a partial victory

My friend has written me:


After a battle of sorts, my father is now home.
I am not going to try to present all sides of the story.
I will say, however, that hospitals and institutional facilities
are cold and unfriendly.  They cannot compare to  one's home.
And that's how I feel, and I haven't got dementia and do
not have health problems.


Nor have I got a wife and companion of many decades.
My father was kept apart from his wife while he was in a so-called
rehabilitation center.  And, it was when he was alone that he tried
to find the exit.  Is that surprising?


Do you need a degree in medicine to understand that?


He was in an under-staffed facility which made it possible for him
to fall, to wander....


And, to top things off, his belt was stolen.  What sort of belt?
A white cloth belt that I purchased for a significant sum when I was
home a  couple of years ago.  It's a special belt used to help the frail
elderly.


Can I be sure it was stolen?  Maybe my father lost it?  Maybe.


But let's recall one thing.  My father was especially lonely in this
so-called rehabilitation center during the weekends.  And during weekends
 he did not receive therapy, unlike usual weekdays.


Now, you may say that I'm basing this on conversations with my mother.......
Indeed I am, and I trust her judgment.


But let's look at something that's not my mother's opinion.  Courtesy of Naked
Capitalism, I came across this fact:  that you're more likely to die in a hospital
over the weekend.  No matter when you are admitted, if you die in a hospital,
it's likely to be over a weekend.




"Risk of dying in hospital increases on weekend regardless of admission day, study finds"
Susan Perry, 5/15/2014, Minnesota Post
http://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2014/05/risk-dying-hospital-increases-weekend-regardless-admission-day-study-finds


Thank god he got home before the weekend!

A curious and unbelievable tale

(rough draft)

A friend recently told me the following strange story; I don't even know if I believe it!

I would like to call it "Social Worker and The Hedge Fund", or "the Social Worker and the Wealthy Investor"---but that would be going too far..... although I do believe that Wall Street has invested into health providers, and WS does demand a profit......So, let's just start with some questions:

Are Social Workers Working to Bankrupt the Elderly?  
Have Social Workers Today Become Servants of Wall Street? 

Those questions occurred to me after hearing this story....

My friend's 89 year old father was hospitalized about a month-and-a-half ago because he was sleeping too much. The man did not complain about pain, however he was getting weaker every day because he didn't want to walk or even get out of his chair.

Finally, his care-giver said sleeping so much was just not normal. She consulted with a doctor and the man was transported to the hospital.

The man's wife worried that the hospital authorities might not let the man return to their home.  In the past, she has been told he needs 24-hour care; but neither she nor her children have the funds to pay for that.  And no one has yet suggested where the funds would come from. However, he was taken to the hospital, and she stayed with him in the hospital and helped him.

At first they could find nothing wrong with the man. Then, they thought that maybe some of his medicines had affected his kidney (he has anemia caused by a doctor's error during a “routine” operation). So, they took him off those medicines.
(Later, it seems, he was put back on the medicines; but nothing in this story is clear.)

For a time, the man seemed more alert. However, it seemed unwise to all

concerned for the man to go home since he was still physically weak. He is a rather large man and prior to his hospitalization the care-giver had found it difficult to transport him to the doctor.

He was, therefore, sent to a sort of rehabilitation facility.  It was said that he needed about two weeks of rehabilitation. His wife was not allowed to stay with him. Consequently, he began (and this is three weeks ago now) to wake up at night asking for his wife. Moreover, he attempts to leave the facility, to go home.

He was supposedly given an "anti-anxiety" medicine to prevent him waking at night.  Later it was said that the dosage was too small.  After two weeks, someone noticed that on account of his size, a larger dosage would be needed.  My friend thought that was amazing.  Only a glance at the man would tell you that he is larger than average.  Probably, my friend thought, the health care workers are over-loaded and cannot keep up with everything they are supposed to do.  (See a recent article in the NYT about hand-washing...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/nyregion/hospitals-struggle-to-get-workers-to-wash-their-hands.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

The elderly man, my friend's father, even says that he is in “prison”. Apparently, he feels he is being held against his will.

The man is senile; however, it seems clear that the immediate problem is that he has been separated from his wife. (They have been married 63 years.) When she was with him in the hospital, there were no such problems.  In the hospital, he did not attempt to leave, and he did not wake up asking for his wife.

When my friend's father first entered the rehabilitation facility, they were told that his wife would not be allowed to stay overnight, although she would be allowed to visit.  (This created transport problems.  The wife is too elderly to drive, and so must rely upon a friend or care-giver.  It is not always easy for her to visit her husband.)  There seems not to have been any explanation of the facility's policy;  why shouldn't the wife be allowed to stay with her husband?  My friend finds this problematic.  Someone was heard to say, as if it were a sort of explanation, “They have their rules.”  My friend was pretty sarcastic about that, saying, “Hitler had his rules too."  And, "What is this?--A dictatorship?”. And, “What ever happen to the idea that the Customer is King?”

