Seriously???

My mother is still wheelchair bound and still in rehab.  She cannot stand at all.  The only way she can transfer from her bed to the wheelchair is by sliding on a board.  Getting her from one place to another is no easy task.  Neither are bathroom activities.  There is no way that someone who is not properly trained can move her at all.

Yesterday I accompanied my mother to visit her doctor for a check up and to schedule her surgery.  Of course, they wanted to take a take an x-ray.  It was a major ordeal that took three nurses to move her from the wheelchair to the x-ray table and back again.

The x-ray revealed that the temporary spacer was out of socket. This seemed like not a good thing, but the PA didn't seem too concerned since it was only a temporary part and she wasn't supposed to be putting weight on it anyway.

So we scheduled her surgery for next Tuesday, which made us both happy. (Yes, she is driving me crazy, but that's another post.) She should be able to go home a couple of weeks after the surgery.

Today we went to the hospital for pre-registration and to get her labs done. One of the labs ordered was a urinalysis. This presented a problem, because she cannot transfer from her wheelchair to a toilet. I asked if the urinalysis was really necessary.  The nurse called the doctor's office, which confirmed that they needed the urinalysis. The nurses discussed how they were going to get this sample.  A catheter was discussed, but they didn't have an order for a catheter. So they asked my mother if she thought she could transfer onto a toilet with help.  She said she would rather try that than a catheter.

And so the two nurses carried her into another room, and I waited right outside.  After a few minutes I heard her scream.  And a couple minutes later they brought her out crying.  She said that they had shifted all of her weight onto her bad leg and that it really hurt. I had no doubt that it hurt since the hip wasn't in the socket.  But they were done with her, so I took her outside to be picked up by the transport service.  She seemed ok by the time she left, and I headed on to the office.

She called a couple of hours later in tears, saying that the pain was excruciating and the nurse at the rehab facility wanted to talk to me.  The nurse asked me to come in and sign a statement about what happened at the hospital.  I refused--it was clear they were in CYA mode, and I felt no obligation to help them--particularly since she was in their care when her hip was knocked out of socket.

She called again mid-afternoon to tell me her pain meds had kicked in and she was feeling better. But the rehab facility had done x-rays and her femur is broken.  WTF?  I did not see this coming.  I was sure the pain was because the hip was out of socket.  The damn hip replacement that she is supposed to have installed on Tuesday is attached to the femur!!! I have no idea what this means for her surgery.  Of course, the rehab facility couldn't reach her doctor by the time they figured all of this out, but they are going to try to get her an appointment first thing in the morning.

And , of course, she is looking to me for answers. But I told her that if I go lawyer on the doctor and hospital there is no way they're going to touch her again, and she really needs this surgery.  Her doctor is supposed to be the best in this area at this specialized hip replacement--that's why she's here, she couldn't find anybody in Hometown who would do the surgery.

I'm not sure how to proceed at this point.  First, I want to hear from her doctor.  But if her surgery is delayed, I think the hospital sure as hell needs to be picking up the tab for the extra days in rehab. With some mental anguish thrown in.  And I think the doctor bears some responsibility for demanding a probably unnecessary test without properly considering her mobility issues.

I guess we'll just see what tomorrow brings.  But I'm anticipating that the surgeon won't do the hip replacement until the femur heals, which could mean several extra weeks in rehab. We might be needing a plaintiff's lawyer--although with the tort reform laws in my state, it's hard to find someone who will take a med mal case.