I will be updating this review as I have to go to court to be appointed a legal representative for my husband under Florida law even though I had POA, was his representative in his will and the surviving spouse and caretaker. His special needs were not attended to upon his arrival at Tidewell where he was denied his palliative treatment regime of nebulizer, inhaler, saline mist and gel and xanax for anxiety. They also denied him food when he was hungry as some felt it would interfere with pain meds if needed later on. I overheard this conversation. But he was eating ice cream and I fed him mashed potatoes. They promised to bring purred chicken or egg salad and according to the nurse administrator, never did. He was hungry and wanted more food. (Perhaps they brought it several hours later). The Tidewell liaison at the hospital did not inform me of their rigid regulations and did not communicate to hospice staff what my husbands needs were and failed to discuss the possibility of a nursing home as opposed to hospice. When he arrived in the afternoon, hospice refused to call the covering doctor to order the meds that he needed that I had at hand. The hospitalist at SMH and the social work staff should have had that implemented as it would have made him comfortable. End stage COPD cannot be cured but he could have been made comfortable and reassured re his new environment. I left around 8PM, my big mistake. Tidewell did not call me when he became "agitated" as I would have come to the facility. Instead, they gave him morphine mixed with another pain drug and when I arrived at 6AM he was already in a coma and I couldn't say goodbye. Oh, but they had an order in for the inhaler! But he was in a morphine induced coma! Most likely, he would have survived another day or so without the morphine if allowed to take his usual meds and breathing treatments. I was totally out of the loop. No one explained what they intended to do. All they said was Mrs. *, you have a lot of time. So I left him while he was watching tv and told him that I would return first thing in the morning to contact the hospice doctor. I will update these events when I get the medical data.
I will be updating this review as I have to go to court to be appointed a legal representative for my husband under Florida law even though I had POA, was his representative in his will and the surviving spouse and caretaker. His special needs were not attended to upon his arrival at Tidewell where he was denied his palliative treatment regime of nebulizer, inhaler, saline mist and gel and xanax for anxiety. They also denied him food when he was hungry as some felt it would interfere with pain meds if needed later on. I overheard this conversation. But he was eating ice cream and I fed him mashed potatoes. They promised to bring purred chicken or egg salad and according to the nurse administrator, never did. He was hungry and wanted more food. (Perhaps they brought it several hours later). The Tidewell liaison at the hospital did not inform me of their rigid regulations and did not communicate to hospice staff what my husbands needs were and failed to discuss the possibility of a nursing home as opposed to hospice. When he arrived in the afternoon, hospice refused to call the covering doctor to order the meds that he needed that I had at hand. The hospitalist at SMH and the social work staff should have had that implemented as it would have made him comfortable. End stage COPD cannot be cured but he could have been made comfortable and reassured re his new environment. I left around 8PM, my big mistake. Tidewell did not call me when he became "agitated" as I would have come to the facility. Instead, they gave him morphine mixed with another pain drug and when I arrived at 6AM he was already in a coma and I couldn't say goodbye. Oh, but they had an order in for the inhaler! But he was in a morphine induced coma! Most likely, he would have survived another day or so without the morphine if allowed to take his usual meds and breathing treatments. I was totally out of the loop. No one explained what they intended to do. All they said was Mrs. *, you have a lot of time. So I left him while he was watching tv and told him that I would return first thing in the morning to contact the hospice doctor. I will update these events when I get the medical data.