Reporter TVI: Patients tied, who "look like the Lord of the Marches"

The imposing buildings of the greatest Mercy of the Azores do not allow you to imagine what is going on inside, where Continuing Care works. On the third floor, for example, the floor is full of traps.

For the doctor Teixeira Veríssimo, specialist in geriatrics of the Coimbra University Hospital, contacted by TVI "beyond the degrading aspect, [o piso] is really dangerous for the elderly, because they are more likely to fall, for many reasons, they drag their feet, and when they stumble over something, they have more trouble avoiding falling, protecting themselves. " [19659002] Faced with the images of this unit of Ponta Delgada, it is imperative: "In 1961, it happened in any house where old people live."

In addition to the floor problem, it is in this unit that the Ponta Delgada Misericórdia laundry operates, where the images to which TVI has access show the containers, buckets and even the laundry on the floor . This is a situation that causes the doctor Teixeira Veríssimo to conclude that the facilities do not have the necessary "minimum conditions".

There are more problems, including safety issues. It's in the view of anyone: fleshy threads, holes.

It's happening today.

It's happening today.

Indeed, it does not have the minimum requirements to function as a unit of continuing care " says Teixeira Veríssimo.It happened many times.

My Mother said, "When I got there, I saw your Father tied with one hand on one side, one hand on the other. They were tied to one bed and another. He appeared to be the Lord of the Marches " reports a relative of a deceased patient.

A member of my family went there and he had his leg draining the blood because he was tied up. He, poor, distressed. We took him the high chair, the high chair that he had at home, we took him to the Santa Casa, so that he could have better conditions. And yet they mistreated him. They only mistreated him " adds

geriatric specialist Teixeira Veríssimo assures that the current guidelines are in the sense of not using physical restraint. use, only under very exceptional conditions. There are ways to control people who are finally agitated, until they have dementia, by chemical methods, by pharmacological methods, or by reserving physical restraint for truly exceptional situations. . " 19659002] But remedies are something that often do not exist in this unit of the Holy House of Mercy of Ponta Delgada.The drugs are missing or out of date.

Whatever the drug … for the illness of the sick, for the tension … there was none, it did not work. As simple as that. There was no kind of worry, " denounced a former employee of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Ponta Delgada

 
 

If they do not take medication at night, to rest, of course they will not be able to sleep. And then they become more agitated. And then, how do they become more agitated, what do they do? They tie their wrists in bed for the wearer to sit there. Imagine staying all night with your wrists attached to the bed. Imagine " reveals a current employee.

Another serious flaw, assumed by almost everyone who works or works there, is the difficulty of taking patients to the hospital." This is an example from the drama of an elderly woman who fell from a chair and was denied a trip to the emergency room.

She had an open forehead, which urgently required suture.And then the chief nurse, as nothing was done without the consent of the chiefs, said: no, no.He will not take points.This will take a bandage there and tomorrow it's better. "

" You got cold feet "

A woman who had gone to visit the grandparents, when she left, was surprised by the cries of two women. They were sitting in wheelchairs and back to back in a room near the elevator.

We cried and we were unable to speak. I turned to the one on the back of this lady. His feet were bare, he did not go down frozen feet. I put it on, I calmed her down, I asked her what was going on. She said that she could not sit still, because she was full of faeces and urine, and her body was frozen and she was in this position since eight o'clock in the morning. He had been shouting for hours and nobody was showing up, " reports a relative of two users of the institution.

 
 

These are old people treated miserably, and this lasts a long time " summarizes a former employee

Complaints also on the island of Terceira

The reports do not hide indignation with the state of affairs at Santa Casa de Ponta Delgada.But reports of abuse and neglect also reach the island of Terceira.

João Barcelos da Costa lived his life in Baleeiro sea of ​​other tides, was the most famous harpoon of the island and one of the most famous of the Azores.He learned to play the Portuguese guitar.And at 80, he does not hide the happiness of being accompanied by his grandson.

João Costa went to the continuous care of mercy in Angra do Heroísmo, after a severe bronchopneumonia.It was two long months. did, she held up for a month and 19 days

I asked my daughter to let me At home I asked them to do everything they could to get me out, the sooner the better, the sooner the better, otherwise I would die! "

In Santa Casa de Angra there are more than one hundred and fifty elderly people, most of them occupy the valence of the house, but there are 88 people who live in continuous care. lack of equipment and especially people at work

If there is a shortage of staff, the care can not be good. It's impossible to be good " sums up a former chief of nursing of the institution.

