Freaked Out & need help

Hi. I’m brand new to this board and really in need of some help. My mother-in-law went into the hospital and “supposedly” had a seizure while on a stretcher and “supposedly” dislocated both of her arms - ie: she did it to herself. That’s what the report in the chart says, but when I talked to a doctor she said that they forcefully held her down while she was convulsing and that was what caused both arms to dislocate. By the way - she has NO history of seizures EVER. She came to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing, they gave her diuretics and she got better but they said they wanted to keep her overnight for observation and then they decided to “run a few tests”… She was put back to bed with both arms dislocated & no-one did anything for over 24 hours and then finally x-rayed 1 shoulder and put it back in the next day. Then she was still crying and saying her arms hurt so they got the brilliant idea to X-ray the second shoulder and then scheduled the procedure to put that one in. Then the first one popped back out so there was a third procedure. Oh, and she is COVERED in bruises: all over her back, all over her buttocks, all over her breasts and of course, her arms. She is 75 years old and had MILD dementia. Now after the 3 courses of anesthesia she is VERY demented and they locked her up in the geriatric psych ward and won’t allow her partner Al to visit her. She’s in Ohio, I’m in Phoenix and I’m getting the run-around every time I call the hospital. Anyway, is this like some kind of crazy cover-up to save their butts? I want to get her out of there before they kill her!!!

Sometimes elderly people can have serious psychotic reactions to infections, like UTIs, that would not have this effect on a younger person. This may have happened to her, and I would find out if she has been checked for an infection.

Also, hospital personnel do not forcefully hold people down during a seizure, but if she was just on a gurney, they may have held her lightly to prevent her falling off. Or maybe she did fall off. People are not aware of what is happening during a seizure (except partially aware during a special kind of seizure called a focal seizure), so she shouldn’t remember being held down, but could have hallucinated this happening, or falsely remembered it from the way she felt afterward, especially of she never had a seizure before.

At this point, the only way to get her out, unless someone on the board who is a lawyer has a less common suggestion, is to get guardianship of her, and then check her out AMA, which you might be able to do without running afoul of her insurance company if you immediately take her somewhere for a second opinion, which is a good idea anyway.

I would say the first step is talking to the doctors, though, and you need to get her to waive her HIPAA confidentiality in regard to you spouse, or you and your spouse, so you can talk directly to her doctors.

Probably where she is, there is a policy of immediate family and clergy only-- if she is not married to her partner, they won’t let him visit. Either that, or on a psych ward, she has to make a list of people who are allowed to visit, but she may not know this (you wouldn’t believe how common this problem is), so she hasn’t done it.

reported for forum change

Moderator Action

Welcome to the SDMB, Chrissalissa.

The General Questions forum is for questions with factual answers. Questions that seek advice and opinions belong in our In My Humble Opinion (IMHO) forum. I will move this thread for you.

Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.

Hospitalization itself can also produce dementia-type reactions in older people. My mother-in-law had mild dementia. When she was hospitalized for needing 3 stents put in around her heart, she kept hallucinating that she was at home (and that her dogs were hiding under her bed), then in a hotel, etc. She kept trying to tear out her IVs. At one point she decided she was going to ‘check out of the hotel,’ and when they tried to keep her there, she fought violently enough that we were told it took 4 orderlies to hold her down for a sedative injection.

My father-in-law does not have dementia, but while hospitalized he had hallucinations from a medication that caused him to think his family members (who were there in the room) were threatening and attacking him.

Yes, it’s possible your mother-in-law was mistreated. It’s also possible that she is extremely delusional and does not know accurately what has happened to her.

My mother has dementia. When she broke her hip, she went absolutely loopy from the anesthesia and meds, to the point where we were concerned that she had also had a major stroke of some kind. She kept trying to get out of bed (only a few days after having hip replacement surgery) so she could go to her bedroom which was in a house that she hadn’t lived in for several years, but she was convinced this bedroom was somehow right behind her hospital bed. They had to strap her down and put alarms on her so that it would call a nurse every time she tried to get up.

My mother’s dementia also gets very noticeably worse when she has a UTI. In fact, that’s how we can usually tell she probably has one as she doesn’t complain about anything else and the dementia is by far the most noticeable symptom.

People with dementia function much better when they are in comfortable and familiar surroundings. Just removing them from those surroundings often makes the dementia symptoms much worse. Add in some anesthesia and maybe some pain meds and whatever else was going on and your mother-in-law’s “mild” dementia may have turned into extremely major dementia.

It’s not entirely impossible that your mother-in-law suffered some type of abuse, but I don’t think that’s likely given the circumstances. If they said she fell out of bed when no one was looking then maybe, but if people were treating her at the time then you’re talking about a whole bunch of people all being in on the conspiracy, and that’s much less likely to happen.

Old people can bruise easily. Don’t assume bruises = abuse. And grand mal seizures can be really violent. Usually the person is completely out of it for 20 - 30 minutes afterwards.

Try finding her a patient advocate. It’s someone who is present for face to face consults with her docs and hospital staff, can monitor her meds, and communicate with you frequently.

Try www.avvo.com.