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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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G'morning. My Friend Was Diagnosed With Alzheimer's Disease 5 Years

G'morning. My friend was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 5 years ago & has been living in a very nice care center where she was in a contained assisted living unit (memory-loss lite). They recently finished a full-scale "Memory Care" unit & moved her into it 4-5 mo. ago. She started "acting out" as they called it, but was diagnosed with pancreatitis & she had surgery to remove her gallbladder (full of stones). The week after she was discharged, she returned to the hospital with norovirus. Hospice was called for 24 hr. care for 5 days & she had to be moved to a small "end-of-life care" center. Her kids came for a final visit & she stopped eating or drinking anything ~ 3-4 weeks ago. Hospice took her off all medications. Today her daughter-in-law called to say she went to visit & was shocked to find Judy was sitting up eating a sandwich. She asked me to research one of Judy's meds - Seroquel, an anti-psychotic drug, which the FDA not only fined the company for off-label uses (settled for $520M), but also put a "Black Box Warning" on it. SO... that's the back story.
Now, since it was never to be given to an elderly person with dementia, especially Alzheimer's dementia, which increases the risk of aspirating, what advice would you give me to pass on to her son & D-in-L?
Thank you ~ Eva Cram
posted on Wed, 21 Jun 2017
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