Expert: Paula Damgaard - 11/14/2008

Question
Dear Paula, my 85 year old mother has had Alzheimer's for 10 years now and has been in a private nursing home for six and a half of those. She has recently been bed-ridden with sores following a fall and hip replacement operation and has now started coffee vomitting and nobody can tell me why this is. Is this just to be expected? Can I or anyone else do anything? I would say that the nursing home staff are wonderful and give a very good level of service. I am so upset by this latest development. Thank you.

Answer
Is you mother on any anticoagulant drugs since her hip replacement surgery?  Like Heparin or coumadin?  She could be having some stomach or intestinal bleeding due to these types of drugs which are commonly given to patients after replacement surgery.  If not then I would also check all the other medications she is on to see if they could be causing her to bleed.  Coffee ground emesis is usually a sign of bleeding.  

If nothing shows up then I am afraid I don't know what the cause is, but I can tell you it is not Alzheimer's.  

I would also say that except for the act of vomiting, the bleeding would not be causing her pain.  

Hope this helps.  Paula