[morath22]

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 tongue 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 tongue 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 deliberately. Was it legal for that nurse to shove this horrible responsibility 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 kind of my responsibility 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 common at least in our areas for hospice people at home to have family give them their 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 their 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 headquarters 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

[jackstar1969]

My family and I just went through this same thing and I am not sure how to proceed But let me explain what happened first"

My Dad is very ill ... but not with cancer ... He signed a DNR order the last time he was at his doctor's office because he does not wish to be put on life support or end up with a feeding tube.. .totally understandable.. So his nurse practioner told him that we could have hospice come in for palliative care... which would help with oxygen and medicine as well as keep up in his vital's ... that was a week ago . at first hospice seemed great... they
checked on his regularly . Started giving him Morphine for pain -- actually yes they made us give it to him... not bothering to tell us it had side effects... three day's ago we had to call hospice in my dad was thrashing around badly and my mother could not control him... this on call nurse came in and told us my dad had a "mini stroke" I had informed him we had just gotten off the phone with his nurse practitioner and he looked at me and told me we were not to ever call dad's doctor's we were only to deal with hospice now. I thought that a bit strange... he got dad calmed down and told us that the nurse would be by tomorrow. She came by the next morning and wrote down the med's we were to give him and the time's - she told us my dad's kidney's had shut down and it was only a matter of time. So we called my grandpa my aunts and uncles and the rest of the kid's to say their final goodbye's... Thank God the nurse practitioner showed up!! She came into the house and said what the hell is going on here? Hollering at my dad that he was giving up and that there was no reason for him to be dying- I explained to her everything that had been going on the past two days she told me I had to resind hospice now! That we had to get my dad to the hospital for a drug over dose. Those people had come within a inch of my dad's life... They were having us kill him by over dosing him on morphine atavan and some other high narcotic. I understand that they are supposed to be helping people ease into sleep instead of being in pain - But they were shoving my dad into death not easing him!! And you know the worst part is that they were making us do it. If my dad's nurse practitioner had not did a house call (bless her heart) We would have murdered our dad, and never known that we were doing it.

This should be against the law! Oh and to make matter's worse they called my mother the very next day wanting to stop by the house and pick up all the drug's they had us shoving into my dad's mouth! Of course my mom said they could have them back after we speak to an Attorney!

Any advise on where to go from here would be appreciated thanks

Jackie

[dladams628]

I have been working hospice for over 9 years and yes it is common for the family to be instructed on the dosages for morphine, in hospice, there is no such this as overdosing the patient, hospice is comfort care, end stage cancer and other diseases can be very painful for some patients, hospice is call to provide comfort care. Morphine is a pain reliever, it is not uncommon for some patients to have 6 hour doses for as much as 100+mg. Patient that are terminal also hallucinate at times had have unusual behaviors, ativan is used often to treat the symptoms. Some patients response better than others, there are many other drugs that can be used to treat pain and anxiety also. Private duty care can be very expensive, especially for a nurse, that is something you have to shop around for. Hospice care is for patients that are in patient, or at home. If the patient is at home it is the families responsibility to provide personal care and administer medications under the supervision of the nurse. Hospice nurses are given protocols that are signed by the md that allow administration of high doses of pain killers, given that hospice care is also comfort care, larger dose of pain medications may be given to keep the patient out of pain. The patients negative response can be attributed to trial and error, just like with any other medicaton, if a patient has unusally symptoms with one ,another one can be used as a substitution.