"Ageism comment made to my mum"

I am writing this on behalf of my wee elderly mum.  She is in Chronic pain and was waiting to hear about back surgery, her spinal cord is narrowing and vertebraes are crumbling.  She received a letter to say she would get a call from the consultant  My mum was diagnosed with Dementia therefore I support her as much as I can, unfortunately I am deaf and I cannot hear on the phone, to enable me to hear the conversation. 

My mum was very upset with how condesendingly she was spoken to by this consultant and Mum felt they had basically made up their mind that the operation was not going to take place.  Mum sort of knew this would be the case BUT what upset my mum the most was a comment like well we are not 18 anymore.  Firstly my mum is aware of her age and to be spoken to in this manner is not appreciative.

I am extremely angry by this, my mum found the consultant dismissive when she asked, in despair, if they could do anything for her. The reply was no, we don't do operations on people who don't have pain down their legs, you had told us you did. 

Mum said she has dementia therefore she didn't remember when last spoken too. And that she was a pensioner and has to pay a private physiotherapist to help keep her mobile.  The consultant didn't seem interested. This is upsetting in itself but to not be given any support whatsoever is not nice for Mum and she felt because of her age, she wasn't important. I believe you treat people with respect, no matter what age you are.  I believe that when in the caring profession, you need to show compassionate towards your patients and think, if this was my wee mum, how would I like people to treat them.