My Mother died of ovarian cancer after a 2 year battle. She wanted to die at home in Central Lake Michigan. The home hospice nurse there told my Father it would cost him 1000 a day for a 24/7 nurse...I found out since then this is a lie. My family can't afford that and it troubled my mother so the nurse volunteered me to inject the morphine SubQ and administer the ativan under tounge which she wouldn't open her mouth to let me I had no idea what to do, the nurse advised me over the phone to "talk to her" that didn't work but a moist washcloth on her dry lips did, I thought of that. She died 5 hours after the last shot of morphine orders were every 6 hours 75-100 mg. Ativan and another liquid painkiller 50-75 mgs under tounge every 4 hours. I know you don't overdose in 5 hours more like 5-20 minutes but my sister is accusing me of overdosing her deliberatly. Was it legal for that nurse to shove this horrible responsibilty on me. I just lost my husband 8 months prior to this. I feel like if this is illegal the hospice should be investigated if she's "stealing" monies from people at their lowest point in life, isn't the next victim kinda my responsiblity if I don't do something, if I do something though my whole family may turn against me and believe my Oldest (and dumbest) sister. What should I do. Also Mom was awake and aware when this "nurse" came in she immediately dosed her to sleep not giving my Dad the chance to tell his wife of 67 years one last time how much she meant to him and that he loved her. This "nurse" sullies the name of Nurses and Hospice and inflicts emotional scars. It's been since September and I still can't stop crying, I lost my job because I'm so depressed, I'm under mental health care and on antidepressants, but I'm also a diabetic and stress kills us...what can I do????

J_9

This is wrong. Totally and completely wrong. The nurse is the only one that is to give meds of this kind. Also, she can only give them under a doctor's order. You need to get a malpractice attorney in your area to subpoena the medical records to find out if the meds were ordered and a telephone order was in place by the doctor to have you administer the meds.

Understand that a med/mal attorney will usually work for a contingent fee, meaning that he only recovers money if you win your case, so it will not be money out of your pocket.

You need to get out the yellow pages and get on the horn to a medical malpractice attorney on Monday.

sideoutshu

If I were you, I would make a complaint to the State Department of health. We have something in New York called the OPMC(Office of Professional Medical Conduct), I am sure your state has the same or something similar. Let them do an investigation and see what they find.

While you may have a case of malpractice, it may be a difficult case for an attorney to take on due to your mother's age and medical condition. (a large part of damages in a suit hinges on life expectancy). However, let me know where you live, and we'll go from there.

J_9

She is in Michigan I believe. She says Central Lake Michigan.

Fr_Chuck

It is commom at least in our areas for hospice people at home to have family give them thier medication and they do n ot have full time around the clock nurses, but a nurse merely comes in for a few hours a day to check and see if thier medication is taking care of pain and to see if there is anything else they need.

Most hospice nurses are kind and caring ( but of course there can always be a few bad in a bunch)

J_9

Yes, Chuck in a sense you are right. However, morphine is a narcotic and is only given under the tightest of restrictions because of the fact that it slows respirations and can be deadly. Many of us can teach the family how to give the meds, but morphine is not one of the meds that should be given by anyone but a nurse, especially without a doctor's order.

I agree with Sideoutshu in that she needs to contact her local health department and find out who the reporting agency is in that area to have that nurse and/or hospice examined.

tinsign

What???????? my mother had hospice it was totally free of charge for terminally ill patients who want to die at home...yes we did have to learn how to give the meds as well but we all got trained to do that.
I also live in michigan so trust me someone is giving you the runaround on this,.
Call the hospice number to the headquaters by all means turn her in she is pocketing this money
also..is she trying to charge you for use of equipment if so don't pay her anything report that as well..all of that is FREE OF CHARGE