My father was in a rehab facility so he could get 24 hour care. I went to visit him and he was not himself. He was out of it and very sleepy. He was only awake for about 30 minutes and was given a 10mg oxy. He went to sleep. He then began to open his eyes, while sleeping, and twitch. This would last for 15-20 seconds. After 6 hours of that, he began to twitch with his eyes open and it lasted for a long time. 911 was called and he was taken back to the ER, where he was still unresponsive and twitching with his eyes open. It turns out he was over-dosing on fentynol mixed with the oxy. How do I handle this with the facility? We already knew he could only handle 1 patch. They had 2 on his back and gave him the oxy.

I am so very sorry to read of your fathers problems with pain meds! I am appalled, this is terrible!!! Obviously there was a major miscommunication with his medications. Im concerned that inattention could cause your father some serious harm. It sounds to me like he was having some type of seizure. I feel so sorry for your father.

If I was caregiver for someone in this position, I would speak to every single staff I was able to and make sure each one completely understands everything about your father. Its not easy being an advocate for someone but you must speak up so this wont happen every again. I think you should immediately talk with supervisors, doctors and every person right up the chain of command. The mistake with meds could have been fatal, make sure it will never happen again. Try to have someone stay with him as much as possible to watch everything going on. If they give you any problem about visiting hours, refer back to the overdose situation and tell them he must have someone to oversee things.

Its not unheard of for a patient to be on the fentanyl patch and still take other meds for breakthru pain. This might not happen every day, maybe only once every couple days the pain would be bad enough to require a little something extra. The patch comes in many different strengths starting at 7.5 mg up to 100mg. With your father having 2 patches on I wouldnt know how much he was on. It could be 30mg or eve 100mg. I suggest you find out exactly what he is being given and keep track of everything. The highest dose I had of the fentayl patch was 150 mg for only about 2 weeks. This type of medication is the strongest pain medicine on the market. It needs to be stepped up when increasing doses and also stepped back down when coming off it.

Years ago we had someone here who would say they had to put "on their nurse hat from hell" and take charge of the situation. This phrase certainly fits what your father experienced, he needs help. Watch him closely, this kind of mistake should never have happened.

Also, you may want to file a complaint with the state, usually health department, and let them conduct an investigation, and let the nursing facility answer. I was in a nursing facility myself, and they like to drug you up, not treat correctly, abuse, steal, lie, and have similar experience with other relatives in 3 different facilities, all are the same. Someone from the family has to be there every day to oversee things, show someone cares for the patient, otherwise forget it. I narrowly escaped death with severe dehydration, and c-diff, which I caught in the facility, and they said nothing was wrong, had bed sores for three years thereafter. Staff couldn't even put in an IV, and my brother called 911, taken to the hospital where I stayed for 21 days, had acute kidney failure, and almost put on dialysis. I was supposed to go back, but never did!

Good luck.

As Paul says the only sure way is to visit everyday and make sure he is being given the proper and needed care. Unfortunately, here in the USA, the nursing home system is inadequately regulated and monitored.

If you can not be there everyday maybe you can trade off with someone else or at least try to get in good relations with a supervisor or a aide who will give you a few minutes each day on the phone to check in and get an honest update.

You just need a real person who can watch out, sad but true.

Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, I was 5 hours away so I couldn't visit daily. My father mentioned last week that they treated him bad but wouldn't talk about it in front of my brother. I never got an opportunity to ask about it because he passed away 12/25. I am in the process of getting his medical records so I can look into filing a complaint against the facility. I do not want that to happen to someone else.

Keleigh, I'm sorry about your loss. I wish I had made a formal complaint to the last facility we experienced.
The only time they were good was during state inspections, after that, they kept people drugged to avoid doing their work.
Sorry you had to live it too.
Hang in there,

Keleigh, so sorry to hear your father passed away. My sincere condolences to you and your family.

Keleigh, sorry about your loss. My condolences to you and your family.

I'm sorry for your loss, Kaleigh.

so sorry and it is hard to lose someone this way. The same thing happened to my dad at the nursing facility he was in. I would still like to sue there asses off. He wasn't well treated and didn't get fed at all - in two months he lost about 50 lbs. And this was with me and my step mom visiting daily and feeding him. At one point he almost died - I found him in a diabetic coma, and I was certain he had pneumonia which had never cleared even though they told me he didn't - the week he died I insisted he get a CT (even though the dr said his lungs were clear and there was a CT in the hospital) They finally did after two days of arguing - he died the evening and sure enough the CT results came back the same day saying he had pneumonia. HUGS TO YOU

George passed away Christmas Day? Oh Keleigh I'm so sorry to hear that. Condolences to you and your family.

@Christine, yes sometimes a "nurse hat from hell" makes all the difference in a hospital. I was saved by a good one of them sorting my meds out.