This is the story of my mother being in Lake Taylor transitional care Hospital in Norfolk Virginia. Her name is Sofia Dimovich. She first was admitted to Lake Taylor transitional care hospital for rehabilitation. But due to the fact that she has stage four breast cancer congestive heart failure and stage 5/6 dementia.It was determined that she needs skilled nursing home care 24 seven.
My mother first was in the dogwood unit at Lake Taylor. This was the start of her demise. She had developed numerous bedsores because she was left in the bed for days. Their reasoning was that she did not want to get out of bed. This person has dementia. There is a special way of talking to an individual with dementia. The situation even got worse because she became dehydrated and had to go to the ER.
She had additional visits to the ER because of her decrease in health which was contributed by the lack of care (lack of basic care)and neglect from the staff at Lake Taylor nursing home. Her health had deteriorated oh rapidly that she is now on palliative care. But she is not being taken care of with palliative care. I have witnessed many occasions where her food was left on the tray with out helping her eat. She is supposed to be checked every 2 to 3 hours.II have to ask if they’re going to give her a shower. I have continuously asked to have her dressed daily and placed in a chair to avoid bedsores from getting worse. but with the worst is is that they don’t know what she ate when someone supposed to be sitting with her.
On One occasion I was told that if they” got her up that they could not put her back into bed until after the second shift “,which I knew it was a lie. There has been many times when she has been soiled and has rang her bell for a long period of time without being taken care of. She has even fallen out of her bed. The act of care during her meal time is cruelty. She is supposed to be watched or helped during meal time. She is supposed to have a Magic dessert that has high protein during two of her meals. But this is not always the case.
After returning from another stay in the ICU unit at the hospital her weight was 130 on the day of her arrival in January by March she had lost another 15 pounds she is currently down to 113. This is pure neglect. They don’t want to take the time to help her during feeding time. She is a very picky eater but if you just give her a magic dessert and Ensure that would at least help maintain her weight. They continuously make excuses that she does not wanna get out of bed. Of course she doesn’t because of fear.Plus she has dementia.

The reason why I am sharing the story is because I have met other family members at Lake Taylor transitional Hospital that have had the same experience with the staff. I think that it would help if the facility provided appropriate staff training to implement proper care of patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s. This shouldn’t just be a reason to take money from elderly people without caring for them. I want people to remember that when you have a family member with dementia that it’s your responsibility to be their advocate. People should not be afraid to speak out in order to improve living conditions for the elderly in any type of facility.

That it does happen. And that someday we all are going to get old and that we need family ,friends ,even strangers to be able to address abuse ,neglect or fraud. Please Remember that a facility does have an obligation to treat their patients with consideration ,respect and dignity no matter what their acute illnesses may be. It does matter.

My hopes for the future is that there is more training for staff members. Higher pay for caretakers in nursing homes or assistant living. And elimination of shortage of staffing problems. Developing respect and appropriate care for aging population.

Learning to be kind and taking the time to speak out.