To think if you go into hospital when you're very elderly you probably won't come out?

[Givinguph0pe]

My gran went into hospital following a fall at home nearly three weeks ago. She wasn't able to walk when she was admitted although we aren't sure quite why. After about three days she regained the use of her legs but was very unsteady and could only walk with support.
Around a week later she was on the verge of being discharged when she caught norovirus. A few days after that she got a nasty bedsore.

Call today to say she's had a fall in hospital. She says she pressed the call button because she wanted the toilet and no one came so after a while she tried to get up. She's still in a side room due to the norovirus. She fell and was on her own for an undetermined amount of time. She's broken her leg in two places, it looks like she losing blood from one of the injuries and now she will have to have an operation to try and stop the bleeding and reset the leg.

She's 96. She's never going to come out of hospital is she?

Shouldn't they have done a falls assessment though? And if she's in danger of falling as OP said she was unsteady then the bedsides should have been up so she couldn't get out of bed?

My dad had a fall in hospital. He went to the loo one night (using his walker) and an oxygen cylinder was propping the toilet door open so he tried to Kobe it. He fell, broke a rib and then got pneumonia. I was cross with the hospital but didn't complain as I suppose my dad was also a bit daft trying to move the cylinder on his own. Dad did survive and come out of hospital.

Norovirus might cause moisture lesions, but not pressure ulcers.

I think anyway.

With falls risks, if someone is mobile and likely to get up putting the sides up can be even more dangerous. It's a lot higher to fall from.

Falls in hospitals happen a lot and sometimes we just can't prevent it. With two staff to 18 patients it is impossible, although we do get specials for falls risks patients who also have dementia and can't understand that they shouldn't get up without assistance.

My independent grandma, aged 88, had a fall at home and was taken into hospital.

She was okay-ish for a week, chatting away to us during visiting hours but for some reason she then started to decline and she died in hospital about 10 days later.

I still don't really understand how it happened really.

My other grandma (aged 76) is supposed to be going for an operation next week and all she keeps saying is that she doesn't want to go because she'll never make it back home again

It's all so sad really.

I'm sorry to hear about your Gran and I hope things go as well as they can do

Bedsores and falling? I'd be livid.

But calmly file a complaint so the hospital sees there is a problem and can investigate to make sure enough people are on rounds.

If it helps, we have a family member who is 96 and fully recovered from a bad break in her leg from falling over. It was a long time, but with lots of support from nhs, carers and family, she made it through and is thriving.

Sometimes it does depend on general state of health.

My 76 year old nan had a double mastectomy recently. She went in, had the anaesthetic, had the operation and came round all within 3-4 hours. She then had to stay over night because her blood pressure was high (it always is, it's a long term problem). They discharged her the next day with a drain and had the district nurse come round each day to sort it out. When the drain came out about 2 weeks later, that was it. You'd never know she'd had an operation.

Likewise, my 80 year old granddad fell ill on Christmas day last year and ended up in hospital for a week with pneumonia. He came out and is right as rain.

On the other hand, my 86 year old other granddad has prostate cancer, problems with his eye muscles, diabetes, foot problems related to diabetes and a permanent catheter. He had a fall a few weeks ago, broke his leg and has been in hospital ever since. I'm not sure he will ever be able to live alone again - respite care at the very least is looking almost certain.

Actually I think the opposite. Too many people are kept alive because we don't know how to let them die.

That doesn't excuse bed sores but from my families experience, it would have been better to let them die rather than use medical knowledge to practise on keeping people alive.

might cause moisture lesions, but not pressure ulcers

Constant rubbing and cleaning an area can weaken the skin and dry it out, especially in elderly patients. It makes it very hard to prevent pressure sores on these pressure areas. If the sire becomes an issue I would be interested to see if all measure were taken to prevent it, ir pressure relieving mattresses, barrier cream etc. even with that I have seen sores develop in these circumstances. Such a shame, I hope your DGM pulls through OP

whothe bed sides are out of date and completely useless...a confused elderly person just climbs over them and falls further, a competent able person doesn't restraining can't get over and wets herself and feels mortified.

A restless patient at risk from falling should be on a low bed with padding next to it....but a competent but frail person will find a low bed impossible to get up from and be rendered immobile....

.....it's a minefield and we all want to treat older people as competent, sensible human beings unless we have not to.