To the editor:

January 2022 my husband had a massive stroke. He spent two weeks at Abbott Hospital. COVID kept us from seeing him. When he was due to come home, we wanted to do rehab at home. Despite having health care directives in place and not wanting nursing home care, someone made choices for us we had no say in. Feb. 14 he was brought to a care center. The driver gave staff an information packet. Staff went home. Since he had a feeding tube nobody knew how much to feed him as nothing was in their computer system.

Feb. 15, our first day. I was met by staff who said my husband fell in the night but they didn’t know who to call as still no info in the system. His hand was bruised. Fall #1.

I got to the room and an aide said we found him on the floor this morning. He crawled to the bathroom and was pounding on the door for help. He had skinned his arm and cut his foot. Fall # 2.

In the afternoon he laid down, I left the room for a few minutes. He was lying on the floor when I returned. He fell out of bed. Fall #3.

I asked for help with a care plan for him and was told they don’t do one-on-one nursing. This place is listed as a skilled nursing facility — what does that mean, exactly.

Feb. 16 started with a call from the director of nursing to tell me my husband had fallen in the hall and cut his head. He was being transported to United Hospital. We were met by a team of neurologists and hospice at United. We were told he had three brain bleeds and they could not save him. Fall #4 in 36 hours.

He came home for care and with a lot of help and the New Ulm Hospice Team we made that work. The last four days he was at Oak Hills where he was when he died. If a call had been made to his doctor other safety measures could have been used. He did not have one day of rehab. The care center was investigated and did nothing wrong — so what did they do right? If they did not have the staff and means to care for him, why did they take him as a patient?

We are allo important to someone and should mean more than a medicare payment to a nursing home. I have reached out for help from several places, left messages for our governor, TV stations, newspapers. Guess what, nobody cares.

Someday you may be in my shoes. By someone sending my husband to a care center, their lack of care cost him his life.

Elaine Haala

New Ulm