The attorney for the family of a 95-year-old woman who fought efforts by the Queen’s Medical Center to stop intravenously feeding her said the hospital administered a "last slap out the door" when she was discharged with an empty feeding tube.
Karen Okada left Queen’s by ambulance Friday for a nursing home in Aiea with her feeding tube in place. But her doctor ordered Okada’s fluids and feedings "stopped at the time of discharge," according to a copy of Okada’s discharge papers provided to the Star-Advertiser.
"She was supposed to be transfered at 2 p.m., and then it became 3:30 p.m.," said attorney Scott Makuakane. "Queen’s made it difficult for us on a Friday afternoon to then scramble to get somebody to give us the food to put in the tube. Was it intentional? I don’t know. They’ve decided that it doesn’t matter what the judge said, it doesn’t matter what the documents said, it doesn’t matter what Karen intended," Makuakane said. "They’re going to do what they’re going to do."
Otherwise, Makuakane said, "she’s comfortable in the nursing home," which eventually fed her through the tube late Friday.
Cindy Kamikawa, vice president and chief nursing officer at the Queen’s Medical Center, said, "The Queen’s Medical Center made appropriate discharge arrangements so that the family of Karen Okada could continue care per their wishes."
Makuakane represents Okada’s brother — former Honolulu City Council Chairman George "Scotty" Koga — who fought the hospital’s petition in Circuit Court to remove Okada’s feeding tube in accordance with what Queen’s said were Okada’s wishes in an advanced health care directive that she signed in 1998.
But Okada also signed a separate document in 1998 that gave Koga power of attorney over his sister, and Koga did not want the feeding tube taken out.
At a hearing on Sept. 7, Circuit Judge Patrick Border suggested that he would not rule on which document superseded the other until late October, which prompted Queen’s officials to agree to release Okada to her brother against the hospital’s medical advice.
The court fight over Okada’s feeding tube generated concern among seniors and their families in Hawaii about the strength of their own advanced health care directives — and highlighted the need for elderly patients to make sure their end-of-life wishes are understood by family members.
Okada was transferred from the Hale Nani nursing home to Queen’s on Aug. 8 and had lost 20 pounds by the time she was discharged from Queen’s on Friday, Makuakane said.
