Hi, looking for advice. My father is 80, has had a diagnosis of Alzheimer's for 9 years but until recently was living semi-independently and had no problems walking - could easily do a few miles. We were considering other living options for him or additional care as he had got to the point of struggling to take his regular medication, even with us ringing him twice a day to remind him.
Last week he had a sudden loss of mobility, increased confusion and wasn't able to urinate. As a result, the GP surgery wanted him to have an MRI scan to rule out cauda equina. This meant he was taken to A and E and ultimately admitted. He is on a renal ward because that was the only one with space, and has not in fact had the MRI scan. We were about to put in a complaint about lack of diagnosis and treatment plan, and failures of basic care in the ward - eg no one answering his bell for 20 minutes, not supporting him to keep his genitalia covered, no physical oversight of the beds if he wanted to get up, not supporting him to clean his teeth despite them having a poster about the importance of this. Then yesterday he fell in the ward and now has a broken hip.
What are his treatment options now? We are concerned that the trauma of an operation would be awful for him. When he had surgery for lung cancer ten years ago, he ended up with post-operative delirium and fled the hospital at night. We think this was really bad for his long-term mental functioning. He doesn't have a DNR but we talked about this with him a few months ago and he said he wanted one.
The hospital has said he will see the orthopaedic surgeon and obviously we will listen to their advice - but I don't want him on a pathway to surgery unless it is the one with the best outcome for him. What happens if surgery doesn't take place?