Palm Garden of Orlando

My mother suffered a stroke on September 11th, 2017. She spent about a week at the Florida Hospital South. She was transferred to a Rehab at the Winter Park Memorial Hospital. The place was run down ... horrific! One of my husband’s client worked at Palm Garden in Orlando and suggested we visit the place. The place looked like a resort, so I transferred my mother to their facility.She was supposed to get medical coverage up to 100 days due to the huracan Irma. I switched her insurance to Medicaid and while our application was being processed, she stayed at the nursing home.The person handling the Medicaid process took almost five months. They requested document after document. I didn’t have my mother’s SS card but they knew she received Medicare! I guess, while we are waiting for Medicaid to approve my mother, they wanted me to surrender her two pension checks but the representative never said that to me. It is common sense , you don’t start making payments on a car note until it’s approved, right?? When my mother was finally approved, they started harassing me with a bill of close to $5k. Palm Garden gets a minimum of $10k a month per bed! I had to be there from the moment they got my mother out of bed until bedtime everyday. I hired a lady part time to watch over my mother five hours on Saturdays and Sundays. My mom is paralyzed and most of the time they would leave the tray with her breakfast by the foot of the bed. When ever the CNA finished distributing breakfast to all the residents, they would come back and help my mom eat a nasty, cold and hard oatmeal, cold muddy like coffee (she was in some kind of a liquid thickener) and they wouldn’t dissolve the nasty coffee powder right! My mom’s roommate would keep me up to date. I kept my mom company for the long eight months she was there. At one point, she refused to eat their nasty food and I began to cook early in the morning and bring it in a thermos. She lost 30 some pounds. She would vomit every day after breakfast and she was kept sedated! She would be in a deep sleep all day and no one could give an explanation. The residents didn’t get water and they had one lady that was so severely dehydrated that when the husband rushed her to the hospital , they had to do surgery and cut so many inches off her intestines. The poor 53 years old lady went down the hill in that place and within a year she passed away. Their nursing staff is not prepared to deal with patients with such complications.I have been caring for my mother at my home since May of 2018. She eats well, she gained her weight and only takes a short nap in the afternoon.If you care for your elders DO NOT take them to Palm Garden! You have options and help! Do a search before making a decision.