| Not over yet~! |
[Mar. 1st, 2008|06:14 pm] |
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On Friday Feb. 29th, at about 3:30 in the afternoon, I cleared up the misdiagnosis of Alzheimer's for my mother and got a Kaiser doctor to waiver the other physician's diagnosis at the Kaiser's facility. With this I was able to bring her back to her retirement home; back to her 89 year old mother and back to all her friends and staff. It was a joyful reunion for them , the staff and many residents there who mother has been friends with for over three years had cheers, hugs & kisses, tears of joy, relief and my mother remembered all of them and had missed them and even managed a few quick dances with a few of them before they all settled down to bingo.
That evening after dinner, a police officer was called to officially witness that my mother was indeed safely returned back to her place of residence. We tried to give him a concise statement as possible, and it went something like this:
Last Thursday 2-21-08: I get a call around 3pm from my mother's retirement home telling me that she's missing but reassuring me that she should be found soon, and that everyone was out looking and that the police were notified. The administrator tells me they are calling area hospitals and driving around the local streets looking for her. I called the police myself by 8pm that night to make sure I was listed as next to kin as her only child. I give them my information, trying not to be worried. I'm given her case file number in case I hear something. The waiting begins. It starts to rain pretty hard off and on that night and it was cold out. So of course I worried.
Last Friday 2-22-08: We still hear nothing so I try to gather most recent photos in the computer we have and make various prints and write a more detailed destription of her. Still nothing. I start to call local hospitals making inquiries about Jane Does. Nothing, no leads. All I'm told is to be positive and wait. The administrator at the retirement home starts to drive the streets in the wee hours in hopes to find her. It's another cold night.
Last Saturday 2-23-08: We go to the retirement home and have photos of her to give to the police station in person. Still no word. We give them more info, and ask to go public, because frankly by now, after 3 days, we're all feeling desperate for her safe return. We alert the local mall and their police sub-station as well.
On Sunday 2-24-08: nothing happens. You can't ever be lost and sick on the weekends; it doesn't count. >=(
Monday 2-25-08: Despite my mother not fitting the base description of the "Jane Doe" at an LA hospital, the administrator from my mother's retirement home faxed my mother's photo to them anyways. As a result, the hospital then replied they think they had a match. Around 11am, The administrator phoned me in route to the LA hospital to positively identify my mother with the words, "Now, don't get too excited, but I think we found her." She then asked me if she owned red shoes, and other personal effects, which sounded even more hopeful, because they were specific garments I had known my mother to wear. I told her yes, yes, that sounds like her.
But all this did not happen without trepidation or a fight. Once she arrived, she was positively IDed by the administrator and her assistant. However, the L.A. hospital would not discharge her as she was heavily sedated and could not walk. The administrator was told they were going to try an MRI and that she was sedated because she was fighting it. In the process she had broken two of her nails down to the quick. (I even later saw the bloody gauze from that which they had stuffed along with her belongings into a plastic bag) After securing my mother's name and current address and contacts the administrator was told to leave, that my mother wasn't leaving that day in her condition. I was also told she was given blood tests and that she needed to stay in the hospital for overnight observation.
Tuesday 2-26-08: The retirement home phoned me in the morning to say, if I could please come out to pick up my mother, that they had other urgent appointments to keep with their van, which is completely understandable. I phoned the L.A. hospital, and they told me that my mother wasn't going anywhere yet. I pressed them as to why. She said she is a "wanderer" and until they determine what she's suffering from they cannot release her. I then spent the entire day at the retirement home on the phone, trying to tell the L.A. hospital that she suffers from Aphasia due to a possible stroke or brain haemorrhage that went undetected, a few years ago,etc. NOT Alzheimer's! Getting my mother's policy number for her Kaiser insurance, it took me hours trying to get the L.A. hospital to transport her to one of Kaiser facilities. I was told over and over again by the L.A. case manager that my mother's Kaiser insurance didn't cover transport to another facility and I argued that it did. I had the benefit plan booklet in front of my face! That's when the case worker told me to cancel my mother's Kaiser insurance and put her on MediCal!! I absolutely refused! Then I blatantly told the woman my mother doesn't qualify for Medical, she snapped back, well, I still have to try! WAIT! Excuse me??? What right does she, a stranger, have to try to get my mother on another insurance plan when she already has one at Kaiser?! Also the misdiagnosis now effected my mother's status at the retirement home. Basically, Their licensers' would not allow her to return to the home if she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
Wednesday 2-27-08: I end up on the phone all day with Kaiser trying to prove she qualified as a member for emergency transport. AND the new problem was she was misdiagnosed by the L.A. ER doctor and was listed as having Alzheimer's and they now had her taking 2 different Alzheimer's drugs. Wait. That's absolute malpractice.
What was even worse, Kaiser was siding with the L.A. doctor's diagnosis!!! Hello??? Because of a clerical error or a lie to cover up someone's ass, my mother was getting misdiagnosed the WRONG DRUG TREATMENTS AND BEING EVICTED FROM HER HOME OF 3 YEARS?! I at least finally got Kaiser to agree to transport her after waiting for an opening in one of their hospitals all day. My mother arrived at a Kaiser hospital at approx. 10:30 pm Weds. night.
Thursday 2-27-08: We take Grandma to Kaiser to finally see her daughter after one week. At one point she confidentially told me she had feared that her daughter was dead and we were all just too afraid to tell her, and sparing her feelings. ;__;
I still need a vital copy of the detailed report from the first L.A. hospital that states who dropped my mother off, what time, her condition, on what circumstances,etc. There are numerous discrepancies on the time and her appearance when she was admitted to that first hospital in L.A. I saw the actual report while I was at Kaiser, but, was flatly denied a copy of it. It didn't matter that I was her only child and next of kin. It didn't matter that I had the report in front of my face ( which btw, I just happened to see the nurse thumbing through; she wasn't about to show me it all) One of the discrepancies directly effected and delayed the search for my mother. She would still had been at the first LA hospital if it wasn't for the persistence of the administrator at the retirement home.
We go in circles about getting copies of this report and her medical records. They at least send us to fill out a release of records forum while they feed my mother and grandmother some dinner. At least she finally got to have dinner with my mother after one week. I am told I needed to return the next morning to get the letter from the doctor that corrects the misdiagnosis of Alzheimer's.
Friday: please see first paragraph.
But we still need that police/paramedic report otherwise, mom still has a chance to be evicted. But at least right now, she's safe. Nothing to do except work on SB5 until Monday. Driving 1.5~2 hours there & back nearly everyday has taken a toll in our pockets the way gas money is, so I'll try to put up some stuff on eBay soon. We're so behind working on the SB5 pages after all this, we won't get paid until all 20 are done and approved anyways, and then that'll be another 2 weeks of waiting to get paid...and who knows at this point when that will be considering we still may have to move them both to another living facility.
We also have a Donate button here at the Tavicat site , that we'll be happy to send out a signed print of your choice (anything you see at he galleries can be made into a glossy colored or monochrome print) with a $15 & over donation; whatever the link says, as a huge thank you fulla hugs. I'm not trying to whine or seem like I'm begging, I'm just starting to feel at the end of our rope and utterly exhausted.
We wait and see, come what may.
Thanks so much again everyone, for all your positive thinking and prayers.
~<3 =^..^=
tavi~ |
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