Friday, November 21, 2008

'kin hell

Oh shit. First of all just say Herrad is OK. Only a scratch on her head. She fell out the bloody hoist this evening and struck her head on the bed frame.
My heroine neighbour (one of Amsterdams finest) was down as quick as a sick women can. The ambulance was slow comming (we had just had a big storm) but once here they were reasuringly profesional and friendly in aproach. Herrrad was soon joking around with them as she lay on the floor. They lifted her back into bed and dressed the wound. It was only a scratch but like all scalp wounds it bled impresively.
The lift has a pincer grip that closes on the victims waist as the weight of the legs pull down on stirups that sit under the thighs. Herrad has got too floppy to get in the thing right and we will have to use the sling. It worked very well just now which is great because the last sling we used was very painful for Herrad and she was prety scared of this one but it went ok. Soon I will put her back in bed and we can try to sleep after this unexpected exitment. Bloody hell I dropped her on her head AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Just read this after I read Herrad's blog and goodness me - what a shocker and so glad to learn Herrad is ok..and you all rallied around and dealt with the crisis so well..One step forward and one step backwards..keep us posted and lots of love and hugs for you both.

barbie said...

What an occurrence.

Glad she is ok.

Barb

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad everything is okay. Oh my, what an experience for you both!

I remember the first time I dropped someone using the lift. You were alone, but I had another nurse working with me and we both lost the momentum and down the patient went. It is a most terrible feeling. It happened only once more after that with another patient and I changed my shift over to night work so I wouldn't have to use the lift anymore.

Glad everything turned out ok. Take care, Anne

steve said...

The lift was my partner's least favorite piece of equipment. We tried many sling styles, and the only one that worked safely was the most uncomfortable -- especially at the seams around the edges. We found it was more tolerable if we placed folded pillowcases over those seams before lifting.

Though he never dropped from the lift, he did take a tumble from his wheelchair last March and broke his nose. His daytime caregiver was taking him down the front steps and lost control of the chair. He landed face first on the sidewalk with the 250 pound chair on top of him. The caregiver became inconsolable, and called me to come home from work to help, but couldn't tell me what happened. By the time I got home 30 minutes later, my partner was sitting up on the sidewalk with blood all over his face and shirt. I asked if anyone had called an ambulance. "No". What the hell?!? Just as I was about to call, an ambulance pulled up. A passer-by had seen what happened and called 911.

They took him to the ER where the doctor confirmed the nose was broken, but thankfully there was no other damage. We both got a good laugh when he offered a prescription for pain medication.