"My Mother's Geriatric Care"

My mother was in hospital aged 96  (2 years ago) and nearing the end of her life.  She had bowel, urinary and kidney problems. She did not want to undergo a further colonoscopy so her precise condition was undiagnosed.  We had asked that they make her as comfortable as possible as she had advanced arthritis which gave her considerable pain.  We visited her most days to find that she had been put on her side (she had not been able to sleep on her side for over 10 years) and was crying out in pain to be moved as she was unable to move herself.  When I saw her notes, it said that she had been diagnosed with Dementia, so I guess this was why her cries were being ignored. She was profoundly deaf, but did not have Dementia, but was simply in pain. Had she been given handwritten questions, she would have answered coherently when they were testing her as we used to use a notepad ourselves to communicate with her. She left hospital and died in a nursing home 10 days later. 

 We felt that we had failed our mother as despite all our efforts, we could not get her the palliative care that she needed and deserved.  My point here is that there is a huge gulf in treatment between those with a diagnosis of terminal cancer where pain control is offered and those dying with other painful conditions. My mother was only given Paracetamol.

Dying of "old age" is not always painless process and I feel that more should be done to help such patients.