Another uneventful Sunday was planned by a friend of mine. She was to meet Sophie, her 90-year-old mother-in-law, at church for the Sunday service. But this Sunday didn’t go as planned. Sophie arrived late and found her daughter-in-law already in the pew. The church service began with the call to prayer and as the congregation stood, Sophie collapsed in the pew.

lessons learned pt 1

911 was called, the paramedics arrived and Sophie was taken to the hospital. A decision was made to keep Sophie overnight in the hospital for observation and further tests. At the hospital, the daughter-in-law discovered that although she thought her cell phone was up to date on all the family’s contacts, it wasn’t. A call was placed to a family member to locate other family members and the healthcare proxy.

The grandson arrived at the hospital, then one daughter, then much later a second daughter (the health care proxy). In the interim, the daughter-in-law is asked a number of questions about Sophie’s health status. The daughter-in-law couldn’t answer most of the questions.

In the course of this hospitalization they learned that daughter #1 takes Sophie to her general practitioner, daughter #2 takes Sophie to her nephrologist. Daughters are often mad at each other and don’t always communicate with each other.

To be continued…