Day 744: 5 Minute Freewrite: Sunday-Prompt: knee
How does a fractured knee almost kill you? I will tell you how. This is a true story of what my poor sister-in-law has been going through for the past six weeks.
She fell and fractured her knee. The hospital immobilized her knee and kept her for 2 days. She was then transferred to a nursing home/rehab facility while waiting for her heart doctor to give the approval for surgery because she has A-fib.
After 2 days in the nursing home the doctor told us that she had the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease. That was a complete shock because we never saw any signs of that disease. On Day 3, my brother got a call while he was at work to tell him that his wife fell out of her wheel chair and landed on her left side, but there were no injuries. We went to visit her in the late afternoon and we were shocked to see that her right eye was bruised and swollen shut. She also said that her right side was hurting and she was having troubles breathing. I thought they said she wasn't injured!
My brother called the surgeon that took care of her at the hospital and she was transferred back to the hospital immediately. Guess what? She had 5 broken ribs on her right side that had punctured her lung which was now filled with blood, so they had to insert a chest tube. Later that night she went into convulsions. The 2nd one lasted 50 minutes and her heart was failing so she had to be sedated and was put on a respirator. She was now in ICU. Does any of this sound normal to you? Our heads were spinning and when we had a chance to think, my brother and I knew there had to be an investigation.
Three days later, my SIL was taken off the respirator and was able to breathe on her own. When she was stable for a couple of days, she then had her knee surgery and was rushed right back to ICU because they couldn't get her A-fib under control. I lost track of the days but I think she spent 4 more days in ICU and then moved her to a regular room when she was stable.
A couple of days later, the nurse told my SIL that she had to get out of bed. My SIL said, "Don't move me because I have blood clots in my leg." She had one once before so she knew what the symptoms were. The nurse looked and said that she was fine, and tried to move her. MY SIL demanded to see her surgeon. Sure enough, she had 4 blood clots. If she was moved, who knows where those blood clots could have gone. Her heart, lungs, or brain?
My SIL is now in a different nursing home/rehab facility and is doing the best she can after everything she has been through. She is a fighter and I know she will pull through. The fall and her convulsions damaged her knee more and she now has numerous plates, bolts and screws in her leg and knee. And she lost 50 pounds in 5 weeks. She is 72 years old and didn't look or act a day over 50, until now.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions but there is one thing that the first facility did confess to. They drugged her heavily! Please, I am begging you...if your loved ones or friends have to be in the hospital, someone needs to be with them at all times to make sure they are being taken care of properly.
The photo of a thistle plant is mine and has nothing to do with the story, but I didn't have time to find one that fit.
The incompetence is quite incredible. Maybe we need webcams in hospitals and nursing homes as they do in some creches.
I was wondering about webcams too! They are definitely needed. We just found out today that the drugs they gave to my SIL without anyone's knowledge had Fentanyl in it!!! That is what killed one of her sons!!!
Hi partner! I am bottoms up today. See ya in Freewrite Land! : )
Just in babe, tops for me. Hope your life is settling down to some sort of normality.
See you in the middle.
Trust your intuition - and your own experience and knowledge (your sister in law KNEW what staff medical professionals didn't see). It's mindblowing, what all she has suffered in the hands of trained medical personnel.
Gotta resist the urge to comment further... this sets my teeth on edge... must focus on the fact that this woman with the fractured knee is going to RECOVER. yes. Complete recovery.
And this too (it's so true; my sister was almost killed when drugged with Fentanyl even though the doctors know she's on dialysis):
if your loved ones or friends have to be in the hospital, someone needs to be with them at all times to make sure they are being taken care of properly.
It is mindblowing!!! OMG! Your poor sister! We just found out today that the drug they gave to my SIL without anyone's knowledge had the same thing in it... Fentanyl!!! What is wrong with these people?!?! All my best to your sister.
