Caring for our Elderly

This is slightly off the general military meme of this site.

Last week, my wife’s great-aunt fell during a mandatory “wellness” walk at her nursing home, the Greenwood House, a Jewish nursing home near Trenton, NJ. She had both a severe heart condition and osteoporosis, the combination of which should have abrogated hazardous exercise. In the fall, she broke her femur. She then languished at the home for several hours, bleeding, before she was taken to the hospital.

At the hospital, she waited 4 hours on the operating table as she and the family haggled with the anesthesiologist over her Do Not Resuscitate order. Once on the operating table, she went into cardiac arrest, and her ribs cracked as she was revived against her wishes.

Ultimately, after two days in the ICU, my wife’s Aunt Lillian passed peacefully, albeit in some pain. Making it worse for her daughter and the rest of the family is the absolute fact that the malfeasance of the home all but ensured her injury was a fatal one.

I broach the subject on site because Aunt Lillian is a member of the Greatest Generation, many of whom, including our beloved heroes of World War II, now spend the remainder of their lives in convalescent or elder-care homes. That generation has set a very high bar for us. They built many of our synagogues and through financial and sweat equity maintained our congregations. They vote in higher numbers than succeeding generations. Veterans of that generation still actively fight the good fight for this generation of service members. For this to have happened at a Jewish home vexes us all the more.