Nursing Care

For the past 18 years, Damien has had 24-hour nursing care. We hired 2 caregivers when we first brought Damien home. We wanted Damien to be as independent as possible. Therefore, he lived in his own home with a day-caregiver and a night-caregiver. These caregivers had worked with Damien at a nursing home. We hired them when we brought Damien home from his first stay in Florida. The caregivers had a scheduled routine. We had a nursing supervisor visit to inspect Damien's health, the recorded care, the home environment and the nursing staff. It was a good arrangement. Five years later, we had to change caregivers, so we moved into Damien's home. We live upstairs and Damien lives downstairs.

One of the caregivers became pregnant and had to leave. Unwisely, we went to a Nurse Providing Company for help. Their nurses did not work out. Because we live 16 miles from the city, we had to pay extra for their mileage. The nurses would show up late and often had to leave early - yet we paid for a full 8 hour day. They often failed to follow the day's routine. The company suggested we buy a contract for one of their nurses so we could have them full time. We paid $3000 to have access to one of their employees on an exclusive basis. We did not think about it at the time, but they used this as a way to be relieved of a troublesome employee - their problem became our problem.

At first this employee (let's call him Ricky) was very interested in providing care for Damien. Then his interest dropped. He enjoyed "raving" on the weekends - unfortunately this followed him to work on Monday mornings. Merrill and I had delivered a car to Ft Lauderdale for our use while there. We needed a way to take Damien to the various therapies in Florida: neuro-chiropractic in Coconut Grove; physical therapy in Del Ray Beach; infusions in Boca Raton; hyperbaric therapy in Lauderdale by the Sea; and ProPilates in Ft Lauderdale. It was cheaper to lease a car full time than rent one for a week each month. Paula called and said Ricky had not shown up for work that Monday morning. Paula then called Ricky, he was sleeping and in no shape to drive. She called a substitute caregiver to take care of Damien. At 11:00 AM, Ricky came to Damien's home and threatened the substitute caregiver. Paula arrived and he blocked Paula's entry into the house. He was very intimidating and threatening (he was still high from his weekend of raving). The police came, made a report and removed the troublemaker.

We hired his replacement that has been with us for the last 10 years. He is very good; treats Damien as a son or brother; is very competent and free to travel to Florida.

We did get very good service for night nursing staff from Visiting Angels - visitingangels.com. They were on time and maintained the routine. They took care of Damien and did not sleep on the job. We stopped using them when we moved into Damien's home.

Other Unfortunate Nurse Problems

1. One week when Paula and the nurses were in Florida taking Damien to various therapies, I passed his house and noticed the car of a nurse (who did not go to Florida) parked in the driveway. I stopped and rang the doorbell. After a minute, she answered the door and invited me in. She explained that she and her boyfriend had brought a telescope to look at the moon from Damien's balcony. There was less city light at Damien's. We talked a bit and I suggested that they complete their viewing and leave. I checked 30 minutes later and they were gone.

She was a bit unknowing because I could see through her stories. One morning, I stopped to deliver supplies... Her boyfriend was sitting in his car. She mentioned that he had just arrived to take her into town. WRONG. He sat behind a windshield covered with ice, so he obviously had spent the night. These were irritants and I should have let her go then. I did not. One of Damien's doctors had read an article in The Lancelet about how low doses of Viagra were responsible for the growth of brain neurons. He prescribed 12 mg of Viagra be given to Damien each night. The competent nurse counted the number of Viagra pills on hand. The next night we were short one pill. The other nurse had taken one Viagra to give to her boyfriend. I had to let her go after that.

2. One Saturday morning, I was upstairs in Damien's home and entered the bathroom. I noticed plant material floating in the commode. I collected it and called the police. They inspected the material but said it did not positively react to a substance test-but that it was marijuana. On Monday morning, I asked the nurse to meet me at a restaurant. I asked him about the material. He admitted it was marijuana a friend had brought over on Friday night. I asked him "What were you thinking? You brought that stuff into Damien's home? That nurse never returned to Damien's house. 

3. While waiting trial, Ricky kept busy.

a.) He had stolen a prescription pad from a doctor's office. He then filled out the prescription for Xanax and had it filled at a pharmacy in another town. He also had bottles of Tylenol 3 with codeine from the same pharmacy. I found out later that Ricky had bragged about his feats and had shown the pills to the night nurse.

b.) Ricky called the doctor's office and pretended to be a representative from Adult Protective Services. He was not very adept at asking questions. The nurse grew suspicious and told him "I don't believe I want to talk to you anymore. If you need information, have your supervisor call."  She hung up and reported the incident to the doctor and to me.

c.) One morning, the nurse was exercising Damien when the doorbell rang. She answered and a representative from the local Adult Protective Services said he needed to speak with her. He asked If Damien choked during feeding. The nurse said no. That Damien would easily eat solid food. Each spoonful was small and given once Damien had swallowed the previous bite. The gentleman left and said that he would need to speak with me. We set up a time for an interview and got our attorney involved. The case closed with no repercussions.

Ricky had reported us to Adult Protective Services saying that we were overfeeding Damien causing him to choke and aspirate. We found out that this was standard behavior for Ricky. He had filed at least 4 claims with Adult Protective Services concerning other people he had worked for.

d.) When the APS claims fizzled, Ricky called my supervisor. My supervisor spoke with me about the call and said I needed to be careful with this guy. Ricky would then call my home and leave messages on the voice recorder. Some of the messages were threatening, some were pleading, and one was a confession of speaking with APS. I no longer have an answering machine, but I do have the tapes.

e.) Ricky pleaded No Contest at his court session. He kept his license but had to do Community Service.