Fentanyl (not that the hospital staff would admit to this) put my sister unconscious for two days and extended her stay to nine days in all. TOO LONG. My neighbor, a retired RN, knows that you don't give a dialysis patient a potent pain killer like that. LOSERS you almost killed my sister!!!!
As it is, she has never fully recovered from that 9-day stay. She's getting weaker, not stronger. Every hospitalization takes out a certain amount of stamina that a patient will never get back again, in cases like hers, anyway. TOO SAD is right, and I am TOO MAD to think about it, and powerless to remedy it.
All my best to your SIL, too, and thank you!!
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.
I hope your SIL gets better quickly, hospitals and rehabs are dangerous places to be left alone. I know from experience, you have to keep a close eye on loved ones. Best of luck to your family.
Hi @inthenow! Thanks so much for your concern and well wishes. I am sorry to hear that you know from experience. I had no idea and unfortunately, we all learned the hard way.
This is heartbreaking!!! And there are so many horror stories like that. I hope you get an investigation of the rehab facility going. too many places practice abuse instead of care!
I heard about something like this happening a few years ago but I thought it was an isolated case. It is so sad and my trust in these places went right out the window. Yes, an investigation has begun and we know that 3 other patients were removed from that first facility by their family members last week because of sedating patients without the knowledge of family members. I hope that place gets shut down!
Thistle is healing, so good choice of photo.
I know this story all too well. I'm so sorry you are going through all this. It's a story that is becoming all too common.
Our best chance of living a long and healthy life is to stay away from medical facilities altogether, I really believe this.
Arnica. She would benefit from arnica homeopathic remedy. easy to get in health food stores, but even regular drug stores are selling it now. Cheap too. It will help with everything and no way can it hurt her - it just gives the immune system a blueprint of how to heal itself. Any potency. Three doses of one or two pellets under the tongue 8 to 12 hours apart. They taste good.
Sending you some healing energy.
I didn't know that thistle is healing so thanks for letting me know. I don't know how people that work in the health industry or pharma industry can live with themselves. I am definitely going to do a lot of research about homeopathic remedies now. Thanks so much for telling me about Arnica. We just found out today that the drugs they gave to my SIL without anyone's knowledge had Fentanyl in it!!! Horrifying!!! Thanks for your healing energy! Hugs!
I actually am a fan of fentanyl and wish hospitals would give out more of it! The doses are super tiny, side effects few, and pain relief mighty. It's powerful medicine. If I could grow my own opium, I surely would. Opiates are only possibly addictive, and your SIL is in no danger of that from what I can tell. She needed the relief, and I'm sure it did not cause any lasting harm.
Has she seen any improvement?
Thank you for sharing.... There are so many unsolved mysteries at the medical and paramedical centers which end up in disputes and lawsuits, but I am surprised to read how your sister in law had a strong intuition about the blood clogs on her legs. This is an evidence that our body is a complete intelligent system. There should be a way to maximize its potential, to enhance our sensibility and to really listen to what our body is telling us. Sending you and your family lots of good vibes ❤️
I am wondering how the people in the medical and pharma industries can live with themselves. Oh, I like what you said about "enhancing our sensibility." In the past, I went to 2 doctors, telling them that something was wrong inside of my brain and they looked at my like I was crazy. I finally got a doctor to give me and MRI and sure enough I had a fast growing tumor. Yes, we MUST listen to what our bodies are telling us! Thanks so much for your care and concern...AND your good vibes. Hus!
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 Take care and hope all is well with you now!
Howdy Butterfly! Thanks for telling this story so we know what happened and what can happen in cases like this. Great advice you give too, so true, unfortunately. If you guys hadn't rushed down to see her she would have died there. Incredible.
I hope she continues to recover and gets back close to her old self.
Hi jonboy! I think she would have died because she came so close to death. Very scary! She still doesn;t have much of a voice because when they put the respirator in they nicked her vocal chords. Thanks for your well wishes. My SIL hit a milestone yesterday. She was able to put some pressure on her toes in a standing position. YAY!
I think she will recover fast don't you? Since she was in such good shape before. That's great news!