Stuck

December 29th, 2008

There’s rarely a week that passes without going to a ‘nan down’. An elderly person, normally female, who more often than not lives alone and has fallen over at home. In recent weeks, I’ve been going to 3 or 4 or these a day for some reason.

Some people hate them, but I’ve got all the time in the world to go and pick someone off the floor, make them a cup of tea and listen to their life story. In the past week alone, I’ve heard tales of late husbands who were on the beaches of Dunkirk, gentlemen who were sent to Berlin on D-Day and so on. I consider it such a priviledge to be regaled with these stories of first and second hand living memory, which won’t be around for much longer.

But not all falls are straightforward. Sometimes there’s no way in and it’s the crowbar’s time to shine. Others, the victim of the fall has sustained sometimes serious injuries, such as a fractured neck of femur. Occasionally, you get patients who for very different reasons are unable to get up.

Cue one elderly lady and the church warden. The church warden hadn’t seen Daisy for several days and when she arrived, she thought Daisy didn’t look too well. ‘I know what Daisy needs, a good bath’, so the kind church warden set about running a nice warm bath for her and Daisy willingly obliges, getting in with a little bit of assistance.

Once Daisy had had a good soak, out comes the plug and it’s time for Daisy to get out. This is the time at which me and my observer arrive to find Daisy stuck in the bath.

“How do you normally get out of the bath?” I asked, hoping for some insight into how we’re going to get this poor 80-something out of the bath.

“I don’t normally have baths because I can’t get out of them. I only normally have showers.” Daisy replied.

Until you have tried to get a fully grown adult out of the bath yourself, you will never appreciate how slippery they are (baths and wet people). Whilst my observer set about making the patient comfortable using her wealth of nursing skills, I arranged for an ambulance crew to come along with a special lifting device. A short while later, and after a lot of wriggling to get the cushion under her, Daisy was finally out of the bath.

Once she was all dried off and dressed, thanks to the church warden, we ensured Daisy had a nice cup of tea and a sandwich after some basic checks. I drive past Daisy’s house quite often and always wonder what she’s up to now.

Entry Filed under: Work