Pity the poor nursing home resident-- especially at Wingate/Springfield

I wrote about my friend's trials and tribulations at Baystate a few weeks ago, and how he wound up with a colostomy when he'd been admitted for a broken clavicle and ribs. (!)

He did, eventually, get transferred to a Wingate Healthcare facility on Bicentennial Highway in Springfield.  They kept him there nearly three weeks and then sent him home last Wednesday while he was in an extremely frail condition.  He lasted exactly two days, fell again, and is now back in Baystate.

I'm sure I don't know the half of what happened at Wingate, but I'll write what I do know.

There is no separate wing there for short stay patients; they're mixed in with people who will breathe their last breath in that facility.  My friend's roommate died while he was there.  Obviously it would be much more heartening to be housed with patients all of whom are working hard to go home.  Not all facilities are like this.

My friend is both diabetic and a vegetarian.  I presume they have a dietician on staff but the kitchen seemed not to know what to do with him.  Three meals in a row (minus breakfast) he received potatoes and a vegetable, five meals in a row he was served a grilled cheese sandwich.  After the third meal, I told him to insist that the kitchen at least add a vegetable.

Apparently they preferred to control his diabetes through insulin rather than diet and insulin.  I was visiting one afternoon when a nurse took a sugar reading and it was high-- 220.  He returned with an injection of insulin.

The physical therapy department seemed to be a well-functioning unit.  The therapists I met were kind but not wimpy.  They pushed my friend to help him regain his strength.

But they failed to properly train him in the full ramifications of having an ostomy, how to care for it, tips for changing the ostomy bag, or the fact that having an ostomy requires drinking extra liquid to avoid dehydration.  This lack of information beaame a crucial factor in why he wound up back at Baystate.

My friend had his blood drawn several times in three weeks, but apparently whatever lab the facility uses failed to recognize that my friend had an infection (later determined to be caused by a wound he was accidentally given in Baystate!) This became factor number two in his re-admittance.

Worse, when my friend went for a follow-up visit to his surgeon on Friday, just hours before he went back to Baystate, the surgeon was furious that Wingate had reduced my friend's pain medication to a level so low as to be ineffective.  He had also made it clear in written orders to Wingate that my friend was not to be discharged until he was truly able to care for himself, as he lives with his elderly mother.

I started out angry writing this but I'm ending up just sad. When people are sick they are the least able to be effective advocates for themselves, and not everyone has family and friends who also have the time and resources to fight for them.

I also have more to say about Baystate, but I think I'll save it until my friend is safely out of their care.

Seven reasons to oppose a toxic incinerator in Springfield.

Palmer Renewable Energy’s proposal to build an electricity-generating biomass plant in Springfield, Massachusetts is moving very quickly, now—the developers need two more permits and then they get the green light.

I myself refuse to call PRE’s proposal a biomass plant: it’s a construction and demolition wood-burning incinerator that will provide a few jobs, create a little electricity, and degrade and pollute our community.  What a trade-off!

Some of us, in a new group called Stop Toxic Incineration in Springfield, have been working very hard to stop PRE from going ahead.  We need a lot more help because time is so short.  But I will say that I haven’t talked to a single person who, once he or she knows about the plant, is in favor of it, although I’m sure there are some, especially where potential financial benefits may exist—a job, for example, or a neighborhood improvement project.  Well, times are tough and I can’t blame them.  They’re not the one who will be making the big bucks from this project.

The Springfield Public Health Council is concerned enough about the health threats of this incinerator to dedicate their next meeting, this Wednesday, November 18, to hearing concerns. The meeting will start at 6 pm. at the Pine Point Citizens Council, 335 Berkshire Ave.  It’s an open meeting and I hope that people will take this opportunity to learn more .

Then, on Wednesday, December 2^nd, the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection will be holding a public hearing on whether to grant PRE an air permit.  This is folks’ chance to hear what PRE has to say, to hear the concerns of Springfield’s residents, and to ask questions.  The meeting starts at 7 pm. at  Kennedy Middle School, 1385 Berkshire Ave.

Air is no respecter of town and county borders.  Here are seven reasons residents of the Pioneer Valley should be against PRE’s proposal.

