Page created by: Scott Perkinson

My mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2020. She had a severe hypertension condition where her Systolic soared into the 200s for years before that which I believe contributed to her brain health. She was diagnosed with Tremors around the same time period, and shortly after that he started having memory lapses and neurological testing in 2020 showed cognitive decline. She had severe anxiety, sleep problems and acute depression. She then reported unsteadiness on then was diagnosed with Oropharyngeal dysphagia where she was having trouble with swallowing her food. She had home health speech therapy in attempts to strengthen her throat she was diagnosed with movement disorders and she was unstable enough to where her legs would not allow her to lift her feet, and she was diagnosed with a history of falls in this time period in 2021 she was diagnosed with polyneuropathies as well as loss of appetite and she was diagnosed with severe protein calorie malnutrition as her desire for food was greatly diminished. She then was classified as having full walking
disability and major depressive disorder. Her falls got worse where she was injuring her head and abdomen. She realized she needed to be in an assisted living facility and moved into one in 2022. She was very independent and felt isolated and alone in the facility as she was unable to participate in the social activities and her physical/occupational/speech therapies were conducted in her apartment due to walking/movement
disorders. She was very unhappy with the food at her facility as she had little appetite to begin with, and she decided that she was going to go back to her house and try to get her own home health services such as daily activities of someone preparing breakfast,helping her bathing,and light cleaning. I was extremely concerned about her returning home, so we purchased a security/video camera system where every room was monitored and I could see and talk to her directly through the cameras. Due to staffing issues she was unable to get the services she really needed from the vendor. The security system had a panic button that summoned EMS, and one day in August 2023 she hit that button, as she felt she was simply unable to swallow. It was determined at the hospital that she had bilateral pneumonia due to aspiration of food as she had an esophageal obstruction. She was in the Surgical ICU as they had determined her esophagus was not emptying into her stomach and they had to perform a balloon procedure to open up the opening between stomach and esophagus. In the months previous at home she was having hallucinations both auditory and visual which are a feature of Parkinson’s. Upon discharge from the hospital she was discharged into a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation but her weight by that time had dropped to less than 90 muscles were not strong enough for her to do any effective physical therapies,so she was discharged into a regular nursing home which was part of the same facility. A few weeks into the nursing facility she requested hospice. She was admitted to hospice and her neurological functioning according to hospice was beginning to shut down. Her Anxiety was controlled with Ativan every 2 hours and her pain was completely controlled by Hydromorphone. She lost her battle with Parkinson’s on October 24, 2023 at 0630 Am as I was en route to the Philadelphia Airport. Mom wanted to donate her whole body for Parkinson’s Research as so much is still unknown but she could not qualify due to the recent pneumonia. I am a Medical Laboratory Scientist and felt that donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation in her name would have pleased her as the quality of research projects would potentially help other human beings in the struggle to find effective treatments.