Misery in a nursing home

 My friend (college roommate) Susan, who lives in New York State, had her leg amputated above the knee. Three days later she was transferred to the Helen Hayes rehabilitation hospital, which is entirely devoted to helping people gather the strength and skills to manage their post-trauma lives. Because Susan had been an occupational therapist and knew a thing or two about rehabilitation, she was seen as “the queen of the rehab units.” More importantly, she was given three hours of rigorous therapy a day—learning to function on her own, such as getting from wheelchair to bed, or hopping on one leg.

Unfortunately. Medicare would pay for only about twelve days at the Helen Hayes Center, and Susan was transferred to a “sub-acute” nursing home, where everything went south. To begin with, she arrived during a serious winter storm which, supposedly, prevented many staff members from coming to work. Her physical therapy sessions dropped to less than 30 minutes average for the first five days. As Susan says, “When you are recovering from an amputation, every minute of Occupational and Physical Therapy counts because insurance pays by the day.”

What’s more, she says, “My roommate never turned off her TV, her lights or her phone and the neighbor next door rarely stopped screaming so I was not getting much sleep. My wheelchair came with a broken brake so it was taken for repairs and I was given an inadequate substitute. One week into this situation I was given a team meeting where I voiced my concerns. All was quickly remedied with protestations of, ‘We didn’t know,’ and, ‘You should have told us.’” She’s getting out of there before her insurance-allotted time is up.

Apparently, most of the other patients at Susan’s nursing home are suffering from dementia—the cause of the neighbor’s screaming. According to a New York Times article, to control such behavior, nursing homes medicate such patients with antipsychotic medications, which they can legally do by declaring the patient to be schizophrenic. At least 21 percent of nursing home residents are on antipsychotic medications. Of course, this is not right and should be corrected. But if I were in Susan’s situation, I’d be in favor of anything to get some peace and quiet.  

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.