I'm so sorry to hear that. Perhaps this is a lesson for the agencies
involved on what NOT to do next time... Sometimes we are powerless, ALWAYS
powerless over others. It's not a good feeling, sometimes we have to
practice surrender. The serenity prayer certainly seems applicable here.

det

"Julianne" wrote in message
news:IZObb.2201$k74.675@lakeread05...
I went to visit my client who had the extremely obese patient today and
learned that she had died.

For those of you who do not remember, this was a 40ish year old patient
who
weighed close to 500 pounds. She was physically unable to feed herself
and
her family seemed to mistake food for love. I spent an afternoon with the
agency trying to come up with a decent plan of care. We even went as far
as
having the family sign a contract that they would abide by the written
dietary guidelines we provided. About two days later they called asking
if
perhaps we could approach the MD about having a feeding tube inserted
because they were afraid she wasn't getting enough protein. Don't go
there.

The food diary mirrored the dietary guidelines and no one ever knew how
the
fast food wrappers got into her bed. The patient was extremely
compromised
and needed to be up in the chair to breath. When the family got adamant
that she stay up in the chair, she activated her emergency alarm and
summoned 911 to put her back to bed.

It is tragic. It is not the story of those of us on ASD but it made me
sad,
all the same. She has teenage kids. Thanks to everyone who responded
with
good advice on how to motivate this patient.

For what it is worth, we did have elderly protective services involved. I
likened the patient to an alcoholic who's family poured vodka down their
throat until they passed out and as soon as the patient stirred, they
poured
even more never giving the patient a sober moment to consider their
choices.

j