Chapter Six – Accepting (and Dealing with) Limitations
My mother recently broke her leg while in a rehabilitation facility that specializes in people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. It was obviously broken. It looked horrible. It probably didn’t need to happen. However, Mother’s broken leg pinpoints the limitations of the facility, her professional caregivers, the facility administrators, my brother, and me—all in one broken leg.
The facility Mom was in is a beautiful, well-respected, and well-run facility that specializes in people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. They were very good to her, but even Mom’s upscale Alzheimer’s facility couldn’t always give perfect care. One day my mother began having more than her usual amount of delusions. There were cats in her bed. There were cats everywhere. She needed to get these darn cats back in where they were supposed to be. The nurses tried to put her by the nurse’s station, but she kept trying to leap out of her wheelchair while she chased down one cat or the other.
We later found out that Mom had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), which often make older people behave bizarrely, as if they are psychotic. If one day an elderly person is behaving normally, and the next day he is acting as if he needs to be put in restraints, it’s usually a UTI. Mother had a UTI, and that’s where the cats were coming from. The facility’s nurses should have known about this possible diagnosis, as it is very common. Instead of calling me or my brother to take her to the doctor, though, they decided to keep a close eye on her by the nurse’s station.
It’s diffi cult to keep a close eye on a person with dementia, but a person with dementia and a UTI on the weekend, when most facilities are short-staffed, was really impossible. When caring for Mom got to be too difficult with her sitting by the nurse’s station, the nurse wheeled her to her bed. Mom was too heavy for one small nurse, though, and she couldn’t move her alone. She needed two people.
She parked Mom and her wheelchair right at the edge of her bed and went to look for another person. As soon as the nurse was out the door, one of the cats darted in front of Mom. She had to get that cat before it hurt itself or someone else. With all her strength, she stood up from the wheelchair and lunged toward the cat. She didn’t have enough strength to stand, though, and as her foot and the top of her leg slid under the bed, the top of her torso lunged toward the cat on the bed. Both bones in her leg snapped. The nurse ran back into the room when Mom started screaming. It was obvious to the nurse that Mom’s leg was badly broken.
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