"My very elderly Grandmother was left unattended"

My very elderly Grandmother was left unattended whilst using the commode despite nursing staff being very well aware of her extremely high risk of falls. She is also known to be confused at times and is often more confused when she is poorly. She is currently in hospital being "treated" for pneumonia and, since admission, has been increasingly confused. Staff should never have left her unattended however that is exactly what they did as they were changing shifts. We feel this is an unacceptable failing in care.

A nurse advised us that my grandmother had asked for the curtains to be drawn which is perfectly understandable as she is a very private lady however we have never known her to ask whomever was helping her to leave. Furthermore it would appear to be a fairly simple move to reassure the patient and stand behind the commode? Had anyone been there, my grandmother would not have fallen. Simple. We believe that this is a very serious and very avoidable incident.

The fall caused her to fracture her facial bones and has resulted in a bleed on the brain. Whilst she is very elderly and frail, the entire family are aware and accepting of this, she lives at home with my Grandad without any input from a formal package of care and, in spite of her frequent falls, with the help of the family when needed, was managing to remain at home. It now looks extremely unlikely that she will ever come home.

To make matters worse, the senior member of staff whom we have spoken with at length and whom promised an investigation which we would be kept advised of, has not said a word to us since AND whenever we speak with any member of medical staff they tell us she is doing well and is improving YET we are seeing her dying in front of us! In addition the ward staff have moved her to a side room due to her having some loose stools. The medical staff seem to be unaware of the reason for this. She is not currently on any IV fluids and we are being told that she is still managing oral intake HOWEVER she has appeared slumped in the chair and practically lifeless to us so either she makes a dramatic improvement when we are not there or we are being lied to.

I am sorry to say that we - the family - have completely lost confidence in the nursing and medical team in this ward. I am appalled at the lack of care causing the initial fall and the ongoing care. As I have mentioned, we (the family) are well aware of her age, medical history and general frailty. If the medical and nursing team were to "be straight" with us, it would be very much appreciated. They (the nursing and medical team) have even recently mentioned the possibility of neurosurgery? ! This seems entirely bizarre and as though they are talking about someone else entirely as it does not appear we can all be talking about the very frail lady we see slumped and sore looking in a chair? ! As for the sitting up in a chair, we feel this is extremely ambitious (and yes, we are well aware of the pitfalls of her remaining in bed all day) and as for "managing oral intake" we cannot believe that she is even alert enough to swallow as she has not appeared like that to us for a long time so we have major concerns about this. The nursing staff were very apologetic at the time and whilst we understand that accidents happen, we feel that this was 100% avoidable so on this occasion, sorry is not cutting it for us.