Lucid to Jibberish Mid Sentence, What to Do

While talking to a friend in a rehabilitation center yesterday, he suddenly stopped speaking mid-sentence. He had fallen lately and was in for an overhaul. In the last couple weeks they have found nothing wrong, other than he needs to strengthen his leg muscles. In other words, he fell like I did recently, knees gave out, no quad strength. He and I had been discussing a bridge game, then, nothing. I called his name. Nothing.





Then I called the main number for the rehab joint and told her what just happened. She said she would send in a nurse to check on him.





Now, I had taken his call on my land line, on speaker phone, and called the main desk on my cell phone. I heard a woman's voice as she entered his room. I could make out the words from her, "phone" and "drop" and "okay." Still nothing from him. Then I heard his heavy breathing, as is common from him between speaking. I called out his name three times, then, "Are you okay?"





Finally he spoke in low, mumbled jibberish, as if he were saying something, but not using real words. What would run through YOUR mind? My mind shouted, stroke.





I called back the main desk and now the woman seemed fed up with me. I told her that he sounded like he was having a stroke or something! She said, "The nurse checked on him and he is fine." (!!!???) When I protested that he was NOT "fine," she said with a sigh, "I'll send his nurse back in."





Well, I had used my land line to call and now I didn't know what to do. He is just a friend. I don't know his family's phone numbers. I called the RN on duty at our mutual retirement home, and had to leave a voice message, but she is VERY good about picking those up, so then I waited. And waited. He originally called me at 12:30PM. By 12:45 he was gone. By 1PM I was gone. By 2PM I was still waiting and debating what to do. I called the main number for the Rehab joint.





Needless to say, they were not happy to hear my voice. I said I wanted to get a status update on my friend. (I have, over my years as a disability advocate, made such calls MANY times. Medical facilities will tell you what they can. That was all I wanted.) The girl (she didn't sound 21) said he was fine. I insisted he was NOT fine when I spoke to him last, but she interrupted me and transferred me to NURSE RATCHED. (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest reference.)





She spoke with anger in her voice when I told her my story, insisting his nurse HAD found him to be fine, took his blood pressure, all vital signs were fine. I told her that I HEARD the woman in the room, she was not there THREE MINUTES, and he was far from "fine" when she left him. She said he had simply fallen asleep on the phone, "That happens often with people his age," (He is in his sixties.)---I reply, "Okay, listen, I just want to tell you I heard everything that didn't happen in that room and if anything happens to him in the next 24 hours, I will bear witness to everything that has happened today." She replied, after a long pause, "Fine." We hung up.

My phone rang. It was OUR RN and she thanked me for the call and she would let his family know. We hung up. My phone rang. It was my friend. "Hi," he said softly. I asked him if he was okay. He said, "Yes. I was just sleeping." I ask, "Did the nurse make you call me?"

He said yes, she did, because she said I tried to call him and couldn't get an answer and "...you were upset." Just then a woman's voice said, "Don't say that!"

Then I asked him what he had done that day. He said just sleeping. I asked if he had spoken to me earlier. He said no. I asked him to count back from 1o. He began, but slowly, stopping at 7 too long a time for an accountant and expert bridge player. I then asked him to count back from 50. He did so. I asked him what my last name was, he thought for a few minutes, then got it right.

I ended by telling him we would talk again later. He is IN Rehab to evaluate why he falls. What if he had been walking just then? I should, but CAN NOT believe how those woman treated HIM or me. Can you?

Another woman here just was saved from a clot headed to her brain thanks to being on the phone with her daughter at the time. The daughter called 911. You never know what might be causing these problems, but to do NOTHING is, to me, unthinkable.