Need Answers about Dialysis

[kittaney]

Hello,
    I will try to keep this post as brief as possible. My mother was a dialysis patient for only two
months. I read a post that stated that you don't die from dialysis, you die from the complications. She died within two months of starting dialysis.

    This statement appears to be extremely true. I still can't believe that my mom only survived two months on it. She went into the hospital because the nephrologist advised dialysis, her creatinine had risen to around 6.0. He said that she could have the collar-bone access placed as an out-patient. She wanted to initiate dialysis in a hospital setting because she felt it was safer.  What a MISTAKE!

The hospital care was so horrifying! She was blind and the nurses wouldn't take the time to feed
her or provide physical therapy. As a result, she got to starvation level, lack of mobility and severe
bedsores. There were numerous accidents due to their negligence and then two time pneumonia
to top it off. The dialysis appeared to be working. I believe she died from the negligence and
lack of monitoring. Without going into all the gory details, anyone else had an experience like this?
Low blood pressure became a problem too.

My family is still in shock that modern medicine in a large city could be so negligent and uncaring.
The doctors didn't provide any answers, too busy! Her care was similar to those stories you hear
about nursing homes.  I am still trying to figure out what went wrong!

[Epoman]

Hello,
    I will try to keep this post as brief as possible. My mother was a dialysis patient for only two
months. I read a post that stated that you don't die from dialysis, you die from the complications. She died within two months of starting dialysis.

    This statement appears to be extremely true. I still can't believe that my mom only survived two months on it. She went into the hospital because the nephrologist advised dialysis, her creatinine had risen to around 6.0. He said that she could have the collar-bone access placed as an out-patient. She wanted to initiate dialysis in a hospital setting because she felt it was safer.  What a MISTAKE!

The hospital care was so horrifying! She was blind and the nurses wouldn't take the time to feed
her or provide physical therapy. As a result, she got to starvation level, lack of mobility and severe
bedsores. There were numerous accidents due to their negligence and then two time pneumonia
to top it off. The dialysis appeared to be working. I believe she died from the negligence and
lack of monitoring. Without going into all the gory details, anyone else had an experience like this?
Low blood pressure became a problem too.

My family is still in shock that modern medicine in a large city could be so negligent and uncaring.
The doctors didn't provide any answers, too busy! Her care was similar to those stories you hear
about nursing homes.  I am still trying to figure out what went wrong!

First of all let me tell you how sorry I am for the loss of your mother. When the statement is made "You won't die from dialysis, you will from complications of Dialysis" this is true. You said "I believe she died from the negligence and lack of monitoring." which could very well be true. She could have "Bottomed out" meaning her blood pressure got to low while on dialysis and it cause her to pass. I need a few questions answered please,

Did she die while ON dialysis?
What was her age?
What other medical problems did she have?

I ask these questions so I can give you a response or my opinion of what happened. In my experience most medical workers whether nurses or techs don't really care about patients, don't get me wrong there are many kind hearted people in the medical profession who do care. But I have only met a few in my time.

Also what city/state and hospital was this in?

[kittaney]

Thanks for your response. My mother was very meticulous about her health care and had been seeing a Nephrologist for five years. Her kidneys had been damaged from an episode of
"catastrophic diabetes" brought on by a severe infection. However she was not on insulin, it was a
one time event. Her only health condition was high blood pressure which she had controlled for
around 35 years. She was 79. Two Neprholgists advised dialysis, evidently thinking she could handle
it. Plus she wanted to do it, she wanted to do anything necessary to prolong her life.

When she initiated dialysis, she looked and felt great. They kept her in the hospital way too long,
doing unecessary procedures. ( kidney stent and fistula). She waited one month for these procedures. The procedures failed and she became severely deconditoned from the lack of care.
The day that she was supposed to be discharged from the hospital, she developed pneumonia.
It was the beginning of the end. Severe bedsores developed and she went to starvation level.
I filed a formal complaint with the hospital. The same day that I filed the complaint, she was locked
into a chair for four hours with a food tray and left forgotten. I found her having a seizure from
the pneumonia medicine and she had torn her fistula open from struggling. The next day, they
left the bed rail down and she was found in the floor. Everything was downhill from there on.
She was never the same. They discharged her with low blood pressure and pneumonia.
She was re-admitted to the hospital within a week. The low blood pressure problem was seemingly
resolved but then the pnemonia came back and she develped a fast heart rate. I made plans
to get her transferred to another facility. The pressured me to not transfer her and to do palliative
care. I didn't even know what that was. So on her final day of life, she was left with a fast heart
rate for three hours with no action taken. When a code blue was called, they didn't resusitate.
They had my instructions to do a "full code" in all situations but they ignored it. The doctor told
me that her quality of life wasn't good enough. Remember that this was a woman who walked into
the hospital in fair condition, her only symptoms were fatigue and weakness. The implication from
the hospital staff was that she was old and why bother with dialysis. Unfortunately, she was visiting
me from out of state when all this happened. I believe that if she would have been home, her doctor would have allowed her to survive. I live in the southeast, North Carolina. She was from
Indiana. Statistics show that the Midwest provides superior medical care. ( if that is true)
Eight rotating Nephrologists were seeing her and it was like no one was taking full control. Their
opinions even differed. When she passed away, they couldn't even tell me why. Two death certificates were issued because the first one was incorrect. Needless to say, my family is a wreck
from this tragedy. We have a medical expert reviewing the records. But the records were over
1,000 pages long and lots and lots of things were omitted. ( the accidents and negligent care)
Nowhere in the records do they state that the dialysis isn't working or that she isn't going to survive.
Sorry this is so long... But so many things happened that were wrong.

