Was my mother's cause of death really from Alzheimer's?
The way you describe your mother it is hard to believe she was considered to have end stage Alzheimer's disease. That is certainly not consistent with her ability to make decisions.
Thanks for your input. She was not input, but I think the hospital may have simply listed her history from previous hospital reports. A resident or intern from the teaching hospital put her diagnosis down a year and a half earlier as end stage dementia because she had Sundowners syndrome and he was not familiar with it.
It now looks like I may have to retain an attorney to resolve this. I have a sister with some psychiatric problems who could cause immense legal/financial problems for the family if this cause of death remains.
there is also a general medical tendency to describe people diagnosed as having alzheimer's as having died of alzheimer's -- whatever that would actually mean., the reality is that most people with alleged alzheimer's actually die of the usual things of old age (cancer, heart attacks, strokes and so on).
i'm not a doctor or a nurse. but from my experience with many elders with dementia, your mother does not even seem to qualify for "dementia" as a diagnosis. many elders without dementia suffer a temporary hospital delirium from a sort of transplant trauma. this is well-recognised by now and pewople recover from it and yet stupid medical people label it alzheimer's. yes, damn it, they should be sued. alas, in our society sometimes suing is all that stops poor medical treatment.