 
 

If we devote the time that each person deserves to be dedicated to him, we would not be able to reach all of them. " The supplier of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Angra do Heroísmo ensures that the institution has" the human resources it needs to be are defined in the reports that are determined by the existing regulations. "

Cold water baths and two falls of windows

Here, a simple bath can be synonymous with torture.Whether in summer or in winter, the bath is often taken with the water. cold water.

The users, the poor, some scream, the others complain, the others can not say much because they hardly speak, and the families do not know it. "[19659014]

In the space of just over a year, two people fell from the window of the building Misericordia to Angra. The last took place on July 29, 2017. It was during the night. The patient was 41 years old.

This was not an elderly person. He was even a young man. A young man with an oncological disease, who was continually cared for. "

The version is contradicted by the family," says Bento Barcelos, a supplier of the Holy House of Angra do Heroísmo. The father of the man refused to be filmed but told what he had been told

The son got up at night to go to the bathroom, found an open door, went by error and fell helplessly on the ground. was rushed to the Holy Spirit Hospital of Terceira Island. She saved this time. He would die a few months later as a result of cancer.

It is only after this second fall that locks were placed on the windows. Before, Ivone had already been thrown from the second floor. A fall that, at the time, was hidden.

Situations taken in internal documents, such as bad practice nurses by the team of Santa Casa de Angra, were detected and denounced.

Situations more than sufficient to understand the revolt and the difficulty that some The professionals of the largest hospital on the island of Terceira assume to have by sending patients to the Unit of Continuing Care of the Misericórdia de Angra

Former men of first and former second

We return to S. Miguel. In the Misericórdia of Ponta Delgada, the mistreatment is almost generalized, although there are small differences. On the first floor, the structural improvements made by the troika in the half-year where she was in the institution, provided a better space than the others. Perhaps this is proof that the mission to radically change the conditions and how to treat the users will have been halfway.

The first floor is known as "VIP floor" and has nothing to do with the images of the other floors. In practice, this means that in the Mercy of Ponta Delgada, there are old men of the first and second age.

You never act in this institution out of respect for the wearer who needs us. It acts in the necessary appearance, with the family of the person, the family to which the person belongs. It's according to the capital. The actual, economic, financial capital that the person represents for the home " denounces a former psychologist of the institution.

The complaint is corroborated by a former official: " People who are well Treated are those this family will see. Or some knowledge, or … there are classes! It's as if it's a class: low class, middle class … For some there is everything and for the most needy there is nothing. "

A former employee reports examples of gross negligence occurring in various departments of Mercy" The pools that bathed the sick have not been disinfected. They went from sick to sick, even those who had HIV, had herpes, had any kind of contagious diseases. The ponds have not been disinfected, "he says

" I did not know if I was going home if I went to the police "

That's a reality seen by many employees. For some just after the first day of work. "The day I entered, I did not know if I was going home or going to the police.It's really literal, as I tell you." saw me banging my head, stuffing the spoon in my mouth, grabbing my hair and putting it in my mouth " says a former employee.

In the emergency room of the hospital Divino Espírito Santo in Ponta Delgada, come from the continuing care units of the island of S. Miguel all come from the same site. "There is no justification that in a holy house, in three months, 14 patients have been transferred to the emergency.This, beware, in a unit with 40 beds, when we have a unit with 20 beds, in the same island, who did not transfer, "explains Margarida Moura, Coordinator of the Continuing Care Network.

A TVI has successfully achieved many of these patients' clinical processes, which he will not identify, and found that patients, almost all of whom arrived from Santa Casa, suffer very similar problems: they are very weak and skinny men and women, some very malnourished, despite the fact that they have a nasogastric tube for food.

It is also emphasized in these clinical records that almost all patients have reached very dehydrated emergencies.

This is a complete alert for negligence, also found this year among users of Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Ponta Delgada. Four of these cases were reported to the Prosecutor's Office of Ponta Delgada

In fact, the judicial system is charged with charges against the Santa Casa de Ponta Delgada. The first arrived in 2015 and the last is the one of aggression to Mr. Antonio on June 11 this year.

But from the answer, we also learned that there are three separate cases and that the dozens of complaints filed by the Continuing Care Network in 2016, are in the initial phase of the 'I'. investigation.