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Elderly parents
Original poster

84yr old mum sent home with gangrene in her foot, need advice desperately.

54 replies

triplets · 06/06/2012 22:35

Its a long story but basically my mum is in a nursing home for respite care. She has dry gangrene in all her toes on her right foot and its now spreading underneath the foot, its so awful to look at as it must be kept open. She cannot walk but is supposed to be coming home with lots of nhs equipment to help. I just do not understand how we are suposed to cope, how can a foot like that just be left?? The team at the hospital said surgery was too risky, her aorta is blocked so they sent her home. Surely she can`t be left like this?

OP posts:
Original poster
triplets · 06/06/2012 23:20

This will sound crazy but she hasn`t yet seen her new gp. Two days after she was admitted into hospital I moved her away from her gp, she has been very neglectful in caring for my mum, as has the local podiatry dept at the hospital. Two vascular surgeons were both horrified when we told them what had happened, told us we should put in a complaint. Now she is in respite the home use the local gp, I am not happy with this arrangement and if she cannot come home at least get her into a local home here.

OP posts:
Northernlurker · 06/06/2012 22:53

Triplets, I'm sorry but if surgery is unsafe then leaving it open and trying to get it to heal as much as possible is all that can be done. It might be helpful to sit down with your mum and with her GP and ask them to discuss the discharge summary they have from the hospital? Then you can ask anything you need to about the prognosis for the foot.

edam · 06/06/2012 22:49

Have they arranged appropriate care in the community - visits from community nurses with skills in wound care, or podiatrists? I'd get onto her GP ASAP and find out what's been organised.

Yeahthatsnotgonnahappen · 06/06/2012 22:46

Sorry to hear about your mom. Her surgeons will have weighed up the risks and benefits to operating. To put it bluntly, dry gangrene is unlikely to kill her but an operation very well might.

If she's in a nursing home they should be able to manage it fine. I know it's not very nice but this isn't an easy choice and this is probably the better option. At least she's in her own environment and comfortable rather than undergoing a very risky operation which may put her in a worse condition than she is in now.

Sorry again