Magnolia Hospice

I must share our experience and you can decide. A social worker at Arlington Memorial hospital recommended Magnolia as they took care of her mother. We only heard positive things and felt we could trust them with our 91 year old father. This is when the real nightmare started. Dad's nurse was Ashley, everything went smoothly until the last 72 hours of his life. Ashley told me and my sister that she wouldn't be surprised if dad passed that day. I immediately was alarmed and panicked asking if we would have nurse with us at the end. Ashley answered "no, we usually don't do that" and said once he passes to call Magnolia and they would send someone out to pronounce him dead. We had absolutely no idea we would be left alone with him. She left. Around 1am dad was in excruciating pain and we couldn't get his pain under control. We didn't understand why he was hurting like he was after we administered all his pain medication we were instructed to administer. Me and my sister where running around in a panic trying to help our dad. He was bringing his legs up, grinding his teeth and screaming. We had NO IDEA why he was hurting and suffering like he was. We called Magnolia and they sent a nurse out. She was even puzzled as to why he wasn't getting any relief from his pain meds. She left and went back home. Nurse Ashley doesn't show up till around 12:30pm the next day. (After a staff meeting) Her attitude was bad from the start. With each question me and my sister had she contradicted everything, she also mentioned his "rattle" wasn't normal and I over heard her say something about suction. She administered the medication for secretions. She left and we were alone once again. Hours later as I sat by his bed his eyes shot open and was grabbing at anything he possibly could. He turned blue and his tongue was white. I knew then he was exasperating. We had NOTHING to suction him, we were frantic and trying to help him. I honestly thought my dad was going to die from choking to death. We called Magnolia and told them what had happened and they walked us thru to give him more medication and ordered him a suction machine. Ashley was sent back out with a better attitude. She gave us the choice to ride it out or start with the morphine but he would pass quickly. We understood. Dad passed at 5:54pm. His suction machine came 1 hour before he died. The continuous care nurse came a HOUR after he died. Magnolia hospice our dad down and was far from keeping him comfortable. Me and my sister are NOT nurses. We should have had a "Continuous Care Nurse" with us with THEM administering his medications!! He needed them every hour and we were doing that on our own!!???? This experience has made his passing far worse. He deserved so much better care than what he received. Dad suffer with the pain, then aspirated.. We will never forget how traumatic his passing was. Unfortunately there are no do-overs.

Magnolia, to my understanding, was hired on at the recommendation of my mother-in-law's doctor. I would not recommend this company, personally. We were honestly spoiled with the care another hospice company, Compassus, gave my father-in-law at his passing a month prior. They knew the passing was coming and were able to contact us to be there. They stayed on-site all day, played music, made sure my MIL was holding his hand. And this was the weekend before Christmas, so I'm sure they wanted to be anywhere else. Magnolia just wasn't on their level of service, nor as knowledgeable. We had to make pests of ourselves to get updates about her condition or learn of their visits. Magnolia staff became complacent when she didn't die within the 24 hours they initially predicted, especially because her vitals were consistently good. Then the unthinkable happened. Our MIL passed away with no loved ones present, which was her greatest fear. Even though Magnolia had evaluated her just hours earlier, they apparently had no clue. Or they had no interest in contacting us to tell us to come. Either way it is a travesty. We never heard from Magnolia the day she passed, over ever since. I gave two stars, because they weren't completely bad, they did prescribe medicine; they did change the bed and give her a bath. But from the family member's perspective, they were lacking in some of the most critical areas that no apology could ever make up for.