Any Hospice horror stories?

Here's mine.Nurse comes to house acting odd,doesn't make a lot of sense, Falls asleep.Gives patient inferior meds,approved by hospice.Patient deteriorates at rapid rate.Caregiver recognizes patient has problem immediately after starting new meds,{zoloft}Nurse refuses to stop zoloft, explaining that the patient is simply getting worse on his own.After all he is dying,that is why he is in Hospice.Finally after several weeks,patient stops zoloft on his own,begins to gain weight,feels better.I complain to the local hospice.They now send out a "grief counselor" who is not at all sympathetic,citing the familiar theme,"he's dying anyway,patient is tossed from program for complaining. By now someone has reported the nurse,who fails a reasonable suspicion drug test for marijuana &?. She is put on a drug abuse program and sent back to work after about 30 days.Grief counselor also fails drug test. Hospice national HQ says no patient entitled to program.Thank you Hospice of Lake &Sumter Florida!

It is hard enough to take care of a loved one who is dying without having to deal with all that you did. I am sorry for you. My husband was on hospice before he died in 2001. I had to put him in a nursing home as he needed around the clock care and I had to work. Hospice was helpful to me but not overly helpful. Neither was the nursing home. I had to do all the care he received except I made the aide brush his teeth for me. I wonder now why he was not offered to go into the hospice hospital in Winter Haven Florida as we lived in Davenport at the time. I could not leave him alone when I was a work though as he would get up and fall and not be able to get back up. He only lived 2 weeks after going into the nursing home and I was told that he would probably die with a couple of days when he was admitted. It was a blessing for him and me when he died as he was in so much constant pain. He refused to eat and I was told not to force him. Cancer of the pancreas is a painful way to go.搂

That is horrible. It sounds like the doctor wasn't proscribing the right meds for his nurse to give to the patient And the nurse wasn't very professional at all. Falling asleep! She should have charted all adverse effects of his medication. I am very sorry for your loss. I always treat patients to the best of my ability, and I always aide them in any way I can. I consider those who don't to be unethical. I don't have a hospice story, and if I did I probably wouldn't tell you because of patient confidentiality. But I have had a couple "flaws in the medical system" times working in the hospital (im a CNA) where I would be bathing a patient and changing them one day, then the very next day their room would be closed as contaminated and you could only go in with masks and full PPE gear. They would say a virus was airborne, or highly fatal if contracted. I always thought to myself "wonderful, I might be contaminated". Of course I used proper patient and disease procautions, but that didn't help my feelings. Not as big of a story as yours but this has happened to me numerous times.