I'm very much in the throws of early grief having lost my elderly dad just this weekend but this post isn't about that process.
What has left a lasting sadness with me is the upset caused during his last couple of weeks due to the hospital losing not one but two sets of his false teeth!
The first set was lost within 24hrs but I managed to find a spare set in his room, giving him back his ability to eat properly and communicate more effectively and returning some dignity to his situation, but within two days this set had been lost too!
He'd been suffering with delirium which obviously added to our distress and I understand this probably meant he may not have been leaving his teeth in obvious places. But if the hospital staff are aware a patient has dentures, and especially if they're not completely in control of their actions could they not have a system whereby they check the patient has them before changing bedding/clearing away after meals. It's assumed both times that his teeth had been accidently thrown away.
There seemed little concern by the hospital that this situation had occurred and no regard for the consequences it caused. My dad could no longer eat properly yet meals that required chewing were continually being brought to him. We tried our best to bring in soft food but despite this he lost a lot of weight.
There seemed no way of remedying this situation, his dentist hadn't kept his last cast, we tried to get a mobile dentist out to him but there was a minimum wait of a month. The hospital didn't offer any solutions - it just felt totally hopeless yet the staff also made it feel like a trivial issue, despite the clearly huge problems it was causing.
I'd like to see an awareness campaign for hospital staff to make them aware of the distress this situation causes, so wondered if this is an issue other people have experienced too?