This will just be a short blog as I must quickly vent. I also have to be careful what I say so that I do not get into trouble at work ;). I got home from work almost a half hour ago and I must say that some elderly people are down right stubborn. As I have said before, I work in Assisted Living, which means people are pretty independent and only require help for a few things. Tonight at work around 9pm, when I sat down to take a break and catch some of the hockey game, where might I add the Canucks sucked big time, I heard some odd banging from a nearby room. I decided to check it out and found one of my residents on the floor of his room.
I check out the scene nearby and find his dinner dessert still sitting nearby on his walker, which tells me, he has been on the floor since he returned to his room from dinner. Let me add, he left the dining room between 5:30 and 5:45. Okay you might think, what is the big deal, an elderly person fell. The big deal is that he was on the floor for over 3 hours due to his stubbornness. Each resident is given an emergency call bell system similar to Life Line that hangs around their neck or is worn as a bracelet. This resident had his bell around his neck, yet for 3 hours he did not opt to press the button. If I hadn't of heard the banging and checked it out, he would have been sitting there for even longer due to his stubbornness in not wanting to use the bell. Yet at the same time, he couldn't get himself up and it took 2 of us to lift up off the floor at which point he still could not weight bear. In the end it is a much longer story; however, I just don't get the stubbornness with the bell. Is it fun to sit on the ground for 3 hours? Ugh, the joys of health care. Back to work tomorrow!
1 comment:
When my dad had his "issue" (might have been a stroke, but we'll never know), he crawled from the bathroom to his bed and stayed there until I came home. A couple hours later when I got there, he asked me this: "Say you passed out. Would you call an ambulance after?" My response? "How long ago did you pass out?" Shortly after, I called the ambulance despite someones protests.
That said, I think it's less about the age and more about the gender.
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