February 6, 2011

  • My mom's home has crossed the line!

    My mom phoned me at 9AM this morning, quite confused and upset. She was calling to ask my advice.

    She had just come from breakfast. Because she is so fat, she has a special designated chair in the dining room. It has no arms, as her bum can't fit in chairs that do have arms. She was sitting eating breakfast, and suddenly her chair just collapsed underneath her. She was lying on the floor, struggling but unable to get up. Her shoulder has been painful for weeks and her knees are bad. The staff were trying to figure out how to pick her up, but given those complications they had no idea what to do. Mom pushed her LifeSign button on her necklace, because she wanted an ambulance. However, she doesn't understand that you have to be in the same room as the phone unit. Mom said the LifeSign operator said to just call an ambulance, which I guess means that one of the staff went to her room to speak with the operator. And ambulance was called, and the EMTs checked her over and determined she was not seriously injured. At some point one of the nurses gave her a pillow for under her head, but I don't know how long it was before they did that.

    Mom says the way they eventually got her off the floor was they got a long sheet and somehow wrapped it around her body and another one around her ankles, and lifted her that way. I can't picture how it was done. Anyway, it worked.

    So after all this, the staff had the nerve to say that since that was the only armless chair they had in the home, that Mom was responsible for buying her own chair! When Mom told me this, I just about hit the roof. While my mom is very obese and exceptionally wide, she doesn't actually weigh much more than me. The reasons she's so fat with that weight are that she's 7 inches shorter than me, and he weight is made up of fat. I'm tall, and my weight is largely made up of dense bone and muscle. It is not at all unreasonable to expect the home to have a chair sturdy enough to support up to 300 pounds. You know, not all sick old people are skinny!

    So I told Mom my opinion, and advised that she see a doctor to document any bruising. She said the EMTs had done a check and determined she was OK, so at least there will be documentation there from outside the home. Mom had a mobility bus booked to take her to and from church today, but she said she was feeling too shaky to go and was worried that if she skipped it she would be penalised for not showing up for the bus. I told her not to worry, the staff should tell the driver she had a bad fall and wasn't p to going out today, and if there was any problem with GRT I would explain things to them. After all, there is nobody at the mobility bus booking office on weekends, so there's no way she can call and lt them know.

    Tomorrow morning, I'll be calling Nancy, the manager of the home. I'll also call CCAC and report my concerns, and possibly a lawyer if Nancy doesn't apologise for Mom's treatment and agree to get a new, stronger chair.

    I hope Nancy sees it my way, or Mom may end up having to move again. She was NEVER treated this badly in the other two homes!

Comments (2)

  • I just got a call from Adele at the home, and she said my mom had a fall this morning. I said yes, I'd heard about it. She laughed and asked if Mom had said she was unhurt. I said yes, she was just upset about potentially being penalised for missing the bus to church.

    She then told me that since that was the only chair they had for her, that she would be needing a nother chair brought in. I told her I was very upset that the home not only provided a chair that was unsafe, but that they then said my mother was responsible for replacing the unsafe chair at her own expense. She said that the chair was safe, and I told her it clearly wasn't because it collapsed underneath her. I explained that it is not unreasonable to expect that they have a chair on hand that can support a 270-pound person. I acknowledged that she is very wide, but not a weight that is terribly unusual for a person to be. I told her I could just as well have sat in that chair and broken it myself.

    She sheepishly told me that she would speak with Nancy and see if they could find a way to buy a new chair. I said I planned to speak with Nancy myself tomorrow morning. Adele got my message loud and clear, so we'll see what happens next.

  • Mom called and told me there were chairs in the board room, but Adele said they're not allowed to move those chairs out of the room without permission. She decided to use a rickety wheeled office chair that is buried in her room, and I said no, because she has fallen off wheeled chairs many times due to her lack of balance.

    I called Adele, who told me the board room chairs are an antique set that are quite rickety and really shouldn't be sat in by anyone. They reserve those for when a family comes to visit a resident, and i commented that they should get them glued up becuase it sounds like they are also unsafe. "Yes..." she said, sounding unnerved.

    She mentioned Mom's wheeled chair, and I said that's not safe, and I also understand why she can't have her scooter in the dining room. I asked Adele to look around the home, even in the nursing home area at the other end, to find a chair that could be borrowed for a couple of days. She said she would, and I thanked her. I told her that if a safe chair could not be found, I want them to serve Mom's meals in her room. I told her that I know it's a pain when they're busy, but ultimately my mom is very disabled and doesn't always understand what's safe and what isn't, and I want to ensure that the home is doing everything to ensure her safety. So Adele agreed, and I'm hoping that will be the end of it for today.

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