Brain-Injured in Nursing Homes Without Care Giffords Had

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-28/brain-injured-endure-nursing-homes-without-care-giffords-had.html

Larry Boswell sat slumped in a wheelchair. His sweatpants were soiled, his T-shirt soaked in saliva. Flies buzzed around his head.

He was able to walk when he arrived at Illinois’ Cobden Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in 2008, government records show, something he can’t manage now. Speech therapy for the 57- year-old ended shortly after he was admitted, according to a lawyer trying to persuade Medicaid to transfer him.

While much of what Boswell says is incomprehensible, he managed a clear “no” when asked if he wanted to stay where he was. Cobden officials didn’t respond to telephone calls.

Boswell is one of nearly 244,000 brain-injured people consigned to nursing homes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from U.S. Medicare and Medicaid statistics. He’s also on the front line in a national battle to get people like him out of facilities that aren’t equipped to care for them.

[Daemonaquila]

1. There needs to be a national conversation on nursing homes.

Most are for-profit and cut costs everywhere they can. Patients are skimped on rehabilitation and other care that might let them improve or at least contribute to their quality of life. They are physically and chemically restrained in inappropriate and unnecessary ways. We can, and should, do much better than consigning many people to a living death.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. and yet the management and administrators of these places are making Huge Salaries

while the direct care staff like CNAs, housekeeping, dietary and maintenance are making close to minimum wage.

[ramapo]

3. Wife's friend basically murdered by our health careless system

My wife's friend had a severe stroke around the same time as the Giffords shooting. She was left unable to speak and paralyzed on one side. Not a whole lot different from Giffords' initial condition.

However, the treatment of these two women could not have been more different. While Giffords received the very best, followed by intensive therapy, my wife's friend's treatment basically ended upon her release from the hospital. She was sent for "therapy" at a local rehab/nursing home. This "therapy" consisted of two, then one, then no sessions a day. The personnel said she was unmanageable (i.e. it took a lot of time and effort to care for her).

Without early, intense therapy, her condition deteriorated. Her young sons tried to be her advocate but there was little they could do. This women's insurance would pay for only so much and the family had no funds of their own.

My wife's friend got worse, both mentally and physically, and she passed on after about nine months. While there is no telling how much she might have recovered given the same level of care as Giffords received, it is clear that this woman never really had a chance.

The irony of the story is my wife's friend was fervently anti-Obama and anti-Obamacare. Had she survived she would most certainly would have lost her home due to her medical bills. Will Obamacare ensure that people in her situation receive adequate care? I'm not so sure it will. Her life was saved by a neurosurgeon and then she was slowly murdered by a lack of continuing care.

[Capt13]

4. My wife

was put in a place like that after several months of being in a coma from an auto accident. She was eating, walking to the bathroom, speaking (infantile like) and writing in RI Hospital. 1 week after arriving at the "therapy Center" she was on a feeding tube, catheters, and catatonic,netted and drugged. United health wanted to step her down to a "Lesser level of care" as she could no longer participate in her own therapy and they said she was at the end result, If it was not for a per diem neurosurgeon getting her sent out for some tests and a nurse form RI Hospital getting me in contact with Spaulding Hospital in Boston,she would still be that way or worse. Once she was there she was treated under "Romney Care" so she got all the therapy she needed when she needed it without the artificial limits set by the insurance company.Several weeks later she walked out of there and came home.If you just met her today you would never notice she was any different or had been injured. She was a former page of Senator Pell and President Carter and athletic.She has renegaded 90% of her cognitive ability and 75% of her physical ability. United Health wanted to warehouse her and slough her off onto medicaid eventually. It was just dumb-shit luck she got the treatment she needed as most the so called "professionals" wrote her off. How many others have had their lives thrown out with the trash to maximize profits??

[Warpy]

5. They wanted to do that with my dad after his stroke

but I'd watched him for a couple of days and had an idea of what his rehab potential was (working in a VA will do that) and said "OH HELL NO" and fought to get him into intensive rehab. It just hadn't dawned on them that a 74 year old man had potential.

My dad recovered about 95% of what he'd had pre injury, although it took him years to forgive me for signing him into "that jail."

Most people who have gone from hospital to nursing home had some potential for recovery. They're just not getting the rehab, so they don't recover. This is criminal.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. For-profit health, and nursing care is an abomination.

Cobden Rehab and Nursing Center is a for-profit nursing home. It has a total of 74 beds available, 61 are occupied. The occupancy rate is 82 percent. This facility accepts Medicare and Medicaid.

This is just one of thousands of these snake pits that are allowed feed off of taxpayer dollars all over the nation.