Eleanor’s carer unjustly vilified by the media
All GPs come across cases where a strong-willed person adamantly refuses to accept care outside the home, regardless of the strain it puts on the carers. If someone insists they do not want outside help, they cannot be forced to accept it. Otherwise it would be possible to haul all the drunkards out of their homes and put them into rehabilitation.
People in Evelyn Joel’s circumstances can be in strong denial of the dangers they face. Nothing can be done until an emergency makes it possible for the carer or professionals to initiate whatever remedies are then possible.
A person depressed because of a bereavement may lose the will to live and, with it, appetite. This, and their immobility, will cause them to become extremely constipated, and at some stage the overloaded bowel will begin to leak liquid faeces so that they are constantly lying in their own excrement.
One day is enough for a bed-bound patient to be in a terrible state, particularly if she removes her nappies, as Eleanor Joel has said of her mother. Anyone who doesn’t eat will ultimately die of starvation.
Eleanor’s account of how she tried to tempt her mother to eat again rings true: these are exactly the foods one would have suggested she try. It is high time that this vicious blame-game was stopped. The coroner will ultimately make a statement. Meantime, some charitable reality should be put in place, and those with the literal and verbal stones should slink away now.
Dr Mairead E MacConaill
Coryule
Brahalish
Durrus
Co Cork
