Did Kinmel Lodge Kill My Dad?
End of June/beginning of July 2022, our Dad was zonked. Totally wiped out for no reason, incapacitated. Overnight our precious father, John Richard Collinson (Rick to his friends) had gone from a singing and dancing, full of mischief and banter guy in his 80's to a comatosed shell of a man.
Above is the earliest sign that something was causing havoc with Dad's circulation.
Dad was so spaced out he could not open his eye lids as they weighed so heavy. It haunts me that I did not do anything except accept the storyline of Kinmel Lodge management and their team.
Dad was visited on 1st July 2022 by my sister Christine, Dad called her 'Chris'. She'd come visiting from Leeds, where she lives, for a week to see Dad. Chris had been coming to see Dad a day here and a couple of days there every month since her health situation and Covid rules had improved. It was not easy for her juggling visiting Dad and her terminally sick father-in-law.
However, Chris and her husband decided to get some condensed quality time in with her Dad only to be scuppered totally by a mystery incapacitation of her father. But, Dad was now 'monged out' (for want of a better explanation). Zonked in bed or zonked in a chair is all she got. Dad was now essentially bed ridden. No precious time with Dad. No experiences to cherish.
The same was for myself and my siblings too. At least I lived only 40 minutes away and could visit Dad two to three times a week. Our sister Rhian, lives in Newton-le-Willows would be visiting Dad every weekend for ages (Covid protocols permitting).
Kathy and her daughter Sam, would visit Dad at least once a month too. Dad was well visited and well loved. We were there for Dad as a family and he knew. He appreciated our love and we held dearly to the moments we had with him. His dementia was gradually getting worse and we realised that Dad would not be around forever.
Countless times we'd play Dad's playlist on Spotify via a Bluetooth loudspeaker as we pushed Dad in his wheelchair along the coastal path from Kinmel Lodge to the Hwb Cafe. We'd enjoy great coffee and a delightful frittata or a punchy cheese on toast. A cake would not go amiss either. We'd sit outside the cafe on the quay, after encouraging Dad to leave the carriage of his wheelchair and to walk a chunk of the way. Dad would tuck in and also join in the singalong as it continued. 'John Kanaka' from the movie "Fisherman's Friend" became a firm favourite of us and our friends on Facebook. Dad learned this (yes you can still learn stuff with dementia) from our 'through the window' visits during Covid lockdown.
It truly takes the loss of someone to really understand the pain of what their loss actually is. I'd always known the moments with Dad was getting less as a natural order of things. I'd cherish but also mentally prepare for when Dad would not on this mortal plain. But, one day he isn't here and then you know as a 'native' and not 'theorise' as a tourist.
Dad had gone overnight from someone having a huge amount of quality of life to someone with no quality of life. The switch happened late June 2022. Dad, in my eyes, had either had a huge advancement in dementia or his medications were wrong. I voiced my concerns with carers and senior managers several times over the next few days. Something was clearly wrong.
I question Risperidone again, as this made Dad drowsy when he was first put on the medication a year earlier. My questioning was met with a wall of "it is not the meds, it is probably a urine infection". As much as my instinct screamed "it is the medication" I caved into the experience of the 'experts'. Kinmel Lodge are capable professionals or the council would not pay them (partially) for a service, nor would Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) allow Kinmel Lodge to trade as they are the governing body, or would they?
Well it turns out they would and they will. There is a crisis and shortage in the care home sector. Kinmel Lodge has 20+ beds and where do you put all the residents of the residential home if not there? There are not enough beds now for the demand, let alone should the authorities start closing places down.
Then this email lands on 7th July 2022.
I rush into Kinmel Lodge. Admitted by Bekki (Assistant Manager) Dad has been overdosed TEN TIMES the amount of Risperidone TWICE A DAY FOR A WEEK. That is at least 14 overdosing errors made by several people. Dad was bed ridden and had also now developed a monster bed sore on the ball of his right foot. When sharing this photo on Facebook, friends who were in the caring profession were outraged and disgusted, calling Dad's so called 'care' as 'neglect'.
When Bekki tells me the situation and shows me the bed sore, of which at the time I didn't know enough about how bed sores occur and their potential deadly ramifications.
