My dying father's silent screams

An earlier version of this article appeared on News Break.

One day not long after my dad died the local news had a story that made my blood boil.

It triggered me. I like to say I have caregiver PTSD.

The story was reported by the Quad-City Times: “Nurse charged with stealing painkillers.”

Not only that, but she allegedly tampered with records at the nursing home where she works to cover her tracks. She wrote down the patient received their medications when in fact she stole them, according to the arrest affidavit.

My dad’s medications “spilled” in transit once near the end of his death. He suffered terribly as the medication was delayed for hours.

Laws punishing employees for stealing a patient’s medications vary state to state. In Iowa, the penalty is up to 10 years in prison for theft and up to two years in prison for tampering with records.

A person who steals painkillers from a nursing home also can face federal charges.

The state Medicaid fraud control unit investigated the incident.

The more I sucked on the painkiller story, the angrier I became.

After I advocated to have dad removed from a bad memory care facility, he was placed in a nursing home. Three weeks after they moved him, he was near death, his brain deteriorating rapidly from frontotemporal degeneration.

Dad had gone mute about two weeks prior. Three days before his death, he went into convulsions.

While dad convulsed to death, his Ativan was delayed.

His face was bright red, and he gritted his teeth in pain. He floundered like a fish out of water.

But no sound came out. These were silent screams, and just watching your parent go through that could result in a PTSD diagnosis.

When the convulsions began, dad’s death was imminent. He had not eaten for a week and had developed pneumonia. He also had three unexplained broken toes.

Anxiety medication "spills" in transit, nurse reports

Dad had an alarm mat next to his bed. When I would visit, it never was plugged in. The facility would say the alarm mat belonged to hospice. I guess that meant they were not responsible for plugging it in.

We ended up switching dad from that hospice company. I had no issues with the second hospice company we chose. Their compassion was stellar. They immediately ordered morphine and liquid Ativan, both of which were given in drops under dad’s tongue.

It took several hours for the Ativan to arrive. I was told by a nurse at the nursing home that the bottle had fallen over in transit and broke. A new bottle would come on the next delivery, she assured me.

I later was told a slightly different version of the story by a different nurse at the nursing home. It’s possible that the bottle did fall over and break.

But give me a break. A highly addictive benzodiazepine could have fallen into the wrong hands.

I remember having an “A-ha!” moment right then. I wondered how many addicts and criminals have field days at nursing homes with all the medications.

I’m not saying that the nursing home stole my dad’s Ativan. But I am saying the Ativan was delayed.

For God’s sake the man was convulsing. There is no excuse for him having to lie in pain that long.

Records tampering in long-term care not uncommon

As you get to know the people who work in these facilities, you learn that tampering of records occurs all the time.

Usually, records are tampered with as they relate to resident falls. There are plenty of CNAs all over America who have no problem attesting to this, as the working conditions at most of these places are terrible.

The saying “Loose lips sink ships” is true, and malcontented nursing home workers know it.

The story of the painkiller theft came as no surprise, but it still was upsetting. It was just another example of the poor care our elderly receives while facilities rob them of their life savings.

My dad spent well over $100,000 in his memory care facility. The place did not even send a plant when he died.

In fact, they did not even send a sympathy card.

A tiny bit of internet digging showed that indeed, theft of medication from long-term care facilities is a national problem. The internet is teeming with law firm blogs that have all kinds of things to say about this issue.

Not only are nursing homes getting rich off our elderly, but lawyers are also making bank off their financially devastated loved ones who want justice at any cost.

Instead of a lawyer, I decided I was better off using my pen and my reporting skills in my quest for justice.

Story of painkiller theft triggers caregiver’s PTSD

Caring and advocating for my dad with dementia nearly killed me.

I have a PTSD diagnosis related to the difficult things I experienced once he became incapacitated. That included being banned from his memory care facility for reporting an intruder.

I even was thrown in jail and held there for two days, stripped naked with only a straitjacket to cover myself. I was held on no charges at all after becoming frightened at dad’s memory care facility and asking staff to call police.

I thought I recognized a dangerous criminal outside my dad’s room.

Triggers are not a good thing for me, or for anyone with PTSD.

Federal charges also possible for theft of meds

A federal judge last year sentenced Lacey Staveley, a Waterloo, Iowa nursing home worker, to a year in prison.

She pleaded guilty to acquiring a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, and subterfuge.

The worker obtained hydrocodone and other medications.

“To cover up her scheme, (she) destroyed an original medication log, placed it in a trash can, and replaced it with a fake medication log,” according to a Department of Justice news release.

“When the nursing home discovered her thefts and asked her to provide a urine sample for testing, Staveley provided the nursing home with a fake urine sample consisting of toilet water.”

Staveley later went to work for another nursing home and repeated her crime. There, she stole patients’ painkillers and replaced them with antipsychotics.

“This patient complained of pain constantly,” according to the DOJ news release. “Staveley also admitted that she took four narcotic pills, containing Vimpat, from another nursing home patient and replaced those pills with an anti-seizure drug that had a similar shape and color.

“This second patient was non-verbal and could not even complain of pain.”

Just like my dad.