Advice Needed For Father in Hospital

Optimus Prime

Hey, Just wondering if anyone could advise me on the following situation.

Long Story.. Short.

My father had a bad stroke 3 months ago. was told at the time there was no hope, bleeding on the brain was bad etc. Anyways, he pulled through after a brain op in Beaumont, is currently well in James hospital, needs physio on his left side but has full right side control and his left leg does work with some effort so the outlook is good. Mentally he is in good spirits with no damage we can see as a result of the brain op.

He is to be moved to Building 2 in James for more intense physio BUT...

He has a tooth ache. on his left side, they are giving him pain killers for it. We cannot get a Dentist anywhere to come into the hospital to look at it. My Brothers Wife talked to the Dentist in James and he refused to look at it. My Fathers regular dentist also refuses to travel from Ballyfermot to James to look at it.

This is a major hold up for us and my father in his recovery, because of the pain killers they are giving him he is tired and unable to do the Physio fully, they said until the tooth is looked at they cannot move him to Building 2 where he can get the needed Physical Therapy.

Any advice on what we can do to get this sorted out?? THanks a lot.

capnsparkles

A bit strange that the Dentist in James will not look at it . Was he or she attached to the maxillo-facial unit there?
I have attended my own patients on rare occasions in Hospital , as I am not affiliated with them they(the hospital) did not approve. Found out that the HSE had a Dentsit who covered patients there.
The team who are looking after your Father should be able to help you on this . Enquire from them.

Optimus Prime

capnsparkles wrote: »

A bit strange that the Dentist in James will not look at it . Was he or she attached to the maxillo-facial unit there?
I have attended my own patients on rare occasions in Hospital , as I am not affiliated with them they(the hospital) did not approve. Found out that the HSE had a Dentsit who covered patients there.
The team who are looking after your Father should be able to help you on this . Enquire from them.

Well my Sister-In-Law was told earlier that the HSE dont have a Dentist that can look at him anymore. Ill have to talk to the Head Doctor thats looking after my Dad and find out from him. Im not sure if the Dentist was attached to the Maxillo-Facial unit, ill found out.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Your fathers should not be left in pain for any reason. There are dentists that cover the hospitals, discuss it with the team, its a common enough issue. Kick up a fuss, the last thing your father needs is dental pain.

Optimus Prime

Ok some more info, still no one to Look at him. There is NO Dentist in James that will look at him we talked to the dentist in James and they won't, they only look at wisdom teeth apparently. . They are flat out refusing, my father is now in serious pain he was awake last night and is in and out of sleep, agitated, my sister in law gave out to the nursing team and they said they are going to give him morphine. We got an external dentist that is coming in Monday to take an xray, then after that we have to figure out a way to get my father, who can't move on his left side, out of James and to this dentist.

An absolute joke.

bureau2009

It's a very poor reflection on the health/hospital system. I can only guess at the thinking behind it. Deeply unsatisfactory situation. Surely there are some protocols in place in cases like this?

Is lack of URGENT dental care in hospitals an issue the dental profession can raise?

Optimus Prime

I had to ring up today about it again, im meeting one of "the team" at 3.

Basically where it is now, they have no dentist in James, I quote "he retired last year"

We arranged for him to go to a Dentist outside the hospital tomorrow. we where told if we arranged this, then the hospital would take an Xray before he went because the dentist said he could do the dental work on him in a wheelchair, but couldnt take an xray without lifting him into the chair for it and he couldnt do this, fair enough.

The hospital then said, after we arranged the dentist visit, they wont take the xray. we then said we need him brought over in an ambulance, with hospital staff, they said no. They dont have the staff.

so we have to bring a man, that had a stroke 3 months, bleeding on the brain and brain surgery to fix it, in A TAXI, to an outside dentist to look at his tooth! My father currently has slight, very slight movement in his left leg, no movement in his left arm at all. He cannot sit up in the bed himself, never mind all this to get him to a dentist. im apprehensive enough about moving him in this condition, never mind in a taxi!

This is an absolute joke, we had no help from the hospital organizing any of this, in fact they left him with this in the bed for two weeks, when we told them about it, their answer was "we are giving him morphine" as if that's going to fix the problem. as a result of the pain killers he is on its halting his recovery, he cannot get the physio he needs because he is tired and groggy from the pain killers and tooth ache.

His general health is good, believe it or not he is doing well after everything he has gone through, he is in good spirits and if he gets the physio he could do well. But we are left ourselves with no help to try organize all this. This to me is clearly patient neglect from James Hospital.

bureau2009

At the moment you are busy trying to look after your father.

However, I would encourage you to write down all your interactions (date, time, response) with hospital staff and make a formal complaint about this matter.

Oral Surgeon

pm sent

keithgeo wrote: »

I had to ring up today about it again, im meeting one of "the team" at 3.

Basically where it is now, they have no dentist in James, I quote "he retired last year"

We arranged for him to go to a Dentist outside the hospital tomorrow. we where told if we arranged this, then the hospital would take an Xray before he went because the dentist said he could do the dental work on him in a wheelchair, but couldnt take an xray without lifting him into the chair for it and he couldnt do this, fair enough.