I am more solution oriented during this period. I am patient, you could say understanding to a fault. Fully aware that errors can and do happen. Especially when Kinmel Lodge have been short staffed (Sam Leuty the manager said they were not) but as a very regular visitor, I could see sickness shifts not being covered and staff being stretched.
During my 'Dixie Visits' I'd take in my Border Collie dog, who is a gentle soul, to see other residents whilst visiting Dad. They loved stroking and connecting with Dixie.
During my visits I noticed good experienced staff would leave for other jobs and the staff that remained would be stretched and manipulated into overtime, which in turn caused them and others to leave. I wanted to help as they were stretched and even offered Kinmel Lodge to come in and support them, as best as my limited skills would allow. Kinmel Lodge declined the offer as a potential conflict of interest, which I respected.
However, not sure on reflection that Kinmel Lodge's motives were so honourable. In fact, it could be argued that Kinmel Lodge's motives were more sinister. This became clearer on from 8th July 2022 when I received this email and just afterwards. Dad got a rise and recliner chair around this time too and his Risperidone medication was switched off. Dad did not have to be stuck in bed and he could take the pressure off the bed sore by elevating Dad's feet. The abbreviated jargon in the email means - d/n is District Nurse and p/a is problem area (I guess).
I spent the following days and evenings with Dad trying to coax him to have food and drink, which would be a pattern for the rest of his life.
In the evenings the short staffing screamed at me. The reason Kinmel Lodge did not want me there to help was clear. Put simply, I would see the circus that they were running and their corporare neglectful design was a matter of poor company profit based culture.
One day, Dad was put in this chair by hoist in the afternoon. He remained in the chair until midnight. When the night staff arrived (just after 8pm) I asked if we could put Dad back into bed. I was told that they could not do it now as there was only two staff on shift (for 23 people) and that the senior member of staff was upstairs "doing the meds". Yes you heard right. One person, it appears were administering medication by themselves. This flies in the face of any recommended government or safe medication dispensing practices.
So, it appears that the culture is normal to administer controlled substances in a manner fraught with risk. This is happening when I am there after my Dad has just been overdosed.
I reached out to someone in the care industry and asked for help saying "what can I do to get Dad out of Kinmel Lodge? If I leave him here I think they are going to kill him". Little did I know that 6 weeks after Dad's emergency evacuation from Kinmel Lodge that our special and precious Dad would be sent from hospital to a Nursing Home to die. Our Dad, the Old Goat, would die at approx 8 am on 30th August 2022.
I was not there for his passing, missed it by minutes. My sister Rhian and I, had been with Dad until between 2am and 3am. We went for a short sleep with a view to spending the rest of the Dad's five kids and granddaughter by his side. We held his hands until the warmth subsided. Then felt his chest until that cooled too. (See below these pictures for something else that will shock you to the core).
Kinmel Lodge overdosed Dad and have admitted it. They failed to turn him regularly when he was overdosed. This is why he got the monster bed sore. They left Dad in incontinence pads too long too as he got nappy rash. In Kinmel Lodge a family member or loved one can easily be abandoned and left uncared for. That time I was waiting until midnight for Dad to be hoisted (I did obviously offer to help move Dad and was ordered not to), there was a resident kicking off upstairs above where Dad's room was. He trashed his room. Hitting people and shouting. The fella screamed for ages and apparently this episode is not uncommon.
Read this below of another review on another site. Look at the empathy of the response from Kinmel Lodge. Are killers in our midst? Shipman may have been an individual killing on an industrial scale, but what about industry killing on a fragmented neglectful scale?
As the Coroner has opened an Inquiry into Dad's death of which he will not apportion blame (crazy I know), what good will that do to protect the public going forward?
The police (CID) are conducting a criminal investigation. A lot of errors and neglect have occurred, but, have enough cumulative acts occurred to reach a criminal threshold?
Conwy County Borough Council are conducting a safeguarding process, will this be a process of box ticking and things be left to continue as normal?
Care Inspectorate Wales can close places down but will they turn a blind eye again? Their letter to me suggests they aren't taking things seriously and why would they if deaths of negligence and manslaughter are actually part of normal business in their sector?
