What can I do to make sure my mother is safe?

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What can I do to make sure my mother is safe?

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Help! My mother has had her second accident in a nursing home resulting in injury. My mother is an 80 yr old patient living in a long term care nursing home facility. She suffered a major stroke 2 years ago that left her totally unable to communicate, completely paralized on her right side, not able to get out of bed, and is beleived to have periods of dementia.
Today, is the SECOND time my mother has fallen out of the bed and had to be taken to the hospital. The last time, a CNA was fired due to the incident - and this morning the nursing home administrator gave me the same speech, "we will investigate the matter". There have been several other questionable issues, such as missing items from her room, her tray left out of her reach, other patients in her room going through her drawers (she can't move or talk to stop them), etc. I put a nanny cam in her room for a while, but the Administrator pulled it out of the room and won't permit it; even though my mother wanted it becasue she can't tell me what goes on there - but the administrator absolutely forbid it.
And now this is the SECOND time this has happened to a woman who cannot move - yet they want to tell me she pulled herself out of the bed - over top of permanent bed rails - to fall out of the bed. There is NO way this happened. She has been totally bedridden for several years - she can't move enough to do that and no longer even has the muscle strength that would require.
I am at wits end and fear for my mother's life! My wife's grand mother died from a broken neck she received when she fell out of a bed in a nursing home.
Please share any advice, experience or comments. Other than the nursing home administor, who should I contact? What can I do to make sure my mother is safe?

I am afraid for my mom!

Thnks,
Donnie

Skilled Nursing Facility

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When my mother-in-law fell and broke her hip we had to put her in a nursing home for rehab. She had the bad habit of getting out of bed by herself and trying to get to the bathroom. Eventually of course she was able to do just that, but in the meantime they caught her on multiple occasions in the process of walking in the middle of the night to the bathroom. They just flat out told us that either someone from the family, or someone hired, had to sit with her at night till she got the hint not to get out of bed alone. They told us they just can't watch that closely when they had so many patients. So maybe that's what you should be doing for awhile at least. Hire someone to sit with your mom at night if that's when the 'falling' is supposed to be happening. Or find another nursing home, or adult foster care situation. That's my only advise I guess.

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You might want to try reaching out to a nursing ombudsman; they should be a disinterested 3rd party. It might also help to change up days and times that you visit your mom, so that the nursing home will always be "on best behavior" not knowing when you will be stopping in.

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My mother is 60 years old and suffers from alzheimers and was admitted in a Nursing home and had a nasty fall within the first week which sent her to shock trauma leaving her covered in bruises two black eyes busted lip, less then a week later she was sent to shock trauma again due to another fall where they found her with her head busted open eight stitches more bruises then had a seizure later that day a woman that walked into this unit less then two weeks ago that who could feed her self and talk but with some confusion not can not walk wears diapers cant feed her self and makes sounds and some words they medicated her because she was aggresive and anxiety wanting her love ones that they directed we had to wait ten days to see her for her to transition and this is the result. Now she can be confused and try to get out of the bed im afraid when she gets out of the hospital how will they care for her and keep her safe she has 24hr care with a sitter in the hospital.

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My experience is that if you can not get anywhere with the administrator you need to find out who the vice president of that district is and contact him/her with your concerns. Crap always runs downhill. That would be a last resort. Document dates and times of incidents so you have accurate facts for them. Also there are things called bed alarms that can be used. They are a flat pad that goes between the mattress and the sheet. If the resident gets off of it, it sets off an alarm that alerts the staff. They work really awesome. They also have expiry dates on them and if they are out dated they don't work well. As for a nanny cam..... you can set them up so no one is aware of it in the room if you are really afraid of what is happening to your mother. I also know that it is very difficult for staff to try and keep other residents out of rooms. There is just not enough staff to do that with. But hope some of this is helpful.

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You can also go to your states health dept website and do a search on Nursing Home Survey results. My mother was just sexually assulted not even a week ago and the nursing home didn't notify the family or the police. I am taking action and fighting this to the bitter end. I am making a copy of the new homes survey and bringing it in tomorrow when I tour it before she gets out of the hospital. I will be asking many questions and showing up for visits at random. You need to talk to your elderly parents about sexual abuse just as you would your kids. We can't take care of them if they don't tell us whats going on

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my mom has a bruise on her right arm that she couldn't have possibly put there herself. the staff @ the facility won't give me a copy of the incident report.

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What can I do to make sure my mother is safe?

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