Now, my friend says that the Social Worker recently told the wife that it would be better for the man to return to his home. However, the Social Worker is not going to pay for around-the-clock care for the man.

I think my friend had something funny to say about the Social Worker, too. Social Workers are supposed to represent the interests of the poor and the weak, but apparently (my friend told me) this Social Worker represents the financial interest of the For-Profit “Health Provider”---or, at least, did so when there was a meeting discussing how the man's wife would pay for his care. The SW actually said words amounting to this: you'll have to exhaust your insurances, and then pay out of your own pocket.  Which is tantamount to warning the lady that she can look forward to being bankrupt.

Maybe my friend is mis-informed.  It seems odd that a Social Worker should be representing Wall Street.

It was at that point that my friend made a very cutting remark about bankruptcy and expropriation by dispossesion. Apparently my friend meant that this was a sort of legal theft, and that the Social Worker was nothing more than the velvet glove on top of the Iron Fist.  The Social Worker has to obey the wishes of the For-Profit Medical Provider, even if the SW has sympathies elsewhere.  

The Health Authorities told the wife that her husband needs “twenty-four hour” care. My friend quipped, “What a joke. He is not getting that currently, at this facility he is paying for.   They only look into his room every twenty minutes to see if he's still alive. That means he is getting---let's see, three times an hour, times 24, that's 72 minutes of care per day currently......That's not 24-hour, not non-stop care.  He gets punctuated care---a little care, with lots of gaps!"

I pointed out that the man was also visited by nurses and therapists throughout the day --though rarely or never on weekends--- but I guess I see his point. After all, during the times they don't look in on the man, he has fallen down several times.  And he has been found wandering around the facility, looking for an exit.

This is all very surprising to me. It doesn't sound right. It sounds to me like this elderly couple is being shaken down for the sake of sending profits to people who are so rich that they literally cannot spend all of the money they earn. That's the way things are going today.  It's all legal.  Another friend told me that it reminds him of something called "Primitive Accumulation".....but he didn't explain.

the crappy USA Internet could get worse

The Internet in the USA is slower than the internet in Romania or the Czech Republic.
But, it could get worse...........

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/bill-moyers-obamas-latest-assault-democracy-undermining-net-neutrality.html

the "best" in the world

I keep thinking of the Repuglican J. Boehner (however he spells it) saying that  the citizens of the USA have the "best" medical care in the world.

Yesterday, my mother told me that she and my father (who is 89 years old) routinely wait
three or more hours to see a doctor.

She said my father gets so tired, that after waiting so long, he just wants to go home.

So, she will have to talk to someone, and complain.

Well, does it really take years of medical school training to figure out that an elderly,
frail patient shouldn't be made to wait for three or more hours?

What about simple decency, courtesy, respect?

Those things are in short supply in the world's so-called only remaining "super" power.

Sigh.

Patients are people?  They seem to be treated as inanimate inputs to production.

doggerel returns

On Cars

Riding in the back, 
I feel kidnapped;
In front,
uncomfortable and cramped.
Driving wrecks my nerves,
and deadens my senses.

Glass and steel,
Ice AC:
An adolescent fantasy of manhood.

I hate cars.

explanatory note

This post is by way of comment on the most recent post.

No, I do not think the EU is great or good.  For example, what the EU is planning
to do in the Ukraine demonstrates how countries who joined the EU imagining
it would lead to increased economic prosperity have been duped.

And countries who imagine membership in NATO increases their safety are equally
foolish.  On the contrary, membership in NATO means that countries become
involved in wars which do nothing but serve the imperialist aims of the USA.

Three economists comment on the EU in the links below:

 http://www.rdwolff.com/content/eu-1-big-scam-ukraine-its-next-victim

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11614

Praise to the European Union

It means so much to belong to the EU...
It means work and safety regulations, laws....
It means the chance of prosperity for all, not merely for a privileged few....

And, yet, with the appearance of spring,
my neighbor stands on his balcony puffing a cigarette,
enjoying the fresh air,
Although,
the air is not really fresh,
thanks to two chemical factories and one oil refinery,

But at least,
people are enjoying their right to consume,
purchase motorcycles,
and ride them around,
creating noises that penetrate into my apartment,
and prevents me from enjoying the quiet of spring.

No, actually, now that I think about,
Spring is noisy, and always has been.
And fresh air?
You can dream of it.