My father died in this hospital after fighting for his life for 6 weeks. His condition deteriorated because of the suboptimal care of physical therapists, doctors (except for a few Dr. Kehun and Dr. Henry who were great, and a few nurses) and a case worker who dragged her feet until it was too late. My father, Anthony, was 85 years old and had a number of health issues that were well managed. He fell and broke his hip before Xmas 2022- he initially started out at UPMC Chautauqua because my parents lived nearby, but since there were no surgeons available due to the holiday, he was transported to Hamot, despite requests that he be taken to the Cleveland Clinic. The surgery went well as did his initial recovery. He was supposed to get Physical Therapy starting the day before surgery and every single day. The doctor's orders stated that PT was to assist him up and out of bed every day, which is the standard of care. But PT did not come for days after surgery and they did not attempt to get him up except once, weeks later and then only because we complained. They came 2 x week for 3-4 minutes and basically did nothing- they let my father waste away in his bed. Every day that he was left in bed, decreased the chances that he would ever go home. His ongoing recumbency led to: progressive weakness, pain, muscles shortening and stiffness, delirium, and his stomach and intestines slowed down (ileus). His ileus led to his inability to eat, the placement of tubes up his nose into his stomach for suction. And doctors gave medications that caused even more GI ileus and distention. Dr Henry, a GI specialist, who was actually competent, came into the case briefly, when my father still had a chance, and took him off all meds and my father started to recover. His tubes were removed and we were discussing his discharge. But there was no consistency of care- doctors rotated every 5 days and soon another doctor came in put him back on this drug, again causing GI ileus. Again unable to eat, again requiring placement of the nasogastric tube up his nose and into his stomach, which stayed for the rest of his life. We argued with doctors to stop giving this drug. And if they did stop giving it, another doctor would start it again. My father sustained so much trauma to his GI it eventually stopped working. And with all the trauma to his throat from ongoing tubes, he could no longer swallow. My father could not even drink water without choking. So the speech pathologist decided to put him through numerous barium swallows. A man who was in and out of consciousness (by the end), had tubes in his throat, lying down,clearly choking on water, was being tested by being forced to swallow barium. This is incompetence. And..we had to insist that he start getting IV nutrition although he had no nutrition for weeks. By the time they started, he was already starving to death. When he died he had lost anywhere from 50-60 lbs. And one of the nurses placed a foley catheter (into urethra to drain urine) inflating the balloon inside his urethra causing ongoing bleeding. I asked the doctors why my fathers urine was so red and they told me it was not blood and they did not check for weeks. His PCV (red blood cell count) went from 41% to 24% although he was trying to regenerate and correct it for weeks until he died. We tried to get him out of there. After about a month, we insisted that he be transferred to Cleveland Clinic and (my sister) forced his case worker to start the process which only they can do. He was accepted but there was a waiting list and he never made it. And on top of all of this, Dr. Tariq Beeharry, who came into the case a month into my father's stay, basically accused us of being in denial and contributing to my fathers suffering. My father told us he wanted to keep fighting. And we were honoring that. We had already made him DNR, no heroics.. just basic supportive care. But 'Doctor' Beeharry had his opinions and decided not to do appropriate monitoring the first day he came into the case- So my 82 year old mother had him taken off the case. My father died Feb 4 2023 - he came to UPMC Hamot on Dec 22 2022 and he should have gone home. And both my sister, a social worker in a hospital in Cleveland OH and me, a veterinarian- noticed that the medical records were not always accurate and staff appeared to be copying and pasting each other's notes which carried through inaccuracies. It was as if there was a case being made against my father's survivability.. and they won the case. Consider this a cautionary tale. Geriatric medicine needs a different approach and they didn't have the patience, concern or the understanding of what needs to be done. And if you do go make sure you have strong advocates. My hope is that you and/or your loved one will not have to go through the pain and needless suffering that my father, Anthony went through. read more
