On January 21, 2016 my 78 yr old mother was brought by ambulance into Stevenson Memorial Hospital Emerg dept. with stroke like symptons after being found on her floor where she lay for 4 hrs before being discovered by a friend. Mom had slurred speech and left sided paralysis. After a CT scan showed what the Dr described to me as a stroke, the Dr also mentioned that the radiologist insisted that the stroke he could see on the image was an older stroke, not a recent one, but possibly from months earlier. The Dr said he assured the radiologist that the stroke just happened that day and not months ago. The Dr then informed me that within the next 24 to 48 hrs another scan would be performed using dye so that they could see the difference in the brain over that time period. In the mean time after some discussion with my mother, a catheter was inserted and she was moved to the med surge floor into a cardiac room so she could be monitored. I live close to the hospital so I spent all my time there with my mother when I was not working. On Friday January 22nd a different Dr, I believe her name was Dr Jenson, came into the room and spoke to me about my mothers symptons. It was during this discussion that I explained to the Dr that mom had not been well for some time. That she had lost a considerable amount of wait over the last few months, had been unable to eat and was living on Boost, was weepy, and sleeping a lot. I explained to the Dr that mom was suffering from what we thought was depression as she was caring for her ailing elderly husband who was on a waiting list for long term care. We all assumed (including moms family Dr) that she was depressed, but now that she had the stroke, I was concerned that maybe there wasnt something that we were missing? There is a very high cancer rate in my family history so I was concerned. Dr Jenson agreed that there was now some concern and said she would order a more detailed scan on moms esophogus and stomach and such and her brain to make sure we werent missing anything. By the time saturday jan 23 came, there was a different dr on call, a dr Lopez. being the weekend , it now became very difficult to get answers from the nurses and to pin down Dr lopez. My family and I were patiently waiting for the tests that the emerg dr said would be done in the 24 to 48 hr period after the stroke. After waiting all day and not getting any answers from the nurses my sister finally pinned down dr lopez in the emerg dept only to be told by him that he had cancelled the scan as he felt there wasnt any reason to do one. After much discussion and chasing dr lopez and nursing staff around he agreed to do the scan on monday when the proper staff were in that department as he said they werent available on weekends because it was a small hospital. The next 4 weeks is a blur actually. But I can tell you it consisted of fighting everyday to get care for my mother. The nurses changed daily, and the Dr’s changed weekly , more or less. Every Dr had a different opinion as to what her care should be. My mother could not swallow due to her stroke so at the point she was not being fed, although she did have iv fluids. she was constipated as it had been nearly a week since she had a bowel movement, I begged everyday for them to give her something, the nurse would say she would, then she would go off shift and the next nurse wouldnt. my mother was in agony, finally a lovely nurse name Beth had to disempact her. In the mean time the Dr Lopez discussed a feeding tube in moms nose. it had now been 3 days since she had been fed and she was losing more weight. Every day I asked if they would put the feeding tube in, and every day the Dr said yes, but the nurse said there was no order written to put it in? I would go back to the Dr , and he would say the order was put in? Finally the tube was put in ( it was agonizing for my mother) and the ct scan of her brain was done. Dr Lopez informed me that there was another stroke on the scan from possibly a few months ago. That this stroke was the second one. The plan was to get mom nourished enough with the feeding tube, so she would have the strength for stroke rehab . Everyday I went to the hospital, I helped her exercise her bad arm and leg, we did mouth exercise so she could swallow food again, and i encouraged her everyday to try to get stronger. i washed her and dressed her and cared for her skin and turned her. If I didnt i can assure she was pretty much forgotten in her bed. If we were at work we would call mom on her cell only to have her tell us no one had bothered with her, she was cold or her mouth was dry, or her teeth needed to be cleaned. We would call the nurses station daily to ask them to please bring her some ice chips or clean her teeth , often to hear them from her cell phone enter the room frustrated with her because we had called. many many times i went to the nurses station to ask for something only to find them on their cell phones or chatting about their weekend plans etc. Mom ended up with delerium, and i asked them to take a urine please to see if that was causing