Posted by Jerry on 3/03/06

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On 2-21-06 my 90 yr. old father suffered a stroke due to a blood clot in the right central cerebral artery. He was about to eat breakfast and my mother found him on the floor next to the table. I was at their home and she ran and got me and I called 911. My father was conscious and pointing up to the table and kept saying "cereal" somewhat slurred. A catscan showed the clot.
This is a small town with a small 22 bed hospital. After leaving the emergency room, he was placed in a regular room near the nurses station. My mother and I were at the hospital shortly after my father had been moved to his room. His left arm would not move. I took his right hand and asked him to squeeze it if he could hear me. He squeezed it, very tightly. He may have been 90, but was still quite strong. He kept trying to clear his throat and after a trying several times, he put his right hand to his throat and said, "mucous". I knew what he meant. At home he would sometimes have to spit up mucous that built up. I went and got a nurse and told her about the mucous. Her expression can best be explained as that sometimes seen when telling someone something that grosses them out. I hate that term, but it's the only one I can think that fits. The nurse twisted he mouth around and I expected her to say, "oh, yuk". Very strange. I said I was worried my father could choke and the nurse got a couple tissues and gave them to my father. That was the extent of her help. I asked again about the choking issue but she just didn't seem to have any interest. My father wiped his mouth the best he could, but really couldn't get the mucous from his throat. Before I left I asked the nurse again and she said she would watch him. I went in again that evening and my father was still trying to clear his throat and again I asked the nurse, several times if there was anything she could do. She just kept saying they were watching my father. The next morning, Wednesday, my father was still alert, trying to talk, etc. and still having a problem with the mucous. The nurse still seemed to have no real interest in trying to get his throat clear. I was getting a bit upset by now and asked if there was a doctor around. There is only one doctor at the hospital 24 hours a day. That's the emergency room doctor. I asked the nurse if my father got worse if she would call this doctor in. She just said they were keeping a close watch on my father. A couple more times I asked if she would call the doctor if my father got worse, but she just kept saying they (the nurses) were keeping a close watch. On the way home I stopped in to see my father's doctor and asked him some questions. He went to the hospital each morning about 6 am to check his patients and the rest of the day the nurse would call him with updates. This meant he was counting on the nurses making the right judgements. Wednesday afternoon when I went back to the hospital, the respiratory therapist had been in. A note was posted by my father's bed that he was at severe risk for aspiration pneumonia. The therapist had inserted a tube to clear the mucous the best they could. My father was still alert. He held up two fingers and tried hard to tell me what happened but the words wouldn't come out right. I asked the nurse what she thought the two fingers meant and she said two of them were in the room when the mucous was removed. After staying awhile I asked my father if he wanted me stay longer and he said, "you don't have to", a bit slurred, but clear enough to understand. I stayed awhile longer. When I got there Thursday morning, my father was pretty much out of it. I don't think he was aware I was there. He didn't squeeze my hand and didn't try to talk. The nurse said he had developed aspiration pneumonia during the night. His blood pressure was way down and he had a fever. He never recovered and died 2-25-06. From Tuesday morning until Wednesday afternoon nothing was done to remove the mucous from my father's throat. He had to lie there while his throat filled up, and it is most likely some of this mucous that got into his lungs, causing the pneumonia. Would this be considered malpractice? I told the nurses several times about the mucous and they did nothing for more than 24 hours. This hospital has no neurologist and my father was seen by his family doctor once a day.

Could this be malpractice?, 3/03/06, by Jerry.

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