsible. Of course not, they're all buck-passing spineless assholes who don't give a shit for you or I because working in the hospital system you can bet they will make sure that the care they or their relatives receive is neither limited, nor judged lacking in any aspect because if it even threatened to become so they would make sure those responsible either lost their jobs or suffered a career downgrade.
Funny how when you're in the upper realms of decision making regarding healthcare, someone can be found to be responsible; but if you're one of the lowly peasants who make up the paying bulk that supports those managers, and the system, no one is responsible. Now that isn't a glaring example of a self-serving and parasitical government and thus detrimental to the very populace it pretends to serve, is it?
..more to come... next