A 13News investigation found a severe shortage of home nurses, resulting in thousands of Indiana families not receiving the home health care they need.
Jeni Hathaway is also far too familiar with Indiana s home nursing crisis.
“I don’t understand why the state won’t do something about this. Lives are at stake,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. Hathaway spoke to 13News last spring following the death of her 23-year-old daughter, Cheyanne.
Like Aegerter, Cheyanne was born with medical disabilities but thrived at home with the help of in-home nursing. When her primary home nurse got sick and could no longer work, the family discovered there were no other trained nurses available to meet Cheyanne’s medical needs. The state approved Cheyanne for 70 hours of home nursing care each week because she was wheelchair-bound and relied on a ventilator to breathe, but her mother was lucky if home health care agencies could find nurses to staff even 20 of those hours. Jeni hoped the shortage would be temporary, but days without home nursing care turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years.