Dr. Pepper? What a nuisance!

Here's a question that is just screamed, every day, from Kiley Developmental Center: Are staff so stupid and incompetent that they endanger the lives of the disabled residents they are supposed tp help, or do they do cruel and obviously harmful things to those residents out of spite? Hopefully, from the view of my client, that question will not soon become: Will they be found civilly liable for a wrongful death, or will they be prosecuted for homicide?

My client's adult child is autistic, and has seizures which can be dangerous. She is prescribed anti-seizure meds, to be given twice a day with a can of Dr. Pepper and a straw. The doctor's prescription actually says, "...to be given with a can of Dr. Pepper and a straw," because it's a routine that this autistic patient is used to and very dependent upon, to take the meds. When the routine is not followed, or when the patient notices that it is altered arbitrarily (as best she can understand), that is a sure trigger for upset and hostility with staff. 

No can of Dr. Pepper with a straw? Maybe there's an argument and complaints, maybe no anti-seizure meds get taken, and the patient has a breakthrough seizure, goes to the hospital emergency room, aspirates vomit, gets pneumonia.... It's not a small matter, it's dangerous. Everyone at Kiley has been alerted and briefed that each morning and each evening this patient gets a newly opened can of Dr. Pepper with a straw in it, to take her anti-seizure meds.

It wouldn't seem to be very difficult to arrange this... the facility regularly gets paid thousands of dollars for their "care" of this patient; cans of Dr. Pepper are certainly available at stores right in the neighborhood; the instruction is actually part of a medical prescription written by a doctor! Why would it get screwed up, let alone consistently screwed up enough to make my client fear for her child's life?

But that is what happens. Frequently, my client's adult child doesn't get the can of Dr. Pepper and straw. Staff thinks gee, why not just pour some Dr.Pepper into a glass, isn't that more efficient? Well no, not when the patient ends up in the hospital because somebody was incapable of understanding the situation and  trying to be "reasonable".

Or maybe staff just feel like asserting their own control on the clinical unit, the patient's mother be damned. After all, staff are the professionals who know best about everything, right? I recall one comment about the "legitimate needs of the facility." Maybe staff think this patient's fresh can of Dr. Pepper with a straw to take a pill is just "maladaptive behavior" that they are entitled to manipulate or beat out of her. 

But if somebody dies, what will they think? "Oh well, we did our best?"