Case study: ‘My mother was left in a vegetative state’

WHEN Marion McIntyre’s health deteriorated due to dementia, her carer and daughter Iris had no choice but to seek respite support before finally having to let her go into a nursing home.

But after suffering a catalogue of problems in three different homes across Glasgow and Tayside, Iris now feels that the current system of care needs an overhaul.

Her mother died in March at the age of 88. But Iris, 59, believes that her overall care could have been better. In one incident, Marion was prescribed a powerful anti–psychotic by a doctor who had never even met her, which left her in a “vegetative” state.

It took Iris 12 weeks of complaining before her mother was taken off the drug, and even then Marion was not monitored for possible side effects.

In another home, Marion was taken off two drugs. Iris believes this was also a mistake. Even though Iris held power of attorney, she says she was not involved in decisions regarding her mother’s treatment.

Originally from Lanark, Marion was a land girl who started her own milk business when she was 21 in Glasgow’s Partick, a bold move for a woman in postwar Britain.

Marion remained in excellent health until 85, but was diagnosed with dementia in November 2009. Iris, a semi-retired businesswoman from Auchterarder, said: “All drugs have side effects: they might cure a problem but they can give you other side effects. But there does not seem to be enough questions asked or any attempt to try something else. It’s the lack of follow through that disappoints. Relatives are treated as laymen. If I could do it again, I would not put my mother in a care home.”

Marion fell ill shortly after Christmas 2011 and was diagnosed with potentially life-threatening high-blood sugar levels, which can affect people with diabetes. Iris had started to make arrangements to bring her mother home, but she died before she could act.