Sunday, June 3, 2012

A Castastrophie

Something terrible happened last night. My sister who lives in a nursing home here and has Alzheimer's Disease, somehow was dropped out of the sling while they were moving her. The fall broke her leg and now she is in the hospital and will have to have surgery tomorrow. My brother-in-law just called me. He went up to the hospital last night at 9:00 and stayed until midnight. I will go on to church this morning and then go out to the hospital afterward. He is going out to the hospital after awhile. First he needs to call his daughter and tell her. She will be just as heartsick as I am. I am also angry that that happened. I have always been very happy with her treatment there. But how that could happen is beyond me. The fall broke the same leg as the hip that broke several years ago. That surgery accelerated her Alzheimer's Disease something terrible. This will do that again. Anytime they give anesthetic, it accelerates the effects of Alzheimer's Disease.

And there's always the worry about coming out of the surgery in the shape she's in.....

I guess it's worse then we thought. We saw the x-rays today and the break is all the way through and to the side. It did not come through the skin. They are going to try to stabilize it with a brace and not do surgery. She is not mobile at all. She neither stands nor walks. She can't even turn over by herself. How she "fell" is beyond me but I will get to the bottom of this eventually. I have a suspicion that they tried to move her from the wheelchair to the bed without the sling and dropped her but at this point I can't prove that. The surgeon is afraid of infection if he did surgery and also that the screw he would put in would not hold with her osteoporosis. So first we are going to try to get it to heal by just being braced. If that doesn't work, it will have to be surgery.

More later....

4 comments:

Balisha said...

Poor soul. I know just how you feel. Thinking of you and your brother in law today.
Balisha

Margie's Musings said...

Thank you, Balisha! I appreciate that.

Betty said...

How awful! I suspect you're right about the way she fell. Hope you get to the bottom of it. The hospital is responsible for it, and they should own up to it. You've had so much to deal with in recent years, I hope everything works out all right for your sister, brother-in-law and for you.

Margie's Musings said...

It wasn't the hospital that caused her fall, Betty. It was the nursing home.

Thank you for your concern...both of you