it, which they never did. They moved her from room to room and bed to bed quite frequently, to the point that I never knew where to find her from day to day. It was confusing for her, and she was often afraid and would ask me not to leave her. Eventually the catheter was removed and a urine was taken and she did have a uti, once the entibiotics were started her delerium cleared up pretty well. She started walking with physio, which she hated, she said it hurt her awful and the one young physio girl was rough and yelled orders at her. The physio would walk her to the nurses station and then sit her in a wheelchair and she would stay there for hrs. Often I would come in from work and find her in tears and wet from the cup of ice chips she had spilled on herself. At least 3 times the feeding tube came out of her nose and had to be reinserted. The last time it came out she cried and said she refused to have it put back in because it hurt so bad when they did it.I tried talking her into it explaining that she needed it in because she couldnt swallow well enough yet, but she refused, then my daughter called her and talked her into it, although she cried, she let them do it. Once the catheter was out I tried to encourage her to use the toilet , she hated it though because she was in so much pain sitting on the hard seat, she complained daily about back and hip pain and I would ask the nurse for tylenol. It never seemed to help, I would rub her back everynight before I left. Then one day I came in and her top dentures were gone. No where in the room. Mom said she heard one of the nurses drop them and break them that morning, and of course the nurse that was on said mom was confused. By now the feeding tube and iv were out and mom was getting thickened fluids and pureed food. She was on a bed that weighed her, I would weigh her daily and everyday she pretty much lost a pound. If I didnt come in to feed her she never was fed, and if I didnt offer her thickend fluids she was never offered them. I kept track of what she ate and drank in a day and I was lucky if she had 200 ml in day and baby sized jar of food. No one seemed concerned or ever really asked what she drank. They came in everyday and gave her a needle in her stomach and took blood from her arm, and everyday she cried, they took multiple chest xrays over the 4 week period everytime the feeding tube came out of her nose to make sure they reinserted it in the right place, and one time it had partially come out and I could here her gurgling before I even entered her room, and I had to pretty much tell the nurse to take it out because I was afraid she was asperating . Finally after 4 weeks Dr Jenson was there and I asked to speak to her. I explained that mom was losing weight daily and all my concerns from before were still there, as she still seemed unable to eat now that the feeding tube was out. i sat down with the dr and we went through the file and that was when Dr jenson said that the CT scan she requested back on Jan 22 ( it was now feb 20th) was never done? She was quite upset that it was never done, she showed me the request, and wrote another one . This was a friday, she told me that it would be done for sure friday or saturday and that she would be gone again and I should corner the dr on monday for the results. The scan was not done on friday and when we inquired about it in saturday we were told that the request was faxed down to that department. Later in the day we inquired again about the scan and the nurse called down to that department and they said they never recieved that request. So it was sent again. Finally mom was taken for the test and later that evening a Dr i had never seen before came into moms room and informed us all including my mother that she was full of cancer. Her brain , her lungs, her spine, her hip bone was so bad and so deteriorated that she shouldnt be walking, and she also had a very large anurism in her stomach. we were devastated. After discussing with the Dr, and going over the test results multiple times, I decided that I wanted my mom out of that hospital as fast as I could. On sunday morning I made a call to hospice and she was moved there monday afternoon feb 22. She was moved up to hydromorph instead of tylenol for pain and on Saturday Feb 27th mom passed away at hospice. For a month she was pushed to walk , to eat, to sit up , to get better, to get stronger. All along she was telling us she didnt want to eat and she hurt everywhere. All because a test ordered on Jan 22 wast done and wasnt noticed until a month later??? Aside from the horrid nursing care , the multiple Dr’s that are in and out and the lack of communication among the staff and with the family members, my mother suffered for an entire month and it was completly unneccisary . The guilt I feel everyday since she was diagnosed is horrible. I encouraged her to walk and when she said she wanted to get in bed because she was sore I encouraged her to stay up just a little bit longer so she could get stronger . I will never get over what that hospital did and didnt do for my dying mother.