Dinesh Patwardhan
Age : 76
Our nurse manager visited Mr. Patwardhan after a call from his daughter, Ms. Rekha. She needed help dressing her father’s pressure sores. Mrs. Rekha greeted him with incense sticks, attempting to combat the foul smell in her father’s room, which seemed locked for days. Unfortunately, the way she treated him is equivalent of torture, revealing the perils of old age and neglect. Mr. Patwardhan, in his early 70s and retired from wholesale business, faced loneliness after losing his wife to cancer. Despite having three daughters, all of them living in the same city, his old age was filled with pain. His troubles began with a stroke, leaving him bedridden with a paralysed right side. With his married daughters uninterested in his well-being, he had no choice but to rely on his eldest daughter, Mrs. Rekha.
Mrs. Rekha, the eldest daughter assumed the role of primary caregiver but provided inadequate care for her ailing father. Neglect became evident as she couldn’t find time to feed him, citing her job and two children as excuses. Patwardhan, who belongs to the Marwari business community never thought of going to a skilled nursing home instead stay put in the house with inadequate care arrangements. He couldn’t overcome the stigma of the “old age home” and that was his undoing. The heartbreaking reality showcased the challenges of unplanned aging and the unfortunate consequences of a daughter unable to prioritise her father’s well-being.
Takeaway
Insensitive children, Perfect case for institutional care, Stigma for institutional care, Unplanned old age, Inadequate care in old age.
