A cat named Oscar, who was raised in a nursing home, has an uncanny ability to tell when someone has just a few hours left to live, according to the Associated Press. How Oscar wound up in a nursing home, the article doesn't say, but he certainly is making the most of it. Oscar, who was adopted as a kitten by the nursing staff, began to make his own rounds in the nursing home after he’d been there about six months. Normally, he is quite stand-offish. However, the nursing home staff has learned that if he jumps up on a resident’s bed, and stays there, that means that the resident has less than four hours to live.

Over the past year and one-half, Oscar has made the correct call in 25 cases.

“He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview.

Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home, is quoted as saying that she was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. “While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near. Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.”

So, how does Oscar do it? Check out a discussion of this point in Medicinenet.com, in which Dr. Teno is quoted as saying that it is possible that "he is following the patterning behavior of the staff. .. . This is an excellent nursing home. If a dying person is alone, the staff will actually go in so the patient is not alone. They will hold a vigil. . . .Oscar has seen that pattern repeated many times, . . .and may be mimicking it."

"Animals are intuitive," she says. "We don't give them enough credit." One of the first cases, Teno says, involved a resident who had a blood clot in her leg. "Her leg was ice cold," Teno says. "Oscar wrapped his body around her leg," she says, and stayed until the woman died.

This suggests that Oscar was trying to save the woman's life. The thing that struck me about the reporting of Oscar is that no mention is made of Oscar saving anyone's life. If Oscar lived in a hospital, or some other type of health facility, he would be able to alert a doctor or nurse in time to save a patient's life. Because he's in a nursing home, it apparently goes without saying that all these deaths are expected and unavoidable. I wonder if he is frustrated that his vigils don't seem to prevent the deaths. Don't let it throw you, Oscar. You may not realize it, but just making sure that no one dies alone is enough.

Click here to read the article, which also discusses other possible explanations.


Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com

I invite you to check out the blog competition - Maria Amelia, a 95 year old grandmother from Spain. She is reported to be the world’s oldest blogger, and she racks up 51,000 hits a month.

Maria is evidently the straight-talking type. She says that her blog was given to her by her “stingy” grandson, as a birthday present. What a great gift, though! This is a great way for them to spend time together. She talks, and he helps her type her entries in.

Maria blogs about current politics, her daily life, and memories of past events, in a stream-of-consciousness format. In her last entry, she reports that she is leaving for a 15-day vacation in Brazil! Hey, don’t forget your sunscreen.

Her blog is www.amis95.blogspot.com. You can read it in English by pasting her url into Yahoo’s translation website - www.babelfish.yahoo.com.

You can check out a video of her with her grandson on youtube.com.




Read the OhmyNews International article,, where she chats up the reporter in question/answer format. Here are a few excerpts:

"Q: Are you pleased that you have achieved international fame as the world's oldest blogger?

A: Yes, I am pleased, but if there were others older than me, I'd be pleased too.

Q: When did you post your first blog entry?

A: On Dec. 23, when I was given the blog. It was my 95th birthday and my grandson gave me it as a gift. Then we got to work. He told me to start talking and I did, and within minutes people were there talking to me! I was amazed, I'd never have believed it. I thought two or three people might answer me...

Q: What made you decide to become a blogger?

A: For something to do. I thought it was a nice thing to do, amusing, entertaining... I wanted to meet new people, and now I meet people all over the world! When I started, I didn't realize it would be people everywhere, or I might not have gone ahead, but now I have got used to it."

To read the Ohmynews interview, click here.

Reinventing yourself is said to be the key to enjoying life as you age. Maria Amelia has proved that point.

*
Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com

Thanks to Ray Fernandez, at www.elderabusehelp.org, who first blogged her story.

What would you do if you realized that your incidents of “forgetfulness” are actually manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease or other memory-impairment disease? Would you live with it and stay in your home with your family for as long as you could? Or would you make the decision to enter a nursing home now so as to spare your family the grief that comes with such a decision? That’s the premise from which the newly released film “Away From Her” starts. The film is directed by Canadian actress Sarah Polley in her directorial debut. It stars Julie Christie as the elderly Fiona, and follows Fiona as she makes the decision to enter a nursing home. The film is set in rural Canada, so it is a Canadian nursing home, which is much better than the typical nursing home in the United States. The Canadian setting leaves the film free to focus, not on the horrors of nursing home life, but rather on the life-changing effects of separation and memory loss.

Says Producer Simone Urdl, "The role of Alzheimer's in the film is a metaphor for how memory plays out in a long-term relationship: what we chose to remember, what we choose to forget."

On the NPR website, you can find Terry Gross's interview with Director Sarah Polley and with Olympia Dukakis, who also stars in the movie. In the Polley interview, she describes how Julie Christie had been reported to have memory problems of her own for years, of unknown origin, but how it did not affect Christie's beautiful performance of the Fiona character. For those interviews, click here.

Click here to read A.O. Scott’s review "Time's Wounds and the Heart's" from the New York Times. The New York Times site also has a short video clip of the film.


Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com

Today, I salute Harry S. Truman, who was born on May 8, 1884. One of the first politicians to propose universal health care, he coined the phrase, “The buck stops here.” He meant it.

Among my favorite Truman quotes:

"The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all."

"I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."

"I've said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!"

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

"Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything."

Harry, we can all learn a lot about advocacy from you. To learn more about Harry Truman, read the Wikipedia entry.


Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com

What happens to the elderly residents of a residential care facility when the facility decides to close? Do existing laws provide adequate legal protection to elders in those situations? Look at what's happening in Oakland, California to 105-year-old Josephine Dukes, as reported by the Oakland Tribune.

Mrs. Dukes surely thought that the Matilda Brown Home would be her home for the rest of her life when she arrived there four years ago. After all, the Matilda Brown Home, in the Temescal district of Oakland, has been operating as an assisted-living facility for low-income women since 1928.

Mrs. Dukes is remarkedly healthy, mentally intact, and still walks with the use of a cane. But, life has thrown her some curve balls the last few years.

Josephine Dukes was born in 1902 in Mississippi, where she says the doctor told her mother that she was “too small and weak to survive.” That's a good one! She graduated from college and was a teacher for many years. She and her husband moved to California during World War II, where she and her husband had an income tax business and owned rental properties. “She was very active in the West Oakland community helping other people” according to her legal guardian, Tommie Lindsie.

In the 1990s, her home and rental properties were sold after her husband passed away. She should have been sitting pretty, but she was the victim of financial elder abuse. She lost most of her life savings when she loaned a “friend” money to pay off a lien in the 1990s. But, as she says, “I was a victim of a rip-off scheme.”

So, at 97 years of age, she went back to work, working 20 hours a week at the Housing Authority telephoning other seniors to check on their well being. She retired from that job at age 100. She now relies only on her late husband’s Army pension of $700 a month.

Mrs. Dukes and 16 other residents of the Matilda Brown Home were notified on March 10, 2007 that the home will be closing its doors June 15, 2007. The nonprofit Ladies Home Society, which runs the home, says that dwindling finances and escalating expenses are forcing the closure. They are expecting Mrs. Dukes’ legal guardian, Tommy Lindsey, to find her a place to live, but with her limited finances, it is not easy, and certainly not with just 90 days notice.

Says Tommy Lindsey, “This [closure notice] all came about so fast. Here we thought she was settled for life. They’ve given us an organization we can contact, and I’m trying to get the paperwork together. But, gosh, Mrs. Dukes being 105 and having to be moved back and forth like a vagabond - this shouldn’t happen.”

Yes, why the big rush when evidently the home has had financial problems going back to 2002? The head of the Ladies Home Society told the Tribune reporter, “There’s obviously the question of whether three months notice was enough . . . If it had been five or six months, we would have lost our best employees, and would have been operating at a greater and greater loss as residents moved out. We thought three months would give everybody ample time to find another place.”

Does this sound like they decided that if someone’s ox needed to be gored, it would be the elderly residents', such as Josephine Dukes, and NOT the nonprofit corporation's? I hate to criticize a nonprofit with such a great history of community service (they even provided a subsidy of $2,000 a month to Mrs. Dukes so that she could live there on her monthly pension), but that's what it sounds like to me. Given that the residents are low income, the nonprofit knows that it will not be easy for them to relocate.

Imagine what happens to residents of assisted living facilities run by FOR-PROFIT CORPORATIONS that are closing. Very often the residents get a few weeks notice.

Mrs. Dukes’ situation may be the kick in the pants the California legislature needs in order to pass laws guaranteeing elders legal protections when assisted living facilities close. Assembly Bill 949 (Paul Krekorian) is coming before the California Assembly Human Services Committee on April 24, 2007. The proposed legislation would require residential care facilities for the elderly to prepare an evaluation of the relocation needs of each resident PRIOR to giving the residents 90 days notice of closure of the facility. The evaluation would have to include "a listing of other facilities that are available and adequate to meet the resident’s needs" per the text of the bill. The closing facility would have to pay a relocation fee of $2,500 to each resident, to help defray moving costs. The closing facility will be subject to daily fines if they don’t follow the relocation requirements.

To read the text of AB 949, click here.

If anything, the question is whether the proposed law goes far enough, and whether 90 days notice is enough. 90 days notice isn’t enough unless the closing facility has for each resident that will be displaced the names of comparable facilities that are ready, willing, and able to take on each resident, and which the resident can afford. A list of places that “in principle” are available is meaningless.

Send your thoughts about AB 949 to Jim Beall, Chair Assembly Human Services Committee, State Capitol, Room 4206, Sacramento CA 95814, fax (916) 319-2189, and copy California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), the advocacy group that spearheaded the legislation, at fax (415) 777-2904.

In response to the Tribune’s April 14 article, community members immediately offered Mrs. Dukes spare rooms in their homes, and a neighborhood group Friends of Matilda Brown has been formed to try to stop the home from closing altogether.

Thanks to Angela Hill of the Oakland Tribune, for her excellent coverage, which has brought Mrs. Dukes' situation to light. To read her articles, click here and click here.


Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com