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academies
Volume 2
June 11-13, 2018 | London, UK
Neurology and Neuroscience
6
th
International Conference on
The 5 Ds of Lewy Body Dementia, global physician and nursing knowledge or lack of, treatment
methods and new scientific discoveries in the last decade
Esperanza Hansen Gonzalez
Magnolia Park Assisted Living, USA
I
t is possible for any patient suffering fromLewy BodyDementia
to be misdiagnosed and poorly treated or managed at any
given time in any medical setting We could visit any emergency
room in America or the rest of the world and see it happening.
Most physicians that began their practice 10 to 20 years ago
may have never heard LBD before. One could say is the new
Leprosy of biblical times. this would be due to no one accepting
a combative patient in their assisted living setting. Some
doctors believe they have to wait til the patient dies to obtain
a biopsy of the brain in order to diagnose the LBD. They have
never heard of the McKeith Criteria or the last revised Lewy
Body Dementia Fourth consensus report of the LBD Consortium
of 2013. It is over the last decade that research has shed light
on the disease process. Today, we have new testing that aids in
the differentiation of even the type of Lewy Body Dementia.
Is it just Lewy Body or does it have a Parkinson component or
a variant of it. As I nurse I see many dementias and subtypes
of them. I have cared for my patients twenty four hours a day
seven days a week for the last eighteen years and a half. I have
come to understand the disease process with all its variants
close and personal. My biggest obstacle in giving quality of life
to my patients is the doctor or nurse. The generation I have
served are from the generation who do and believe everything
the doctor tells them with no questions asked. It is important
to get all your ducks in a row. For this reason I accompany my
patients to the doctors appointments or ER visits. The first D
then is the doctor. Once the right doctor is in place all the other
Ds fall in place. The right doctor will order the right diagnostics.
The right diagnostics will lead to the right diagnosis. The right
diagnosis will allow for the right drug. The right drug will lead
to better management of the disease. With all of the Ds in
order the doctor, pt and family can decide on the right course
of treatment. Lewy Body dementia and Parkinson’s with Lewy
Bodies can have overlapping clinical presentations and some
controversy still exists during diagnosis or differentiation. Given
the difficulties in cognition, extra pyramidal function, and
psychiatric health, management can be complex and should be
systematic. By using the Five Ds of Dementia I have been able to
assist many families in their caring journeys.
Speaker Biography
Esperanza Hansen Gonzalez passion and compassion for geriatrics was awakened
when her mother abandoned her at the age of 8 years in the village where she grew
up among elderly women. The women there self-treated their ailments. Esperanza
quickly learned the skill of injecting others. She would later trade it for shelter. Then
she immigrated to California’s central valley at 16 years of age where she learned
English and pursued a nursing career. She is a graduate of the College of Sequoias,
where she earned an A.S. in nursing. She went on to practice in the various local
hospitals and home health agencies until 1999 when she earned an A.S. in nursing
from New York Regents University. The same year she became a Registered Nurse
in the state of California and was recruited to care for the terminally ill as a Nurse
Case Manager and Hospice Educator. She cared for terminally ill patients who
were primarily elderly. There she discovered most geriatric patients had a form
of dementia beyond the primary terminal diagnosis, but which was not identified
in the clinical picture. It was there that she developed the 5 D’s of Dementia.
e:
esperanza@magnoliapark.net