At the garden centre....on home oxygen

[Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]

Went to buy plants. Lady in the queue looking frail and with husband carrying her home oxygen tank. Life is for living

I'm sure many would say she should stay at home but I applaud her.

I hope she has many happy visits to buy plants.

While I feel for this lady, and all those advised to shield (including my Mum who hates it, but is gritting her teeth and staying put) she probably knows she likely won't be admitted to hospital if she catches covid-19, and almost certainly has a DNAR in place. However she also probably has carers coming in to assist her at home, carers who then go on to visit dozens more vulnerable clients who most likely are shielding correctly. As a home carer this is my biggest dread, not so much catching it (I would likely recover, although statistically many more carers have died than NHS staff) but passing it on to my clients. It's all well and good applauding her for grabbing quality of life but but try flipping the situation: a very vulnerable person on oxygen follows all the guidelines, doesn't go out, doesn't see family etc but still catches and dies from covid-19 because a fellow client just had to get out the house and caused a cascade of infections.

We are following all the guidelines, taking every precaution possible, wearing gloves, aprons and masks for all visits but I guarantee if I get infected my r rate will be high as will the resulting death rate just because of the nature of my work and the extreme vulnerability of my clients.

Yes of course we all have the right to make a personal risk assessment about our actions but we also have a responsibility to consider the consequences for other people, especially when those consequences could be a cluster of deaths.

I doubt her prognosis is good if elderly, frail and on home oxygen. She is allowed to be in a garden centre, if I had a very limited amount of time to live I would get whatever bit of enjoyment I could.

I don't applaud anyone going to a Garden centre.
Its totally unnecessary (and bollocks to anyone who claims that its necessary for their mental health)

shielding isn't just to protect the person shielding .

I would wager that if she is elderly on home oxygen then there is not a hope in hell she will be in the queue for a ventilator if her breathing deteriorates.

She's weighed up the risk and decided to enjoy what time she has left. I've got.more time for that than some of the over the top responses I've seen from other people over the past few weeks. Are we really so scared of death that we are going to lock ourselves away indefinitely?

Good for her. Life is for living

Apologies, not read all responses.
However, although I do appreciate we don’t have the full story of why this woman went to the garden centre, for those who applaud it, are you clapping for the nhs workers every Thursday at 8PM?
If you really care for the NHS workers surely it is more useful to stay at home when in a vulnerable group than to Stand on your door step and clap?
People like this lady are very likely to end up in hospital if infected with Covid19, and put a strain on the health services and risk staff becoming infected, and taking it home to their Families/children.
Surely a trip to the garden centre can be replaced by a walk in a quiet park if she needs to leave the house for mental wellbeing, which would be much less risky.

Maybe the lady concerned has a DNR in place and will opt not to have medical intervention or hospital admission if she gets it.
Who knows?
A lot of assumptions being made.🤷‍♀️

we also have a responsibility to consider the consequences for other people, especially when those consequences could be a cluster of deaths

Nobody here knows this woman's circumstances, her health condition, whether she has carers, nothing about her at all really, and it's not their right to know either. She's not breaking the rules, just like anyone else she's allowed to go the the garden centre, and the general public do not get a say in who else should be allowed out. If people are that concerned for themselves they should stay away from non essential places like garden centres, not attempt to dictate who should be allowed to go to them.

shielding isn't just to protect the person shielding .

Can you expand on this? Shielding letters are very clear that it is personal choice.

@Tiuriwiththewhiteshield no I don't clap for NHS workers because it is a load of old bollocks, I'm a nurse treating solely Covid-19 patients.

People like this lady are very likely to end up in hospital if infected with Covid19, and put a strain on the health services and risk staff becoming infected, and taking it home to their Families/children.

ffs. You don't know that at all. She may have already had it in be immune. She have only a short time left to live and be intending to stay at home. Nobody knows if they will end up in hospital so by your argument no one should make a non-essential visit anywhere including garden centres.

I don't clap for NHS workers either. I can't see how it benefits them in any way and from what I've seen is just an excuse for people to socialise and virtue signal at the same time.

Shielding is personal choice, she is doing nothing wrong. If I had a terminal prognosis I wouldn't want to waste my last days/months stuck indoors. No one knows what her situation is so no one has the right to judge her.

And no I'm not clapping for the NHS workers, I think the first time was a nice idea but now it's weekly it's a load of contrived bollocks.

Sparklywolf
Unless the carers are also shielding, and not going shopping, etc, then the carer is just as much of a risk to those people even if all the service users are shielding completely.

Not everybody on oxygen is going to need carers. Maybe she is not on oxygen all the time and is able to manage personal care etc with a little bit of help from her husband. Some people refuse carers. There is a lot of judging of this poor ladies moral compass on this thread.

There is a lot of judging of this poor ladies moral compass on this thread

There truly is. Covid highlights the worst of what many people are. They need to check their own bloody moral compass.

Covid highlights the worst of what many people are

Hasn't it just. I've realised that there are so many judgemental cunts out there. Depressing really.

I hate what this country is becoming.

I'm wondering if people have always been nasty, judgemental fuckers who'd report their neighbours for any imagined misdemeanour or if it only started with covid. I'm presuming it's the former and now they have an excuse.

no I don't clap for NHS workers because it is a load of old bollocks, I'm a nurse treating solely Covid-19 patients.

How refreshing to hear you say that Heyblaby. Pointless, cringeworthy virtue signalling.

Are you refusing to do their shopping now because they went to the garden centre?

As we are self isolating and now they are going out daily to the garden centre and popping into the supermarket to buy a paper, yes I am.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat They've always been like it but don't have to hide it any more. It's very similar to the way Brexit enabled people to be more openly racist. They don't like being like this you know but it's necessary for 'the greater good'.

The woman and her DH are idiots

You know their personal circumstances do you OneOfTheHerd?

So she gets Covid-19 and has to be admitted to hospital with complications due to her health issues. She’s now taking up a much needed bed

Everyone in hospital is taking up a "much needed bed"!

Everyone who catches this has caught it somehow.

A nurse is at no greater risk of catching covid from this woman (should she get it) than anyone else. If she isn't in that hospital bed, then someone else would be.

I know some people who are applying far stricter restrictions on themselves than the government has demanded and others who are following the rules 95% but making their own judgements on the last 5%.

Will some of those people catch it? Probably. But, as some people have forgotten, the lockdown wasn't about ensuring no one got it, just that the hospitals could cope with those who have it at any given time. And they can.

I’d say it’s nobody else’s business but her own and second guessing her illness, her prognosis or her advanced care planning is just that - guessing.

She isn’t placing anyone else at greater risk than anyone else in the garden centre. She might well not need carers or regular district nurse visits - many people live well on home oxygen for years, go to the gym, work, go swimming etc.
She’s no more likely to catch it than anybody else. Balancing the risk is about where she lives, whether she’s already had it, who she sees outside of the garden centre.
She has a right to make her own decisions. Garden centres are open. It might be the one pleasure she gets.