I'm just wondering if anyone else has obtained one of these for a relative with dementia and if they have been useful.
It was my baby grandson's Christening today and we had everything in place for my MIL to attend (lifts to and from and an overnight stay with my elder son which she always enjoys). I spoke to her on Friday morning and she was looking forward to it all but just a little concerned that we couldn't tell her which of us would drive her home this evening only promise her that one of us would. I thought I'd reassured her that there really wasn't a problem but it turns out she subsequently took herself off to the local supermarket all in a fluster (to buy milk) and forgot her walking stick.
Early Friday evening she rang to say she'd decided not to come to the Christening as no one wanted to drive her home. Over three or four subsequent calls with myself and my daughter she got increasingly agitated about this and seemed incapable of understanding that we would get her home. At no time did she mention the shopping trip or (more importantly) a fall that afternoon. Eventually she settled on coming again another time when it would be 'quieter' and that was that.
Me, my BIL, and my daughter all spoke to her again yesterday. She was happy enough, said she was well, did say to my daughter that she'd tripped in the supermarket car park, nothing more.
Then I phoned her today to say we'd missed her and finally got the whole story (I think because she was more lucid today/I happened to ask the right questions, rather than because it was after the event). She had fallen (she has no idea why, there was nothing to trip over) onto her face, had a bump "the size of an egg" on her forehead, her nose had bled profusely ("all over my blouse") and she'd taken the skin off her cheeks and chin. Bystanders picked her up, wanted to call an ambulance, but she refused. She told them she was always falling over and was used to it and she'd get cleaned up in the Ladies and catch the bus home. No one knew she had dementia, no one knew to argue with her. Covered in blood she went first to the store's toilets and then to buy her milk, and then home, and not a single person in the store or on the bus seems to have asked her if she was okay.
Does anyone's experience suggest that a Medic Alert bracelet stating she had dementia might have made it more likely that someone would have insisted on that ambulance?
She is reporting swollen eyes and headaches, I suspect she has a broken nose, and I can't now get up there (she lives a two hour drive away) before tomorrow. (Don't worry, a gent she knows locally has been in to check she's okay until then, given that she's still refusing medical assistance.)
It was my baby grandson's Christening today and we had everything in place for my MIL to attend (lifts to and from and an overnight stay with my elder son which she always enjoys). I spoke to her on Friday morning and she was looking forward to it all but just a little concerned that we couldn't tell her which of us would drive her home this evening only promise her that one of us would. I thought I'd reassured her that there really wasn't a problem but it turns out she subsequently took herself off to the local supermarket all in a fluster (to buy milk) and forgot her walking stick.
Early Friday evening she rang to say she'd decided not to come to the Christening as no one wanted to drive her home. Over three or four subsequent calls with myself and my daughter she got increasingly agitated about this and seemed incapable of understanding that we would get her home. At no time did she mention the shopping trip or (more importantly) a fall that afternoon. Eventually she settled on coming again another time when it would be 'quieter' and that was that.
Me, my BIL, and my daughter all spoke to her again yesterday. She was happy enough, said she was well, did say to my daughter that she'd tripped in the supermarket car park, nothing more.
Then I phoned her today to say we'd missed her and finally got the whole story (I think because she was more lucid today/I happened to ask the right questions, rather than because it was after the event). She had fallen (she has no idea why, there was nothing to trip over) onto her face, had a bump "the size of an egg" on her forehead, her nose had bled profusely ("all over my blouse") and she'd taken the skin off her cheeks and chin. Bystanders picked her up, wanted to call an ambulance, but she refused. She told them she was always falling over and was used to it and she'd get cleaned up in the Ladies and catch the bus home. No one knew she had dementia, no one knew to argue with her. Covered in blood she went first to the store's toilets and then to buy her milk, and then home, and not a single person in the store or on the bus seems to have asked her if she was okay.
Does anyone's experience suggest that a Medic Alert bracelet stating she had dementia might have made it more likely that someone would have insisted on that ambulance?
She is reporting swollen eyes and headaches, I suspect she has a broken nose, and I can't now get up there (she lives a two hour drive away) before tomorrow. (Don't worry, a gent she knows locally has been in to check she's okay until then, given that she's still refusing medical assistance.)