[OT] Insulin for someone who is not diabetic

This is OT (or at least partly OT), although it involves insulin. I'm
really writing to vent, but it may also serve as a word of warning about
what *could* happen. Here's what happened today...

My mother is in the hospital again. She was released about three weeks ago
after a week in the hospital for pneumonia, but she has been coughing
continuously -- deep, terrible coughs, almost spasms. She had a doctor's
appointment yesterday, and he gave her different prescriptions. Then, he
called the nursing home this morning and had her taken to the hospital for a
chest X-Ray and then returned to the nursing home. This afternoon, he
called the nursing home and said he wanted her transferred to the hospital
by ambulance. We are going to have her seen by a pulmonary specialist and
try to get to the bottom of all this. While we were waiting for the
ambulance, for some reason I thought to ask the nurse, "You do have the
ambulance scheduled to take her to Hospital A, don't you?" Well, it's a
good thing I asked because her doctor practices at Hospital A, but they were
going to send her to Hospital B!! They still had Hospital B on her records
from when she first entered the nursing home even though they knew about the
change in doctors and had even sent her to the correct hospital a month ago
when she was hospitalized with pneumonia. We got that straightened out, and
I contacted the DON to have her records corrected.

That was the LEAST of what happened, though, in my day of worries.

Here's the rest of it...I was really glad that Mother was hospitalized
because I think she needs that type of care right now. However, I am very
distressed at something that happened at the hospital. It's just sheer good
luck that I noticed it. I was giving Mother some water and glanced down at
the food tray that was still beside her bed. At that time, I noticed that
the instructions were for a diabetic diet. A diabetic diet would not hurt
her, but she is supposed to be on mechanical soft/no salt added. So far, I
was just puzzled but not concerned. I went to the nurses' station to check
on it, and -- again, good fortune smiled on me -- I glanced down and saw a
piece of her paperwork there. It listed diabetes as one of Mother's
diagnoses. I immediately told the nurse that she does *not* have diabetes
and learned that Mother was scheduled for insulin!!! It took me about 10
minutes to convince them that she does *not* have diabetes. They kept
saying, "she gets insulin," "she gets Actos," "are you sure she doesn't get
lantus?" etc. etc. etc. Finally, they believed me and agreed to call the
doctor -- but couldn't reach him. They couldn't give me any idea how long
it would take for a call-back, but they agreed to put the insulin on hold.
They said, "We can do that."

I am really horrified by this whole sequence. Something like that could
have killed Mother. She is 91 years old, has been essentially bedridden for
five years, and is very frail. Incidentally, they had Mother scheduled for
insulin (which she should not have), but they did *not* have anything on her
chart for her cough (and that's why she is in the hospital). She is
scheduled to see a pulmonary specialist tomorrow, but I am also wondering if
they mixed her records with another patient. In that case, is there another
patient who is diabetic but is not being treated? The nurses insist that is
not the case. They say the orders came direct from the doctor. They are
documenting everything, and I am going to be at the hospital at 6:30
tomorrow morning when the doctor usually starts his rounds. I would,
anyway, but this makes it *essential* that I see him.

MaryL


.

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