Elderly neighbour fallen over

[LovelyBath77]

My lovely older lady neighbour has fallen and bruised her ribs on an open drawer. I popped in as she had left me a note from school. She doesn't want to ring the docs as they will send to A and E for an X ray (understandable, busy and big city hospital)

I have got her some paracetamol from her cabinet for her and got her the phone to have right by her next to the sofa so she can ring us if she needs to, but she says she just wants to sit quietly and hope it improves.

She says it hurts to breathe which worries me a bit. Wonder what else to do or am I interfering? I have said will ring her tomorrow and see how she is.

“ way to go to guilt trip someone!”

Disagree. Sorry but older people can be quite irresponsible in this regard. What works as a healthy younger person - being stoic and independent - stops working when you are older and need support.

The thing is, when people refuse to seek help for themselves, others around them (in this case, the OP) tend to have to drop everything when things get worse and can no longer be ignored. I’ve been in this situation before, it went on for years. I’m afraid I do see it as irresponsible, because consequences are bmbwver considered by the ‘patient’.

Yes, I suppose if she had agreed or me to call the doc and got checked I wouldn't be worrying now.

for me to call the doc as i asked her I mean

Good for you for caring OP

My MIL started passing out in her 80's, turned out she needed a pacemaker.
She had it fitted when she was 83.

I would go to see her and ask if you can ring 111 for advice, they need you to be with the patient to triage.
You can reassure your neighbour that it doesn't necessarily mean she'll be taken into hospital, they could send paramedics or arrange GP home visit and in any event, if she has capacity - which it sounds like she does - she doesn't have to go to hospital.

But since she involved wonderful, kind, thoughtful you, I would try to persuade her to take the next step and get some advice.

She's lucky to have a caring neighbour like you.

I would absolutely not phone 111 for this - their knee jerk response will be to send an ambulance and cart her off to hospital.

If she has capacity to decline admission then that has to be respected. Unless she has clinical signs of lung damage she almost certainly wouldn't get an x-ray if she were to go to ED. The management would really be supportive, with good pain relief (which her GP should be able to help with). She should not be worried that her GP would insist on her going to hospital if she doesn't want to, but I think it probably is worth a chat at least (they may be able to shed some light on why she fell/what concerns there may be based on her medical history and medications).

If she were my neighbour I'd probably stick my head in a bit later & make sure she can actually get herself to bed and has had some supper & something to drink. Even though you don't know her that well, it sounds like she trusts you.

Come back OP and tell us how she is.

Did she say how she fell? I would be more worried if she suddenly blacked out for example rather than tripped over a rug - which can be removed. Did she lose consciousness at all? Again that would concern me greatly. Pain when breathing in isn't great and she will now be more prone to a chest infection. If it's painful to move around she will also be drinking less to reduce the number of times she walks to the toilet. This will increase her chances of getting a uti. Personally I think she needs a chest x Ray. Has she fallen over before? Perhaps Physiotherapy can help, most areas have a 'falls prevention team' now.

My Mom fell over last week. I took her to minor injuries to get her checked out and they insisted she went to A&E because we didn't know why she'd fallen. They ran lots of tests and gave her a clean bill of health. There's lots of older people falling over due to the warm weather, as they're not eating or drinking enough and still wearing lots of layers of clothing.

If you can, it might be worth getting her to speak to NHS Direct.

Hi, she's Ok I rang her this evening to check on the phone by her sofa, and she told me her daughter is coming from London this evening, to see her. And she sounded a bit better. I offered some tea and toast and she was Ok for now.

So, daughter is here now and I'll ring her tomorrow and see how she is doing.

Lovely I think you have handled it perfectly and you're a very good neighbour.

You do sound lovely. Keep an eye on her for sure.

My mum and me helped an old man on the street once as when leaving my aunts house we saw him on the pavement on his side. Stopped to help him, he had a large cut to his head and kept saying he was fine. Ignored him obviously and called an ambulance, but I went back to the house for my aunt too as she's a nurse (very handy!). Some elderly people just don't like the fuss but they still need help.

My elderly neighbour wanted me to go round and unblock her toilet the other day.
Im now known as the Turdinator

Hairyfairy has made a very good point about rugs. Older people seem to have rugs everywhere, often covering up threadbare patches of carpet, which present a massive tripping risk. They often have lots of clutter, reducing the floorspace making a room like an obstacle course. Add walikng aids to this and the risk of falls increase dramatically.