Doctors (and medical pros) — is this standard practice?

So, here’s what’s going on.

On March 30th, this 79-year-old lady suffered a stroke and was rushed to the hospital. It wasn't until April 3rd—after four whole days!—that I found out she’s being transferred to a Small town in the US on April 9th. I went to visit her today. She can't move, but she can hear and understand everything you say to her. Some of the other patients in the room mentioned she was actually talking yesterday... well, not super clearly, but she was definitely communicating.

I’ve seen how things work with stroke recovery before, where people who stay in the hospital for more than ten days get sent off to some rehab facility or a specialized clinic, so I wasn't totally shocked by how fast they're moving to get her to this Small town in the US.

They aren't even providing physical therapy at the hospital right now because they’ve only got one physical therapist for a massive amount of patients.

The thing is, back on March 28th—just two days before this major stroke happened—she actually fell on some stairs and hit her head against a reinforced glass door at the entrance. Since I was the one who called 911, I made sure to tell the doctor that she’s been falling a lot lately on the street and getting hurt, and I honestly thought it might be linked to ischemia. But then, later that same night, her nephew just drove her home with nothing but a little cut on her forehead patched up.

She lives all by herself, usually. The hospital staff told me that this opening at the facility in the Small town in the US just popped up out of nowhere, and since they don't know when an opportunity like this will come around again, they rushed the decision to send her there.

Maybe I just don't know much about how they handle stroke patients, so if anyone here knows the drill, could you please give me a quick rundown of the procedure? Thanks so much.

So, how did your story end up? I noticed nobody actually answered your questions.
I'm asking because my grandfather might have had a stroke, and after seven days, they told us we needed to find him a place to stay or he’d be sent to a small town in the US. Unlike last year, he hasn't regained consciousness yet. They aren't calling it a coma or a vegetative state, just a deep impairment of consciousness. He’s been in the hospital for 14 days now and will be discharged soon. It feels weird to get such a diagnosis and then such a short hospital stay, especially since people in deeper comas spend months in the hospital. Did you have any luck with those spas in the Region in the US? You really have to fight for that, because stroke patients are entitled to rehab at those facilities. There’s a specialized center in the Region in the US where people in comas from car accidents or head surgeries usually go, but their website says they take stroke victims too. Of course, they keep telling us he can't go there. Check out this link and ask 😕http://www.krapinske-toplice.t-com.h...971d90-20.html

I actually saw a story about your grandpa today and thought about reaching out, but then I hesitated. But then you popped up and bumped my thread, so I figured, hey, might as well say hi!

First off, I am so incredibly sorry about your grandfather. Dealing with a stroke is hard enough, but it’s just heartbreaking to see how much things have changed with the healthcare system lately. It feels like they try to discharge patients with these kinds of issues almost immediately. Like I mentioned before, with the lady I was talking about, they had already decided to move her to a Small town in the US by the fourth day at most. When I went to visit her—which was about eight days after her stroke—she was still conscious, and the other ladies in the room told me she was even speaking coherently up until that day.

The woman who prompted me to write all this... well, she passed away. It was maybe seven to ten days after she got moved to that Small town in the US. I can't shake the feeling that she was just left to fade away because nobody really wanted to step up and take responsibility for her care. Honestly, I’m just her neighbor now, trying to find new homes for all her cats.

I know this sounds terrible to say, but when I think back to people I’ve seen in hospitals who were in a coma for ages, the speed at which they move people out of the big city hospitals just doesn't make sense to me. On the flip side, I know friends of mine whose parents stayed in the hospital much longer because their families really fought for them, and they'd eventually get sent off to a nice rehab center or a spa. But with your grandfather, it seems like they're rushing him "out of sight" just as fast. I don't know if it's some new hospital protocol or if it's just because the healthcare system is such a mess right now and they're trying to cut costs on every single hospital bed.

Anyway, please, just keep pushing. You have to be persistent if you want to make sure your grandpa gets what he needs.

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I feel terrible about what your neighbors are going through. It’s been 17 days now since my grandfather was admitted, and they want to transfer him to a small town in the US in just a few days. Honestly, it feels way too soon given how he is—he hasn't even regained consciousness yet. After seven days, they started telling us to look for placement elsewhere. It feels like they're just stalling until they can move him out. If you have the right "connections," you could actually extend his stay or get things sorted at a facility in a Region in the US. Some people stay in the hospital forever over minor issues. I know cases where people were in a coma for months at a hospital like Vice Vukov, and his wife fought it for six months before someone influential stepped in to find a solution. It's sad that there's such a massive gap in how people are treated. I get why people turn to bribes in these situations; sometimes it feels like the only way out, provided you find the right person to talk to (which we still haven't found 😢).
We’ve checked out tons of private assisted living facilities, but they either don't have openings or they lack actual medical care, which makes us nervous about leaving him there. We visited the facility in that small town in the US, but they wouldn't even let us see the wards. Based on the stories I've heard about that place, it doesn't seem like a great option either, even if it does have a doctor on site. We've tried everything, but we're hitting walls. They won't even let us speak to the director. The doctor claims the law mandates a 10-day limit for hospital stays, but I can't find any law that says that! The Social Security Administration says it's all an individual assessment and there is no such law. We'd be willing to pay the hospital a daily rate $50 plus medication, but the doctor insists the daily cost is $500?!
You're right. You can't help but feel like people are just abandoned, like they aren't worth the effort, just tossed out onto the street😕