I cannot begin to make you understand how incompetent, unprofessional, and utterly dangerous the ER staff at this Podunk hospital are. Especially Kyley Marks. I'm not sure what this woman's title even is. But I can tell you one thing: she's not an attorney, a doctor, and certainly not qualified to diagnose dementia. Yet, she tried to wear all three of those hats last night and could've cost my father-in-law his life.
My husband's dad is in his late 60s and has been under the care of my husband and his siblings since 2018 because of early onset dementia coupled with chronic substance abuse and acute mental illness. My husband has had power of attorney for his dad since 2018. He does everything for him- pays his bills, makes his dr's appts, orders his groceries, provides/arranges all transportation. In all these years, we have never had a single entity go against the POA .
Two days ago, my FIL was formally diagnosed with Alzhiemer's by a specialist at KU, confirmed via cognitive testing and blood test. After 2 years of sobriety, my FIL took the news very hard and relapsed. He was drunk for 2 days. On the second day, he was threatening to commit suicide. He has a long history of suicide attempts, as well as hospitalizations for mental health issues.
On top of threatening to commit suicide to all 3 of his children, he was endangering my sister-in-law and her kids whom he lives with because he is unable to live independently. We had to call the police. Lawson PD was great. They listened and took my FIL for an eval at ESH. Looking back, we should've known to request that he be taken to a reputable hospital instead.
At the ER, NOTHING was listened to except for my FIL, who was still heavily intoxicated. At this point we'd come into contact with Kyley. She had us rush to have notarized affidavits signed stating my FIL's behavior and his threats of harming himself. While we were at the notary's office, Kyley called back multiple times. One of the times she argued with my husband that our POA was "too old" and was from out-of-state, which is just plain stupid. Ours does not expire, which is explicitly stated in the language of our document. It also doesn't matter what state the POA was made.
We'd just spoken to our attorney in Louisiana where we lived (with my FIL in our home) when the POA was signed. My husband asked if we needed to petition to have the POA switched to full guardianship and he explained to us that the answer was no and with the parameters of the existing POA, it automatically acts as conservatorship since my FIL is to the point of not being able to manage his own affairs. Kiley relentlessly argued with my husband about this. It was clear that she didn't read the document. Insane to see someone that works in healthcare work so hard to endanger a patient. Especially when his entire family was telling this hospital that he was a danger to himself.
This is probably my "favorite" part... Kyley told my husband while arguing with him that my FIL "clearly doesn't have dementia," sighting the fact the he's able to have a conversation with her as her argument for diagnosis. As if she's qualified to do that in the first place. Apparently, she's lacking in education and training so much that she thinks a man with Alzhiemer's is incapable of having a somewhat normal conversation. Our family was enraged by this. Regardless of my FIL's communication skills, this is a man that can't find his way back to a hotel room, gets lost in parking lots and on walks, and doesn't remember meeting people after after two days. It's been like this for years! My husband got off the phone and immediately sent Kiley my FIL's records and test results from KU that immovably prove that the man has Alzhiemer's.
Guess what Kiley did instead of doing her job after receiving all these documents and affidavits? Turned him loose - still drunk with no ride home and nowhere to go. Upon release, FIL immediately Facetimed standing in the middle of road in traffic screaming, crying, threatening suicide again and the police had to be...
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