And so it goes
Still no word from the lawyer about my quest to visit my husband in hospital. Meanwhile, he (my husband) is getting worse by the day. Dementia does not hold back once it takes hold. We try to communicate with each other via chrome book and google chat, but Nick has somehow signed himself out of the chrome book and can't get back in, so he can't open his email account. That is how we call each other. Because Parkinsons robs a person of their voice, Nick's voice is very quiet now, sometimes just a whisper, and I often cannot understand what he says. But on the internet, he is much more understandable. My daughter said it is because the microphone is far superior on the computer than on the telephone.>
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But now he can't access that method of communication. So here we are, trying to talk by telephone, he is in distress and I am at my wit's end, trying to talk to him and reassure him of my love, that I am here even though he can't see me or touch me.
For someone with dementia, how can you deprive them of contact with their loved ones? that is oppressing them with a suffering that is psychologically cruel.
I have written to the administration of the hospital several times; tonight I wrote them again. Expressing the fact that Nick's dementia is progressing, that he has gone from a fully functional bright man to someone who can't even handle the simplest directions to open his email.
My daughter thinks that we should assault the administration with letters, emails and phone calls. She said this is the American style of doing things and perhaps it will have some effect here. Canadians are not used to being pestered but perhaps we should pester them anyway. Things are so wrong in the handling of this virus and the policy of no visitors to hospitals and long term care facilities is one of the worst precautions that they are taking. People are suffering from distress, from loneliness, from depression and they are not being consoled. Is the virus worse than that mental suffering? I don't think a psychologist would say that it is.
I am constantly reminding people of the Nuremberg Code, the trial that decided you cannot excuse your behaviour by saying that you were following the rules. If following the rules means that you do wrong, you will not be excused, but you will be held accountable. People are responsible for their individual actions, even when they are told to do something. If that "something" violates your conscience, you are duty-bound not to comply with the orders. So I challenged the hospital administrators who are following the ministry of health's rules on visiting policy in the hospital, but that policy is inhumane and cruel and they know it. They have to bend those rules for the sake of their patients' mental health. To not do so is unjust and they are accountable for that decision. I will personally hold them responsible for that.
My husband is suffering greatly from his Parkinsons disease and from the attendant dementia that afflicts 80% of Parkinsons' patients. But he is alone and he is lonely. And that can be alleviated by a kinder hospital policy. And I call upon the administration to act upon those higher principles.
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But now he can't access that method of communication. So here we are, trying to talk by telephone, he is in distress and I am at my wit's end, trying to talk to him and reassure him of my love, that I am here even though he can't see me or touch me.
For someone with dementia, how can you deprive them of contact with their loved ones? that is oppressing them with a suffering that is psychologically cruel.
I have written to the administration of the hospital several times; tonight I wrote them again. Expressing the fact that Nick's dementia is progressing, that he has gone from a fully functional bright man to someone who can't even handle the simplest directions to open his email.
My daughter thinks that we should assault the administration with letters, emails and phone calls. She said this is the American style of doing things and perhaps it will have some effect here. Canadians are not used to being pestered but perhaps we should pester them anyway. Things are so wrong in the handling of this virus and the policy of no visitors to hospitals and long term care facilities is one of the worst precautions that they are taking. People are suffering from distress, from loneliness, from depression and they are not being consoled. Is the virus worse than that mental suffering? I don't think a psychologist would say that it is.
I am constantly reminding people of the Nuremberg Code, the trial that decided you cannot excuse your behaviour by saying that you were following the rules. If following the rules means that you do wrong, you will not be excused, but you will be held accountable. People are responsible for their individual actions, even when they are told to do something. If that "something" violates your conscience, you are duty-bound not to comply with the orders. So I challenged the hospital administrators who are following the ministry of health's rules on visiting policy in the hospital, but that policy is inhumane and cruel and they know it. They have to bend those rules for the sake of their patients' mental health. To not do so is unjust and they are accountable for that decision. I will personally hold them responsible for that.
My husband is suffering greatly from his Parkinsons disease and from the attendant dementia that afflicts 80% of Parkinsons' patients. But he is alone and he is lonely. And that can be alleviated by a kinder hospital policy. And I call upon the administration to act upon those higher principles.
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