My Bad Experience at Local Rehab Facilities

The nights were particularly difficult. Ringing the bell call to get toilet assistance was often met with comments like, “Why do you have to go to the bathroom so frequently?”

By Marvin Druger  |  mdruger@syr.edu

 

The most common cause of injury in older people is falling. I am very conscious about trying not to fall.

Oftentimes, the fall results in a broken hip.

Guess what? I recently fell and broke my hip.

I had just been talking to a friend on my car phone, telling her how important it was for older people not to fall. Then I got out of my car to get a prescription at a pharmacy. I spotted a shiny, new penny lying on the ground. It was New Year’s Day 2025 and I thought, “Wow. There’s a lucky penny. I should pick it up.”

I squatted to pick up the penny and my left leg totally buckled and I fell heavily on my hip.

I couldn’t get up.

I felt like a TV commercial for a Medical alert device, “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

I don’t know if the penny was heads or tails up, but I did save the penny. Two good samaritan men saw my dilemma and they helped get me into the store and called 911. Another TV commercial flashed through my mind and I said, “Take me to Crouse.”

This was the start of a new adventure in life.

I was rushed to the emergency room where I waited several hours for X-rays. The physician’s assistant was very kind and caring, but I wondered how people in real distress could wait so long for treatment in an emergency room? The X-rays revealed a broken hip and I underwent surgery the next day to repair it.

Then, the nightmare began.

I was sent to a local rehabilitation center. I lost my independence and I was under the control of nurses and aides. For different injuries, I had experienced four local rehab centers in the Syracuse area and they all had features in common. The one that I first went to for my hip injury was the worst.

Nurse’s aides were variable in quality and quantity. Some of the aides were cheerful, caring and capable. Others were nasty and unsympathetic to patients’ needs. Some of the aides at night were particularly short-tempered and would yell at the patients. The shortage of help was acute and I was told that on a particular night one of the rehab facilities had one aide for 20 patients.

The nights were particularly difficult. Ringing the bell call to get toilet assistance was often met with comments like, “Why do you have to go to the bathroom so frequently?” or “I have other patients to take care of. You will have to wait” or “I’ll be back in a minute,” never to return.

My worst encounter with a night aide was at the second rehab facility. The aide refused to help me go to the bathroom. I asked her to give me the TV remote. She found it and told me it needed a battery and threw it on my bed. How was I supposed to get a new battery?

I needed to go to the bathroom, so I decided to get out of bed and walk there by myself. Suddenly, I became dizzy and confused and lost my mental stability. This had never happened to me in my life before. I fell and bruised my other hip. Fortunately, it was not broken. But until then, I was making good rehab progress. Thereafter, the bruised hip was more painful than the other one that had the surgery.

I found out that they had mistakenly given me a medication that interacted negatively with another medication in my bloodstream. The level of the original medication should have been between 10-20 mcg/mL. The interaction with the new drug caused the level to increase dramatically, hence leading to my passing out and falling.

I was sent to a third rehab facility. Although the food was somewhat better than at the other facilities, the general atmosphere was similar. Many of the patients were long-term, elderly residents. They sat in wheelchairs, half-asleep with eyes closed and heads drooping, consumed by memories and reality. Many were not mentally competent. It was not unusual to hear plaintive screams of “Please help me!” throughout the night.

Entertainment was a regular feature at the rehab centers. Sometimes, the entertainment was excellent. Sometimes, it was terrible. Either way, the residents sat silently in their wheelchairs.

I even did a poetry reading and a reading of some of my 55 Plus articles. Residents would sit silently in their wheelchairs with eyes closed. At the end of an entertainment session, you could hear one resident gently applauding, while others just slept quietly.

Residents rarely spoke to each other and the atmosphere was eerie, despite the efforts of the staff to be cheerful and enthusiastic. Loss of independence and the need to become dependent on others for survival seemed evident.

This article is not intended to convey a condemnation of rehab centers. To me, it is amazing and gratifying to see so many staff members who really care for elderly people and want to help relieve the pains of old age. One of my beliefs is that, “If you help others, you help yourself.” There are many devoted, kind, caring, competent people at rehab centers who enjoy helping others. There are also some who are selfish, thoughtless and even cruel.

You will encounter both kinds of individuals everywhere. The apparent shortage of staff and being overworked may also contribute to grumpiness and negligence.

By the way, to make things worse was an outbreak of the flu, COVID-19 and a stomach virus at one of the rehab facilities. Residents were isolated in their rooms for several weeks.

Older people deserve special care and attention. They have helped shape the world that we live in and now it’s payback time. As we grow older, we are bound to get some disorder that we don’t want. So do something good for an older person today and get that satisfying feeling that you helped a special person.

My advice to all is not to fall and be obliged to stay at a rehab center. Be careful and have a safe and happy 2025.