Fayelle
10-28-2006, 12:11 PM
This morning at 6:40 my father passed away after a 4 day battle within himself.....He had a rough time because of some problems with some of the less experienced nurses not administering his medications correctly....So he would come out of his medication induced vegetative state and be in pain as well as frightened....
He was not breathing correctly because his lungs were so full of fluid, and because there was disease in them......He was toxic and uncomfortable.....
Monday night he started having significant breathing difficulties, by Tuesday morning he was pretty much out of it and on his way into the death process.....He hung on until this morning but only after 1 nurse we had for two eight hour shifts saw he was resting comfortably and peaceful so she neglected to see the importance of keeping his meds in his system so he came to in extreme distress....Last night come to find out because of her not understanding the process she cut his medication in half, all of his medications were cut in half of what they were when he was comfortable and she did not understand why he kept slipping back into conciousness and distress....She just didn't get it.....
Plus I asked the doctor who saw him yesterday to change the orders on his morphine from 1/2 ro 1cc every hour to 1cc to 2cc's every hour. The doctor was happy to oblige and wrote his script that way. The nurse was giving him 1 cc an hour.....I noticed him becoming uncomfortable and asked for another 1/2cc in order to stay on top of his pain.....Then 20 minutes later (still in the same hour) I asked for the final half cc to carry him through until his next dose....She was hesitant and I had to remind her that the doctor had written it that way in order to keep him comfortable and that I was not asking anything untoward only for what he was allowed.....The first night she did not give him ANY sedatives or antianxiety meds and right after her shift he went into major crisis, then the next night it was nearly the same thing....Luckily 2 of the nurses were fantastic with him, and one CNA was very good with him.....I was really outraged at this nurse though.....I was pretty vocal about it too.....With 24 hour nursing care it is not my job to monitor meds, and the need for increases.....She did not seem interested at all in the fact that he was showing signs the only way he could of distress....
At any rate it was the fastest and most intense life experience......So now things can slide back to normal once again.....
OK sorry for the long vent I needed to talk about it......
Fay
He was not breathing correctly because his lungs were so full of fluid, and because there was disease in them......He was toxic and uncomfortable.....
Monday night he started having significant breathing difficulties, by Tuesday morning he was pretty much out of it and on his way into the death process.....He hung on until this morning but only after 1 nurse we had for two eight hour shifts saw he was resting comfortably and peaceful so she neglected to see the importance of keeping his meds in his system so he came to in extreme distress....Last night come to find out because of her not understanding the process she cut his medication in half, all of his medications were cut in half of what they were when he was comfortable and she did not understand why he kept slipping back into conciousness and distress....She just didn't get it.....
Plus I asked the doctor who saw him yesterday to change the orders on his morphine from 1/2 ro 1cc every hour to 1cc to 2cc's every hour. The doctor was happy to oblige and wrote his script that way. The nurse was giving him 1 cc an hour.....I noticed him becoming uncomfortable and asked for another 1/2cc in order to stay on top of his pain.....Then 20 minutes later (still in the same hour) I asked for the final half cc to carry him through until his next dose....She was hesitant and I had to remind her that the doctor had written it that way in order to keep him comfortable and that I was not asking anything untoward only for what he was allowed.....The first night she did not give him ANY sedatives or antianxiety meds and right after her shift he went into major crisis, then the next night it was nearly the same thing....Luckily 2 of the nurses were fantastic with him, and one CNA was very good with him.....I was really outraged at this nurse though.....I was pretty vocal about it too.....With 24 hour nursing care it is not my job to monitor meds, and the need for increases.....She did not seem interested at all in the fact that he was showing signs the only way he could of distress....
At any rate it was the fastest and most intense life experience......So now things can slide back to normal once again.....
OK sorry for the long vent I needed to talk about it......
Fay