AFTER days of discussion, political intervention, red tape and bureaucratic roadblocks, Zeke Hilton has finally returned to his home.
Zeke doesn’t understand what all the fuss was about, but the story began four weeks ago.
The 25-year-old man with a profound disability due to a brain injury sustained in a tractor accident at two years of age, was placed in respite care at Nardy House while his mother Betsy Hilton took a well-earned break. Everything was going well for Zeke until he became unwell.
An ambulance was called and Zeke was transferred to the Bega District Hospital where he was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia.
Placed in a high dependency unit, Zeke was looked after by nursing staff and Nardy House staff trained in the specific and mostly unique needs of very high dependency people.
Gradually Zeke improved and was transferred to the children’s ward.
His discharge was discussed by his doctor Jeff Long, and Denise Redmond, the person responsible for him while his mother was away.
They decided Zeke should remain in hospital while he was receiving periodic doses of oxygen.
When he was back to normal condition on Saturday, November 1, Dr Long recommended he was fit for discharge and notified the appropriate people.
Ms Redmond agreed and both assumed Zeke would be transferred back to Nardy House.
But that was not the case.
The controllers of Nardy House - the Department of Ageing Disability and Home Care (DADHC) - refused to allow the facility to take him back.
According to Ms Redmond, “there was apparently paperwork that was not filled out by a speech therapist and a dietician”.
So began the saga that so disturbed Ms Redmond, Zeke, and his mother who was thousands of kilometres away unable to help her son.
As the person responsible for Zeke while Ms Hilton was away, Ms Redmond said her level of anxiety during the time increased to the point of distraction.
“This was just an obscene treatment of someone who cannot act for himself,” she said.
“It was an absolute disgrace.”
Apart from anything else, Ms Redmond said, “there was a huge waste of resources with Zeke taking up a children’s bed when we have an outbreak of whooping cough and chicken pox in the Valley”.
“The risk of Zeke attracting an infection was huge,” she said.
“And while the department fluffed around trying to give itself some bureaucratic credence, Zeke stayed in hospital.”
When Ms Redmond went public with her concerns, DADHC released a statement saying in part: “The department had a duty of care and could not accept the client’s relocation to Nardy House without a discharge plan or any assessments or recommendations concerning future management of nutrition or feeding practices. DADHC does not have the luxury of not relying on advice given by health professionals. Nardy House is a respite centre not a replacement hospital”.
Ms Redmond said that was “a litany of error and bureaucratic spin”.
“Zeke’s doctor, the same doctor who was present at his birth, signed the discharge papers,” she said.
“There is no other health professional who knows Zeke like he does and DADHC took the liberty of disregarding his advice.
“I want to emphasise there is no blame attached to Nardy House or the Bega Hospital, it is the bureaucrats that are the problem,” Ms Redmond said.
Finally when Ms Hilton returned on Thursday and with support from local member Andrew Constance, she told DADHC she wanted Zeke removed from hospital and sent back to Nardy House.
“As soon as I saw him I knew he was back to his normal self so I told them they had better let him go home,” she said.
“It wasn’t the hospital’s fault, and it wasn’t Nardy House’s fault, they wanted to take him, it was DADHC saying they couldn’t.
“They said he had ‘other medical needs’ but all Zeke’s supposed problems were fictitious.”
Ms Hilton said she was well-placed to know her son’s condition as “I have been caring for him for a long, long time”.
Ms Hilton asked why things could not go on as they were before she went away and Zeke went into care.
“It is ridiculous, why can’t they leave things alone,” she said.
“Zeke is well enough.”
Ms Hilton said the demands being placed on her were “outrageous”.
“DADHC really need to look at the policies and procedures they have in place when their patients have been in hospital and their doctor says they are ready for discharge,” she said.
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