Garden Estates of Temple

We came to Garden Estates to visit several times with my mom. Her health was declining and unable to stay alone. Based on our several visits my family and I agreed this would be a perfect match for my mom. When they did the assessment they way this certain person was introduced she was a nurse. Later I found out Claudia is not a nurse but med tech who is the Director of the Med Room. My mom had multiple problems with her heart and lungs and had to be on oxygen full time. She had many medications which she knew exactly what she should be taking and what they look like. She was the type you just don't hand her a pile of pills and she takes them. She caught several times they weren't giving her the right medications consistently. With heart problems you are on a restricted diet of low sodium. Mom loved the food in the dinning room. I had dinner with her several times and after eating my mouth would be dried out like I had been sucking on sunflower seeds. In one month my mom gained 40 pounds which was fluid. Here we go to the hospital to have fluid removed. Mom was in the hospital almost two weeks. When I brought her back her caregiver made her feel good about getting back to her apartment. But the Director of the med room was no where to be found. Mom's medication had been changed and I needed to speak to the Director of the Med Room and Lane, Director of the Center I also wanted to speak to the Chef in the dining room to discuss low sodium options for my mom. Eventually we all sat down for a meeting but nothing changed after that meeting. My mom's health continued to decline but the caregivers never told me how much she had declined. She was having a lot of trouble breathing at night. They would also have to have her stand up to take her medication. BUT not one time did anyone let me know what was going on. So here we go back to the hospital this time she was in the hospital for 3 weeks. I feel like communication is key and if a resident is having that much trouble someone should have been notified the family immediately and called 911 and taken to the hospital. When my mom was discharged from the hospital she went on hospice. Which was hard decision to make for your loved one, especially your mom. I notified the Director of the Med Room that mom was on hospice. She tried to talk me into going with another hospice company and even brought me a written name and number to my mom's room. Which I thought was unprofessional and inappropriate considering we are distraught over my mom's health and welfare. Eventually I was spending nights with mom and I really got to see what was going on behind the scenes. One night the med tech brought mom her meds and she asked to see them like she did every time and her lasix were not the right dosage. We asked to see the MARS and it was written wrong! Mom had gained 10 pounds of fluid within a few days. So you understand how important a resident medications is dispersed correctly. Here we go back to the hospital to have fluids removed. At this point I was so upset with the Director of the Center and Director of the Med room my family decided to move my mom back home. She was requiring more and more care and I honestly didn't have trust in these people to care for my mom. I was told they had a nurse on staff which I found out they did NOT. I gave our 30 day notice to vacate. My mom passed 2 weeks after coming home. We still had a few things we needed to take out of my mom's apartment. I came to pick up the last few things and walked up to an unlocked door and when I walked in a painter was in there touching up paint on the walls. There was a trash bag with a few of my mom's things. I was overwhelmed with emotions I don't really know what I said or did but I know it wasn't pretty. How dare they come into my mom’s locked apartment when we still had another two weeks left on her lease. We are still missing a very expensive monitor she used to transmit information from her her pacemaker to her doctor in Austin. My point is they had no reasoning for entering my mom’s apartment. So was our experience good.. NO Do they provide good care... sure if your self sufficient and can care for yourself. Looking back we had red flags and we should have ran from the very beginning.