[Epoman]

I don't know what to say except I'm sorry. It sounds like she did not receive proper care. At 79 dialysis is very hard on a person that age it is very tolling, The temp access, the fistula surgery, dialysis itself. The main thing I think that caused her death was the
pneumonia, and the low blood pressure didn't help any. You mentioned the "The implication from the hospital staff was that she was old and why bother with dialysis" And that is most likely true.

I'm sorry but you mentioned the procedures for the access failed? "the procedures failed" so she never actually started or had a dialysis sesssion? if thats the case then she did not die from complications of dialysis, she died from pneumonia and lack of care.
In that case maybe you should start a full investigation. I hope the medical expert you have reviewing the case does not work for the same hospital.

Also you mentioned "nowhere in the records do they state that the dialysis isn't working" So she did eventually get an access and did start dialysis? If she did start dialysis then it must have just been too hard on her body at that age with the other problems she already had.

You stated "Sorry this is so long... But so many things happened that were wrong." don't be sorry that is what this place is here for, so you can vent your frustrations and share your story with others so they can be informed.

[kittaney]

My mother did dialysis for two months. She had a temp access in her collar bone area. The fistula
surgery was a failure as that her veins collapsed. ( too small ) The kidney stent was a waste of time
just to get the money for the procedure. She had damaged kidneys and a stent wasn't going to
help. The fistula procedure could have waited until she was phsyically stronger and out of the
hospital.

I am thinking that she would have survived dialysis if not for the lack of proper care. When she
first did dialysis, she was looking and feeling great. But once the other complications, pneumonia,
lack of feeding, lack of mobiility and accidents occured. It was just too much on her body. It's
my understanding that in order for dialysis to be successful, you must try to keep your body in
good shape with good nutrition and exercise. Since they didn't feed or move her, her body
was being set up for bedsores and infections. Thus, harder to be successful with the dialysis. I
think that if we had done the out-patient dialysis, none of the above would have occured. She
would not have been so severely deconditioned. Hospitals prolong the stay for the money.

In addition, since when do doctors decide on quality of life? If my mother was ok with being
bedridden, that was her choice. They made her bedridden. It is ironic that they pushed dialysis
on her and then after Medicare ran out, they decided that her quality of life wasn't good, so
don't bother with resusitation.  By the way, the medical expert is hired privately by myself and he
will determine if the hospital staff undermined the dialysis by lack of proper care. You would be
amazed at how medical staff cover up their mistakes in the records. This is why it is taking so
long to determine what exactly went wrong.

[Epoman]

My mother did dialysis for two months. She had a temp access in her collar bone area. The fistula
surgery was a failure as that her veins collapsed. ( too small ) The kidney stent was a waste of time
just to get the money for the procedure. She had damaged kidneys and a stent wasn't going to
help. The fistula procedure could have waited until she was phsyically stronger and out of the
hospital.

I am thinking that she would have survived dialysis if not for the lack of proper care. When she
first did dialysis, she was looking and feeling great. But once the other complications, pneumonia,
lack of feeding, lack of mobiility and accidents occured. It was just too much on her body. It's
my understanding that in order for dialysis to be successful, you must try to keep your body in
good shape with good nutrition and exercise. Since they didn't feed or move her, her body
was being set up for bedsores and infections. Thus, harder to be successful with the dialysis. I
think that if we had done the out-patient dialysis, none of the above would have occured. She
would not have been so severely deconditioned. Hospitals prolong the stay for the money.

In addition, since when do doctors decide on quality of life? If my mother was ok with being
bedridden, that was her choice. They made her bedridden. It is ironic that they pushed dialysis
on her and then after Medicare ran out, they decided that her quality of life wasn't good, so
don't bother with resusitation.  By the way, the medical expert is hired privately by myself and he
will determine if the hospital staff undermined the dialysis by lack of proper care. You would be
amazed at how medical staff cover up their mistakes in the records. This is why it is taking so
long to determine what exactly went wrong.

I agree with you completely that she would have had better care had she been an out-patient. I have had many dialysis sessions in the hospital and I can say it's terrible. And no I would not be surprised by medical workers/staff cover up things, I have seen it first hand. It's good you hired a medical expert on your own and I'm sure you investigated that he/she has no connection to that hospital what so ever. I can understand if you wish not to say what hospital/state this was in due to possible legal reasons, but I do hope you keep us updated and informed. Good Luck.