Scary trend: how to look out for your loved ones in hospital

Before commencing this blog I would like to acknowledge that nurses have a difficult job, and are often stretched beyond capacity. The story I'm going to share with you is a result of a system failing rather than an issue with specific individuals.

It is rather personal and therefore hard to write about, however I think it's really important as many people learn from our experience as possible so they can look out for the well being of any loved ones, particularly the elderly, that may end up in hospital.

The back story is that my Grandfather was admitted to hospital just over three weeks ago. I was visiting with my mother when we noticed he wasn't in good shape and needed medical attention. After a trip in an ambulance and  four hour wait in emergency while they stablised him there was nothing more we could do we went home and returned the next day and noticed that he wasn't able to eat or drink anything. Disappointingly it doesn't seem to routine to make sure a patient is getting enough fluid or nutrients and he'd gone a whole day without anything to eat or drink. After we raised concerns he was moved onto thickened fluids and blended foods which seemed to go down well at first. His initial diagnosis was a chest infection, which was treated with IV antibiotics, and congestive heart failure which was hoped to resolve once the chest infection was cleared.

He was making good progress and was transferred to another hospital and was moved from IV antibiotics to oral antibiotics. It was at this point he started to decline again with his chest infection returning and rapid weight loss. Its believed at this point he's had a series of mini strokes affecting his ability to swallow. To our horror we discovered he hadn't been able to swallow his antibiotics and couldn't take any food or fluids in any form. Rather than taking action to get him back onto IV antibiotics he'd been marked as refusing to take them leaving him open for the infection to return.

After talking to the doctor my mum has organised to have him on IV fluids and antibiotics which have perked him up again. He is due to have a feeder tube into his stomach which should get him the nutrients he so desperately needs to recover.

It really scares me that if he didn't have family checking on him regularly there's a good chance he could have died from dehydration or starvation. A number of conversations with medical staff throughout his stay have implied we should let nature take its course rather than doing everything possible to save him because of his age. When my Grandad says he doesn't want to fall asleep because he's worried he'll stop breathing I don't see that as any indication he wants to give up the fight, so neither should we.

Apparently this scenario is scarily common. It breaks my heart to think how many elderly people have been let go simply because there was no one there to fight for them to get the right basic care they need. It seems like a very cruel form of enforced euthanasia. While I am in full support of euthanasia, whenever someone decides they don't want to suffer anymore they should be able to elect to go under their terms. If someone wants to keep fighting and living they should be given every chance society can afford them.