During our holiday last week, Jean had a fall in a Potter Heigham supermarket. Someone had left a folded cardboard box on the floor, Jean has difficulty in discerning things on the floor and consequently tripped on the folded box and fell sideways into an abandoned trolley, travelled a short distance with the trolley and finished up on the floor.
She was shook up and distressed but suffered no physical damage apart from bruising to the leg and upper arm.
To digress slightly from the optical side of things,a number of points arise from the incident:-
1) Should I sue for damages? I have decided not to on the grounds that a) there are no lasting injuries and her recovery was very quick, b) I suspect that, due to the advanced state of her Alzheimers disease, walking on different surfaces does cause problems and would reduce any payment that may be made regarding compensation, c) as her main and only carer, it was my responsibility to ensure that she came to no harm whilst in my care.
2) The fact that Jean is bruised in a couple of places has caused me some concern in that the bruises are visible when toileting and wearing short sleeved summery tops. I know, that when she attends daycentre, these bruises will be seen and noted by the staff there and, therefore, explained to the staff what had happened and supplied full details. The trouble is that I got the impression that they were thinking, “I have heard these excuses before. We had better keep an eye on you in the future.”
3) Full details of the incident were recorded by the store First Aid representative who, contrary to all First Aid teachings, tried to lift Jean by holding under her arms. What do they teach these people nowadays?
When we arrived home from holiday an appointment with an optician was made for her 2 yearly eye test. Jean wears bifocal lenses all the time and I naturally assumed that the same lenses would be supplied this time.
The optician asked the following questions:-
a) Can Jean read? No.
b) Can Jean write? No
c) Does Jean see the food on her plate? No – she has to be hand fed.
d) Does she have difficulty in negotiating pavement edges and steps in general? It’s a bloody nightmare trying to get her over the doorstep and pavement edges are like mountain sides.
So, what does she need bifocals for? ‘Doh’.
Is it possible that I have assumed that the disease is causing the walking difficulties when, in fact, it may be that she is looking down with her eyes without moving her head and looking through the reading lenses and not the distance lenses?
The next set of spectacles she gets will be distance only, we can always change them if necessary.
I wondered if anyone else had come across this sort of thing before?
She was shook up and distressed but suffered no physical damage apart from bruising to the leg and upper arm.
To digress slightly from the optical side of things,a number of points arise from the incident:-
1) Should I sue for damages? I have decided not to on the grounds that a) there are no lasting injuries and her recovery was very quick, b) I suspect that, due to the advanced state of her Alzheimers disease, walking on different surfaces does cause problems and would reduce any payment that may be made regarding compensation, c) as her main and only carer, it was my responsibility to ensure that she came to no harm whilst in my care.
2) The fact that Jean is bruised in a couple of places has caused me some concern in that the bruises are visible when toileting and wearing short sleeved summery tops. I know, that when she attends daycentre, these bruises will be seen and noted by the staff there and, therefore, explained to the staff what had happened and supplied full details. The trouble is that I got the impression that they were thinking, “I have heard these excuses before. We had better keep an eye on you in the future.”
3) Full details of the incident were recorded by the store First Aid representative who, contrary to all First Aid teachings, tried to lift Jean by holding under her arms. What do they teach these people nowadays?
When we arrived home from holiday an appointment with an optician was made for her 2 yearly eye test. Jean wears bifocal lenses all the time and I naturally assumed that the same lenses would be supplied this time.
The optician asked the following questions:-
a) Can Jean read? No.
b) Can Jean write? No
c) Does Jean see the food on her plate? No – she has to be hand fed.
d) Does she have difficulty in negotiating pavement edges and steps in general? It’s a bloody nightmare trying to get her over the doorstep and pavement edges are like mountain sides.
So, what does she need bifocals for? ‘Doh’.
Is it possible that I have assumed that the disease is causing the walking difficulties when, in fact, it may be that she is looking down with her eyes without moving her head and looking through the reading lenses and not the distance lenses?
The next set of spectacles she gets will be distance only, we can always change them if necessary.
I wondered if anyone else had come across this sort of thing before?