The hospital then said, after we arranged the dentist visit, they wont take the xray. we then said we need him brought over in an ambulance, with hospital staff, they said no. They dont have the staff.

so we have to bring a man, that had a stroke 3 months, bleeding on the brain and brain surgery to fix it, in A TAXI, to an outside dentist to look at his tooth! My father currently has slight, very slight movement in his left leg, no movement in his left arm at all. He cannot sit up in the bed himself, never mind all this to get him to a dentist. im apprehensive enough about moving him in this condition, never mind in a taxi!

This is an absolute joke, we had no help from the hospital organizing any of this, in fact they left him with this in the bed for two weeks, when we told them about it, their answer was "we are giving him morphine" as if that's going to fix the problem. as a result of the pain killers he is on its halting his recovery, he cannot get the physio he needs because he is tired and groggy from the pain killers and tooth ache.

His general health is good, believe it or not he is doing well after everything he has gone through, he is in good spirits and if he gets the physio he could do well. But we are left ourselves with no help to try organize all this. This to me is clearly patient neglect from James Hospital.

Optimus Prime

Latest info after meeting one of the team.

I talked to the team there and they flat out said they don't have a dentist in James. So we are getting him taxi'd over to the dentist in ballyfermot tomorrow morning, ground floor dental surgery . they are sending over a care assistant in the taxi and ill meet them there.

They cant take the xray in james either because you need to stand up for it apparently, which my father cant do.. the team rang the dentist and asked him to do a visual inspection of the tooth and he agreed. so that's where we are at the minute! Tomorrow morning at 9 ive to meet them at the dentist.

Optimus Prime

Update:

Got my father to the Dentist today in Ballyfermot, he checked him out visual and identified a wisdom tooth as the cause of the problem |-8

So, he game me a letter saying we now need to contact the dental hospital and get them to extract it as he couldn't do it himself, i think he said its not fully out or something.

we are going to go back and talk to the Doctor from yesterday and see if we can get them to look at it in James as i think there is a section in there that looks after Wisdom teeth?

The dentist also seemed surprised that they where giving my father Morphine for the tooth pain, i think he thought it was overkill. He suggested he should be on a anti-biotic for it.

Oral Surgeon

Hopefully the maxfax dept in st james might look at it now??

Generally morphine is not the pain killer of choice for dental pain. If swollen, he needs antibiotics and if just pain (with hot cold etc) he needs pain killers then root canal/ likely extraction.

Get you team to contact the max fax guys in st james again now

keithgeo wrote: »

Update:

Got my father to the Dentist today in Ballyfermot, he checked him out visual and identified a wisdom tooth as the cause of the problem |-8

So, he game me a letter saying we now need to contact the dental hospital and get them to extract it as he couldn't do it himself, i think he said its not fully out or something.

we are going to go back and talk to the Doctor from yesterday and see if we can get them to look at it in James as i think there is a section in there that looks after Wisdom teeth?

The dentist also seemed surprised that they where giving my father Morphine for the tooth pain, i think he thought it was overkill. He suggested he should be on a anti-biotic for it.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Oh this gets worse and worse, the team that deal with wisdom teeth didnt check to see if it was a wisdom tooth in the first place.

Its seven days since your first post and its not sorted yet......

Optimus Prime

Nope its crazy, my mother and brother talked to the main stroke doctor now in James and he said they have to discuss it and get back to us because there may be issues with the anesthetic used for the procedure that may result in my father not waking up.

Oral Surgeon

This is crazy. St James have the option of local anaesthetic, general anesthetic or some iv sedation where required.

If he is not fit for a GA then they can treat under LA or sedation. If he is such an anaesthetic risk then all the more reason to have him treated in the general hospital close to a crash team if needed.

keithgeo wrote: »

Nope its crazy, my mother and brother talked to the main stroke doctor now in James and he said they have to discuss it and get back to us because there may be issues with the anesthetic used for the procedure that may result in my father not waking up.

Optimus Prime

Yep i wasnt there today, when they talked to the Doctor, im in work after the dentist trip this morning, but was told it wasnt the procedure its the issue with the anestethic now thats a problem, I believe from what im told that if he goes to the dental hospital, if anything happened over there they would have to ambulance him back to James.

I thought there was in a place in James that deals with wisdom teeth? im sure one of my cousins had his wisdom teeth removed there before.

Oral Surgeon

keithgeo wrote: »

Yep i wasnt there today, when they talked to the Doctor, im in work after the dentist trip this morning, but was told it wasnt the procedure its the issue with the anestethic now thats a problem, I believe from what im told that if he goes to the dental hospital, if anything happened over there they would have to ambulance him back to James.

I thought there was in a place in James that deals with wisdom teeth? im sure one of my cousins had his wisdom teeth removed there before.

Sjh is the national referral centre for max fax... They do wisdom teeth too. They need to see him...

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Why this poster cannot get his father sorted is a disgrace. Every cent I pay in income tax goes to the health service (same as everyone else, the entire income tax take goes on health). That a old man, who has had a stroke and is recovering, is in pain in hospital with a problem that can be fixed in less than a hour by the appropriate person, is a shambles. And that his son is stressed out and running around trying to find out things he shouldnt have to know is stupid.

I never though I would say this but ring joe duffy.

flutered

the health service is sick, pardon the pun, a mate had a hip replacement, on leaving the hospital he was told to stop at his local pharmacy on the way home for some paracetiomal, two peeople related to me by marrage were sent to the hospice to die, both spent their last three weeks on eathr crying, as theey were lonsesome and did not want to die, nice people we have looking after the ssick and the dying, then they are wondering why sucide is so prevelant.