Marion G.
Marion is a widow in her early 80’s. She had been married to her husband, Hal, for 53 years. Hal died after a long bought with cancer. Due to the medical bills that had piled up and the loss of Hal’s income, Marion had to move out of their apartment. She moved in with her daughter, Rachel, until she could figure out what to do next. Rachel is a single mom and lives in a one bedroom, three floor walk-up with her two children. The long-range plan was yet to be determined, but clearly Marion could not stay indefinitely.
Before Marion could implement any kind of long-range strategy, one of her hips finally gave out. She took a fall. She was admitted to a local hospital and scheduled for a replacement. Things seemed to go well and five days later she was discharged to a nursing home for rehab. Shortly thereafter, she developed an infection and had to return to the hospital where she ended up in the ICU for three days. Then it was back to the nursing home where she got active in her rehab therapy. In two weeks she progressed to where she could ambulate with some assistance, using a walker. She could dress herself but needed to use a reaching device for basic garments. Little did she know that at this point her life was about to take an unimaginable turn for the worse.
At 3:10 pm on a Thursday afternoon Marion’s daughter Rachel called the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program. Rachel stated that her mother had just called her and said she was being discharged from the Nursing Home. The location for the discharge was to be Rachel’s home. Rachel had never been contacted by the nursing home. She was convinced that not only was this inappropriate, it was dangerous. She was instructed by the Ombudsman to immediately notify the nursing home of her situation and to have Marion contact the Ombudsman Program.
The next morning Marion called the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program. She stated that the previous day, with no prior notice or planning, she had been approached by her social worker and told that she was going to be discharged. Then, approximately 2 hours later she was approached by a different staff member and told that she was not going to be discharged because “it wouldn’t be safe.” Then, just prior to her calling the Ombudsman, she was served with a notice of discharge stating that a homeless shelter would be the destination. She stated she was very worried about going to a shelter because she was still on blood thinner medications, couldn’t walk without assistance, couldn’t dress herself without using a device and was still recovering from hip replacement surgery. Marion was instructed by the Ombudsman to immediately contact the Department of Health, given their contact information and told to file an appeal that would immediately stop the discharge until a hearing could be held.
The following morning the Ombudsman was greeted with a voicemail that Marion had been left the prior evening. On it she stated that the social worker had again approached her and informed her that she was going to be discharged that day because “your insurance isn’t going to pay.” According to Marion, shortly after speaking with the Ombudsman and before she could call the Department of Health to request an appeal hearing, she was escorted to an ambulate and “dropped off” at a homeless shelter. The shelter had met with her and informed her that they could not accept her because she used a walker and because her dressing device could be used as a weapon. Marion ended her voicemail saying: “I hate that nursing home. No matter what I don’t want to go back to that place.”
Marion left no way to contact her and the caller ID was at the shelter. Shelter staff stated they had no information as to Marion’s whereabouts.