My mother was admitted to an LTAC (Long Term Acute Care Hospital) in early June 2015 from complications that occurred after her bypass surgery on May 18th, 2015. She was on a ventilator and had wounds on both of her legs, her stomach, and her chest. She was also on dialysis for acute renal failure which can happen after bypass surgery. The wounds on her legs were from the leg compression devices used during surgery which left water blisters on her legs. She had a wound vac on her stomach after having to have part of her colon removed after it perforated after her bypass surgery. It left her with a colostomy.
Mom had health issues before the bypass surgery including diabetes, COPD, and peripheral artery disease. All of these played a role in the post-surgical complications that mom endured. None of these are what caused her death.

During mom's stay at the LTAC, she was denied food, fluids, therapies, and proper care. All my brother and I heard from the nurses, doctors and even administrators was to put mom in hospice. That isn't what mom wanted. When we made complaints, they tried to tell us that we were crazy or that we couldn't accept what was happening with our mother. Mom was transferred to the LTAC from the post-surgical unit of the hospital where she had her surgery. She was doing well while in the post-surgical unit despite her complications. They had given her a trach so she could eat and drink after passing her swallow test. They had her sitting up in the patient chair and she was even doing her crosswords, word finds, and signing her own paperwork. I have pictures of her two days before her transfer to the LTAC. After her transfer, we had to sign her transfer papers. For some reason, they wouldn't let her sign them. She had been there for two days before we could visit and they had continued the care she received before her transfer. My brother signed them and then went to her room to see her. He wasn't in there but maybe five minutes before a nurse came in and took mom's tray (while she was eating) and put NPO on the door. That was June 12, 2015. Mom wouldn't get her tray of food back until July 4th, 2015. That's how long it took my brother and me to figure out what to do. Neither one of us had ever dealt with anything like this before. I had already called every attorney I could find with no help. I even called the state attorney's office, the hospital abuse hotline, the health department, etc., and could not get any assistance from anyone. Calling to report elder abuse to social services never even occurred to me and no one that I called even mentioned it to me.
Here is a list of things they did to mom during her stay there:
They restrained her wrists to the bed using straps. They would leave her like that for an unknown amount of time. Every time we went to visit we would remove the restraints. There was no one in the room with her while she was restrained and there was no reason for her to be restrained. They would always tell us it was for her own good.
They clipped mom's fingernails down to the quick. She always had beautiful normal length nails. Again no explanation for them cutting her nails that short.
The RN's lied to us when we called to check in on her. We lived hours away from where she was hospitalized. One RN told us that mom had opened her stomach wound (which was on wound vac). Mom didn't and wouldn't do that.
They told us that mom was incoherent but she had numerous conversations with us either writing things to us or whispering to us. Mom had a trach so her voice was gone. She always complained she was hungry and thirsty. We begged the hospital (even the CEO) to give her food tray back. She was on a liquid diet and there was no reason to take it away. They tried to tell us she had stomach issues when she didn't.
They had her as DNR when she wasn't.
Eventually, I fired the doctor that was on her case originally. He didn't even know that she was female and kept referring to her as him. He had lied to us numerous times and during the time I was staying there with mom, he never once came into her room to assess her or anything.
July 3, 2015 a new doctor came on. He assessed mom and the first words out of his mouth were that she was very malnourished and dehydrated. Her wounds, all of them were infected. She had a pressure sore on her back that was also infected.
There is so much that happened that I can't tell everything here. After the new doctor came on, mom was off the ventilator within a week. He had to put a feeding tube down her nose for a few days until she passed another swallow test and eventually made it to eating mechanical food. Within a month she was off dialysis and her kidneys were functioning again. She eventually was transferred to the regular hospital. Her wounds were slowly getting better except for her legs and feet. Her feet were black from blood flow loss and her legs eventually turned gangrene and had to be amputated. If she had received proper care during her entire stay at the LTAC her story might have turned out differently. They had weakened her body with starvation/dehydration. Three days after her double amputation surgery she went into respiratory distress and had to be put back on the ventilator. She was in the ICU again. When she finally became stable she gave up. She was tired of fighting.
She had fought sepsis three times and had numerous other infections during her stay at LTAC. With the malnourishment, she had another small heart attack after having triple bypass surgery weeks before. She almost died several times during their care and they weakened her to the point that she gave up.

I wish I had known more about it then. I always heard about elder abuse/neglect in nursing homes but never expected it from a hospital setting. When my brother first told me he suspected they were starving our mother I didn't believe him. I told him that they couldn't or wouldn't do that. I didn't even know who to call to get help and those I did call never told me who to call to get help. This LTAC has done what it did to my mother and too many other patients. I couldn't even get an attorney to talk to my mother while she was alive. I now have PTSD from the whole experience. I stayed a month in the hospital with my mom 24/7. I now distrust hospitals, doctors, and nurses which have interfered with my own health.

I want people to realize that abuse/neglect can happen to their loved ones even in the hospital. Stay vigilant in your loved ones' care. It shouldn't be allowed to happen and most of those who have done it, are protected.

I've tried reaching out to the media in regard to what happened to my mother. She isn't the only victim of an LTAC. No one listens to her story. I have written blogs about it, even when it occurred. It's sad that so many in the medical field get away with abusing and neglecting those they're supposed to care for. Things need to change. This LTAC also deletes negative reviews (there have been quite a few) from their FB page and other sites. I want others to know my mom's story. She was important and her story is important. It could help save others.