There were some questionable things. At one point he was put into a subpar rehab center. Fortunately he had an excellent advocate who took him out. They had him on heavy doses of opioids. He would have died a zombie in that place.
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I can't stress how important it is to have an advocate. My friend's advocate (not me) kept him alive for several years. The quality of life was not good but I suppose it beats being dead.
It's someone(s) who can be on the scene virtually 24 hrs/day. Question everything, esp anything that doesn't obviously and quickly improve within a short period of time. This is critical on the "graveyard" shift ... there's a reason it's called that. Had I not been present when my dad's breathing >
became labored at 4 am, he would of died - essentially drowned - bc he'd been taken off a diuretic w/o consideration of post-polio syndrome curving him inward and *known* ongoing issues of fluid retention in his legs. Then *insisting* the on-call Dr actually be called. Dr was *vicious* to nurse. >
I shouted so he could hear me on his end of phone: shut up and do something or you'll have a dead patient in the morning and a big lawsuit w/your name on it. Got Dad readmitted to ICU. Nurse told us more than a liter of fluid drained in first 1/2 hr. It can be anyone as advocate not afraid of >
of calling out med staff who refuse their duty. My mom and I later lodged a formal complaint w/hospital admin. At least, my dad survived and we got an apology. But he could easily have died.
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