Margaret Bailey Clark Gage update 11/28 - I havent been back for one week. When I left you Mom had, after more stupidity than is necessary to describe at this point, been taken to Elliot Hospital in Manchester following her fall after another attempt at self transferring to bed. No injuries or bruising as feared. What was discovered - by professionals at the hospital - was that the TICKS (that is an apt description for the staff) at THE PLACE (I refuse to use their name in public - they are flagged for being the horrific shit show they are) had failed to (1) notify us about her ten pound weight loss (we heard about this in the care meeting in early November) after leaving us with the belief that she had gained weight since being there, (2) she was under nourished due to a complex of factors, (all their fault) (3) she was dehydrated (see above) (4) she had a UTI (urinary tract infection) and that (5) she had an irregular heartbeat. In the main, these were caused by the unrelenting drugging that has been going on at the place in the name of rehabilitative care. The three - THREE - psychotropics they used had the net effect of causing or contributing to the first four conditions, with the particular blood thinner they were using causing the fifth - along with transporting her on a stretcher. When she arrived it didnt look good, but this is Margaret Bailey Clark Gage we are talking about here. As of today - I am skipping ahead on this so I dont get too damned angry - her bp is normal, - like 125/79 normal - heart rate in the mid 80s to low 90s, the antibiotics are cleaning up what I was told was back in early October had been cured, she is getting her color back - the level she had in early June at Colonial Poplin when she was self propelling around the facility, her spirit is improving and she was singing The Ride (humming more like - singing Um Ya Ya would be over egging her about now: in June, I Want To Go Back To Michigan (To Dear Ann Arbor Town) would have served that purpose) with Tom and Michelle yesterday. They have stopped, drawn down or substituted all the meds they were using at the place. And she is improving. But this is that time right now when I ask the dangerous question How and Why did we get to this point. There is no question but that the place is not a care facility but a truck stop toilet where you go to flush the evidence away. I have trouble here, if youre not sensing it already, talking about a facility that is the subject of the scathing exposes you see on FRONTLINE. We all see them as does, presumptively, the staffs at places like the place. We all know what our reactions are: when you see enough of them, your sense of outrage transforms to understanding that where theres smoke, theres fire. What amazes me is that the staffs in places like the place dont see themselves in these documentaries. And if so, how do they live with themselves? I do question their humanity and am afraind that I will do so just once ... and that will be forever. What we know now is that she will get better and will be relocated - transferred if you will - to a better facility very close to 12 Lincoln Street. She will improve and her insurance is going to recognize the abuse that has been ongoing with her care. The investigator from the state will issue a condemning report - I believe very strongly, but dont know as of now - that should result in citations and hopefully charges against the place. My problem is that I will have to remove her stuff from there including the several beautiful cards from Sadie McGoodwin and Catherine Stoltz Hammon. When I do it I can only think of the love and faith you two have expressed in her and her recovery. And I am sorry that I was not able to discover the places perfidy before I did. I wanted to believe their lies and not my observations and suspicions. But more remains to be done. I have had discussions with people who lead me to believe that we have just begun to fight. No more than that. In that respect, Faye Hanson Hall, your input put me in the right place and right fram with the Reynolds Center, directing me to the CT.gov site. Boy oh boy, has that been a resource and a half. But what I really want to say is I know that for which I am thankful: you friends of mine, my siblings and cousins and above all Hurricane Peg who is a veritable volcano of will. As Chip Calcagni said so many years ago, bring your best when you deal with Mom, because if you expect a weak and vacillating person, dont be surprised when you have tire tracks across your back.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 03:39:02 +0000
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