1. WE’RE HEALTH-STRESSED ENOUGH ALREADY.  We live in the Pioneer Valley, where air is often trapped like an inverted bowl-- and PRE’s proposed incinerator is only one of five being planned for Western Mass.

 Almost half the population of Hampden County is already considered at risk from the effects of air pollution. Our childhood asthma rate is 50% higher than the state average.  The American Lung Association gives our county an F based on smog and short and year round levels of fine particulate matter (FPM), of which there are no “safe” levels.  Why would we want to make things worse than they already are?

Our children have blood lead levels about twice the state average; PRE’s incinerator will send another ton of lead into the air. Chromium, mercury, dioxin, arsenic, nickel, cadmium, manganese, antimony, beryllium, cobalt, selenium will also be emitted by this plant, all within “safe” levels.  Exposure to pollutants is linked not only to poor health and sometimes fatalities but also to a decline in I.Q.

2. THE REGULATIONS DON’T PROTECT US.  Somehow the projected emission levels came in just below the threshold that would have required a full environmental impact review by the state Department of Environmental Protection.  Even assuming that the state regulations that apply to this plant can be met, each of the five wood-burning plants proposed for Western Mass. is judged separately—combined impacts are not taken into account.  Emissions from the machines that will run the plant and emissions from the 160 trucks delivering 900 tons of fuel each day aren’t counted in emission totals, either.

 We’re guinea pigs for the rest of the state.

3. THE PLANT EMISSIONS MONITORING SYSTEM IS FULL OF HOLES. PRE’s fuel will come from third parties that want to sell their fuel and have every incentive to bend the rules.  No one will know on any given day what is being burned; there’s no stack monitoring of toxins and no real-time third-party testing of what comes out of the smokestack.
   

4. THE GOVERNMENT HAS NOT BEEN PLAYING FAIR WITH US.  Springfield’s Planning Dept. presented PRE’s proposal to City Council as a “recycling plant” when PRE sought a zone change.  The state defined Springfield as an “Environmental Justice Community” and then didn’t follow its own guidelines for informing the public so we could have real and timely input. 

5. PROPERTY VALUES AND OUR QUALITY OF LIFE WILL DECLINE.  More trucks, more traffic, more pollution, more noise and a smokestack as high as the city’s landmark Campanile, will, as in other communities lead to a decline in property values estimated by some realtors as up to 20%.          
   

6. THE PLANT IS A WASTE OF TAXPAYERS’ MONEY.  Without huge state and federal subsidies, this plant would not have been feasible.  All five proposed plants will meet only 1% of the state’s energy needs.  If we subsidized weatherization and conservation instead, we could reduce our need for energy by far more than 1%.
   

7. BURNING WOOD FOR FUEL TAKES US BACK TO THE CAVEMAN DAYS.  We banned new incinerators in Massachusetts 20 years ago and with good reason.  Burning wood creates pollution! Trees don’t grow as fast as we can burn them, so they can’t be carbon-neutral. The planet is in trouble and wood-burning incinerators will only make things worse.

 It’s not too late to make a difference.  You can join our group.  (Check out our website at Stop Toxic Incineration in Springfield.) You can pass out flyers.  You can let our elected officials know how you feel.  Start by calling your new ward councilors; some are already opposed.  Call your state senators and representative.  Then make three more calls: to Gov. Deval Patrick at 888-870-7770, DEP Commissioner Laurie Burt at 617-292-5500, and Secretary Ian Bowles of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs at 617-626-1000.  Tell them: no toxic incinerators in Springfield—or anywhere else in Massachusetts!

Textile art from Bascom Hogue's photostream at Flickr.  

How the health insurance industry shapes its message

Wildflower extract can kill MRSA

Natural News is reporting that extracts of two wildflower, the Pasque flower and elecampane, eliminated 100% of MRSA-- Multidrug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria-- on contact.

From its first reported case in 1961, MRSA is believed to now kill more people in the U.S. than AIDS. There were almost 300,000 cases reported in the U.S. in 2005.

The research was carried out at Cork University Hospital.

This is why I say there's hope for the world; for every problem there's an answer. We just have to find the will to force our government to the people first and the corporations second.