

Thursday, March 1, 2018


Putting a loved one into a nursing home can be gut-wrenching.  My own family  experienced this. My mother-in-law, Dorothy, was in an Alberta (Canada) nursing home for the six years her life before her death in 2013 at the age of 82. She did not have money to afford private care. My wife and I don't have the financial resources to help so Dorothy went into public system where beds are in short supply.  There were subtle inklings, and not so subtle indicators, things might be amiss. 

My wife was afraid to make too may waves lest Dorothy be the recipient of retaliation. Dorothy had dementia, so she could not tell us if abuse were to occur. Her legs were very weak. Instead of staff helping her to the washroom, they put a lidless commodore beside her bed (near her head). That's where she did her bowel movements. She was supposed to wipe her hands with wipes my wife had to provide. The commode would go days without being emptied. Feces would pile to the lid.  Imagine the stench! My wife would have to ask for a new commode and the process would start over. 

When somebody bought Dorothy something nice. It was apt to disappear. There was theft, although one couldn't prove it. Dorothy had bed sores. Near the end of her life, she developed an infection. Her doctor recommended she be admitted to an acute care hospital. My wife and her sister were Dorothy's only advocates. They were terrified that if Dorothy was admitted to a hospital, she would not come out alive.

If this is what a Canadian elder suffered with an active, attentive advocates, I can't imagine the treatment (or lack of treatment) elders suffer if they have nobody to advocate on their behalf!  No wonder medically assisted suicide can look attractive!

Below is recent program aired across Canada about nursing home abuse. This is indicative of a society that has ceased to embrace a sanctity of human life ethic, and no longer believes that every human life bears the image and likeness of God. 

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