A New Form of Assault

Thanks to Robert Kraft (one of those facebook "friends" I don't actually know) for bringing this to my attention.

The New York Times has an excellent blog called the New Old Age. I don't get around to reading it often enough, but this recent entry is very thought provoking. The blogger writes about a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (the full article is only available by subscription). The study found that people with late dementia are frequently hospitalized too often, with medical symptoms and conditions that could have been treated in their nursing homes.

The study only looked at nursing home residents, and it found that over an 18 month period, 30% were hospitalized. Dr. Susan Mitchell, one of the researchers estimated that fully 75% of those hospitalizations could have been avoided.

So what's the problem? Dr. Susan Mitchell's comment: “Being in an emergency room where people are taking blood and putting in IVs in this crazy, noisy setting — it’s been described as an ‘assault,’ and I concur." If you don't know someone with late-stage dementia, allow me to describe someone I know.

This gentleman has been in an Alzheimer's care home for the last two years. He still recognizes me as someone he knows, but he has no idea how or why. He thinks he's known me for a very long time, but we have only known each other for a few years. He does not always remember his children's names. He is not able to carry on a conversation about anything, although he does still talk. It is reported that he eats a lot, but in the past year he has lost at least 30 pounds, and this over six foot tall man is wearing  size small shirts.

Thankfully his family has him on hospice, so there won't be any unnecessary trips to the hospital, but how do you help someone in this state understand what is going on around them? How do you communicate to them what the IV is for? How do you keep this person calm without drugging them? And for what end? When we, as health care professionals or family members insist on sending someone like this to the ER to be treated for pneumonia, are we doing it for the patient, or are we doing it for us, whether it's to cover our backsides (in the case of a health care professional), or because we aren't ready to let a loved one go?

It does seem extreme in some ways to consider this kind of treatment assault, but once you have seen a frail, older adult, who doesn't know or understand what is going on, who only wants to be left in peace, being forced to stay in the hospital for aggressive treatment, you might agree that it is an assault. I happened to see a former colleague earlier this week, and when we worked together in a hospital he had one of these horrible situations. The patient was on a ventilator, he had multiple infections, he had pressure sores, he was on dialysis, and he was like this for MONTHS. His children would not let him go. It was so bad that there were nurses who refused to take care of him, because they felt it was assault. When his family finally agreed to take him off all the machines, he died before they got everything turned off.

We have to start talking about this. We are all going to die--that is one thing I am sure of.

New on the Alzheimer's Front

According to a story in the New York Times, the FDA is getting closer to approving a scan that will help diagnose Alzheimer's disease. Right now, we can't definitively diagnose Alzheimer's disease until death, when an autopsy can be done. What a lot of people don't realize is that not only are there many types of dementia, but other treatable medical conditions mimic Alzheimer's.

Other types of dementia are related to vascular problems, such as having several small strokes, or Parkinson's disease. In these cases it might be possible to better treat the cause, especially with vascular dementia, to slow or stop the decline. Depression, which is very treatable, can also mimic the memory loss of Alzheimer's. Delirium is another condition that can look like Alzheimer's. Delirium is frequently caused by an infection, and infections are often successfully treated.

This is good news, because it gives doctors the potential to definitively rule Alzheimer's in or out, allowing them to properly focus their treatment. The article says full approval is still several months away, but it's certainly a great stride forward.

Growing Older But Not Up

Thanks to Monica, one of the attorneys here at Katten & Benson, for sharing this great article about the oldest African American, Mississippi Winn. Miss Winn died recently at the young age of 113. Another amazing fact about her is that she was one of two known people left whose parents were likely born into slavery. Her niece said that even though she was 113, she thought she was young. Her family thinks one reason she lived as long as she did was because she just handled things as they came, of course, no husband or children might have been a factor as well.

I have my own Miss Winn story. Many years ago, when I still worked in the hospital, one of my patients was a nun, Sister Winifred. At the time that I knew her, she was 101. She was mostly deaf, and didn't see well, and she used to tell us that she figured God decided she had seen and heard enough.

She had been a teacher for many, many years, despite the fact that she did not really want to be a teacher. But she became a teacher anyway, because that is what the Church needed her to do, so she did it. Despite this, she had middle-aged, former students visit her in the hospital. I suspect teaching truly had been her calling, because she had clearly been beloved by many of her students.

The day I told her she was going to be discharged and would be able to return to her convent, she took my hand and said this to me: "I will pray for you every day for the rest of my life. I know that won't be long, but I will pray for you every day". She ended up living another three years. I never doubted that I was in her prayers.


Knowing her for even a short time was a gift I will always cherish. I hope all of you have the opportunity to be touched by a remarkable older adult.