Very disappointed in this hospice service. My dad failed his swallow test at the hospital, and when…read moreI questioned continuing to force feed him when he could aspirate, one of their nurses told me "that she wasn't going to starve him, and it's unethical not to feed him and that you shouldn't suggest that" To which I said FORCE feeding him, please ask him if he wants food continuously throughout. Then later, after a different nurse was caring for him after he was actively dying (Kaylin was amazing!!), where she did absolutely everything for him and was kind and compassionate and answered my questions at all hours, the first horrible nurse came back on Monday, declared that he was "okay" because he was "making hand gestures at her" that was "communicating" to her and that they would take him off of daily services because of it. He was going through terminal agitation and had been making "hand gestures" for the past few days. I felt like I was being gaslit because I had been with him all day and night for the past 5 days and he was not "okay" and I didn't want him losing daily visits. I spent the entire day on the phone, insisting on a second diagnosis, and when it was done she agreed with me and told me that he was still actively dying, showing no physical or mental reaction. He died the next morning.
I spoke to Director of Nursing on the phone, and was told that this inconsiderate nurse had some "re-education". I know that nurse liked my dad and when he was more cognizant at the beginning, thought he was funny cracking jokes and kept saying he "couldn't be actively dying" - I truly believe she convinced herself of that, tried to convince me of that multiple times, and couldn't admit she was wrong. Lady, that's my dad. I don't want him to be dying, either, but making me second-guess my decisions that I was making BASED ON MEDICAL diagnosis was a terrible weight on me and the way she treated me was deeply inappropriate and demeaning. On top of that, my aunt died two months later, and that hospice service had someone stay over night, in person, while she was actively dying. No one ever offered to stay over, I didn't even know it was something hospice does until I saw it with my aunt. The long term care facility said they tried to make up the difference for the hospice workers so they didn't have to visit as much, but they have multiple, multiple people to attend to and someone should have been there from ECHO just for my dad. I'm not satisfied with the "re-education" of this unprofessional nurse, I would have liked to hear that she was taken off of patient care until she could prove that she's capable of interacting with patients and their families in an empathetic or even with basic human courtesy and compassion.
With the exception of Kaylin, ECHO basically took a very traumatic time and made it about 100 times worse, hours before my dad died - and even earlier than that. I was willing to forgo leaving a review if I was satisfied when I called them to leave feedback, but I was not. I felt like the woman I spoke to on the phone was equal parts slightly annoyed that I called, or just figuratively patting me on the head to try to get me to go away.
Everyone afterward was saying "wasn't the hospice service so amazing? Didn't they support you and the family in the most compassionate way? Didn't they offer the family help and guidance throughout the whole dying process?" Absolutely, resoundingly, NO. They offered me bereavement services after my dad died, but that's it. Instead, they questioned me and my decisions (again, based off of medical doctors and diagnoses; he had a glioblastoma that left him with tumor-induced dementia and paralyzed on the left side of his body, with several strokes and seizures throughout) and made my life much harder from the hospital through the end of my dad's life.
DO NOT use this service.