Mom had fall in care home

Lizzy41

Registered User
Aug 11, 2007
8
0
Birmingham
My mom was in hospital for 9 weeks, while she was
assessed. It was decided that she should go into a
care home. As there are only 6 in Birmingham with EMI
we did look at them all


We picked the one we thought was best and they came
and assessed her last week and said she could go there
on Wednesday.

She arrived after lunch and Dad stayed with her for a while,
to see she was settled.

Last night at 11.00pm, he received a call from the home to say
she had fallen and was in pain, so she had been taken to
hospital and for Dad to ring the home this morning for news. He
rang the home but they said to ring the hospital.

Basically, Mom has fractured her hip and has had to have an
operation today to pin it. She will have to stay in hospital for
7 days and then the home will have her back.

They are not sure whether she fell out of bed or got out of bed
and then fell.

I am gutted. I am not blaming the home but I am hoping this does
not make her dementia worse.

Liz
 
Last edited:

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,444
0
Kent
Dear Liz,

Your mother probably became confused in the different surroundings of the care home.
I understand how upsetting it must be for you, but I think it was just a very unfortunate accident.
It will remain to be seen whether or not it affects her dementia, but bear in mind the affect all these changes will have on her.

I hope she recovers and settles in the home. It must be very hard for you and your father.

Take care

Love xx
 

jenniferpa

Registered User
Jun 27, 2006
39,442
0
Dear Liz

Falls were the bane of my mother's (and by extension my) existence. Unfortunately, it's not until there has been one that you know the risk is there, and even more unfortunate that the first one has resulted in a fracture.

There are various ways to help minimize falls (I won't said avoid completely, because even with someone watching 24/7 there's no way to completely remove the possibility).

Various things that can be considered:

Placing fall mats on the floor by the bed (doesn't work if your mother is still ambulatory)

Using cot sides (doesn't work if she'll try to climb over them)

Lowering the bed so there's less far to fall.

Wearable hop protectors (will she take them off?)

Electonic monitors (only tells you that someone has left their bed and hasn't returned, not actually stopping the falls. There are also monitors that will alert at an abrupt change in position i.e. from the vertical to the horizontal, but again that doen't stop the fall)

To be honest, and this is probably bad news, it wasn't until my mother was totally bed-ridden that we managed to stop the falls, and that was because she became unable to climb over the cot sides.
 

Mameeskye

Registered User
Aug 9, 2007
1,669
0
60
NZ
Lizzy

My Mum has fallen quite a few times as well. It is one of those unfortunate things about dementia and even with one to one care it can still happen. Your Mum has been very unlucky.

One thing I would suggest though is that you get the hospital to screen for UTI, if she doesn't normally fall. Mum's falls have until recently always been a sign of an occult urinary tract infection and have normally been our first indicator of a problem. It is something that I would always suggest.

Unfortunately the hopsital visit is likely to make her dementia worse as is the operation but it is amazing how well your Mum may recover once back to the care home as the staff there will be, in my opinion, substantially better at caring for a dementia patient than those in the hospital where they have neither time nor expertise.

Wishing you and your Mum well in the coming days

Love

Mameeskye
 

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