Carpet Shit Show

[CarpetShitShow]

Posted this already in housekeeping & have name changed for this delightful post for obvious reasons...
My elderly parent fell asleep in a chair downstairs & woke to a 3am bout of severe food poisoning and both threw up and soiled themselves. They de-clothed on the spot & attempted to get upstairs in the dark whilst 'evacuating' en route.
The carpets have a trail of 'waste' that needs dealing with
Replacing the 2 year old carpets would be ideal but for the cost, lead time and removal of numerous pieces of heavy furniture
I called a biohazard company who gave me great advice as they do not cover Mum & Dad's area.
The owner told me 3 in 5 calls he gets are from daughters who are in this situation. He was matter of fact about it & said it happens all the time and no-one talks about it. He said it will most likely happen again

I'm going to attempt to deal with my myself & have spent a small fortune on various cleaning products. I just wondered if anyone has any advice before I don the hazmat suit

Sorry you're having to deal with this OP. Would cleaning or replacement of carpets be covered on their home insurance?

We dealt with similar involving an elderly relative. We had a water + chemical mix carpet cleaner type thingy which worked overtime that grim day.
Sending solidarity

There are quite a few carpet cleaning machines available now....might be useful if it may happen again. Some suck up the dirty water and keep in one container whilst letting clean water out to clean, in combination with appropriate products. (Maybe Shark?)
What a horrible job. Sorry.

And maybe some Vick under your nostrils to help with the smell?

if their finances allow, buy a carpet shampooer so it's on standby if needed.

I have a bissell upright bought over 20 years ago for small kids and puppies. Did my late parents house when they needed its input. Still going strong. scrape off what you can then let the shampooer do the rest of it for you. It's horrible when this happens in a many different ways...

honestly, professional cleaner (Greg Davies lol!) … or get removed and put down LVT or similar …. Definitely insurance job if it’s allowable

If I recall my parent's swirly patterned carpets of the 1960s, I doubt one would notice it - other than the rather unpleasant odour but maybe this is where Shake 'n' Vac comes into its own?

I have cats.

i have dealt with this for cats quite frequently.

buy disposable gloves if you can get them otherwise lots of marigolds. Shit and vomit dries quite well and you can scrape it up with squeegee type things plus dustpan and brush. You’ll need a few.

then wipes.

then you’ll need a wet carpet cleaner. I’d advise buying.

pour lots of water on the carpet and repeatedly wash the area.

after about two weeks of doing that daily it’ll look not too bad.

fortunately my parents have swirly 60s style carpets.

I do have a cat with ibs.

Thank you you wonderful people for the wise words & solidarity.
I suspect a carpet cleaner will be a good investment.
Sigh

I bought a carpet cleaner when my mum started having accidents. We definitely got our money’s worth out of it. They work really well.

What make please?

Oh I feel for you!
Id start with cold water and washing up liquid once youve removed any solid stuff into a bin liner.
Then Dr Beckmann carpet stain remover.
Then bi-carbonate of soda to sprinkle over the area, rub in and then vacuum up after an hour. You may have to keep repeating these steps.
This worked for me on orange vomit on a pale carpet.
The best advice I got online was that you have to just keep going with it & try different things. It took me a few days.
I also initially put bin bags over my slippers as the area was huge and awful. I'd recommend you do the same.
Good luck!

I feel for you. I had this concern whilst caring for elderly uncle. Took advantage of a hospital stay for them to remove the carpet and put cheaper vinyl wipeable flooring down . Two days after he returned I was so glad. Mopped up with towel that got binned and able to wash floor twice with disinfectant.

I’ve not had to deal with this, but my Vax Platinum is excellent. It came with a concentrated spot solution, and if I was dealing with this I’d get an old blunt knife and scrape off as much as possible, then use the concentrated stuff on the areas, then clean overall. A friend used hers to get rid of dog crap her DC had walked in - although I can imagine this will be worse.

Sounds as if the situation will keep repeating itself!

OP said it was due to severe food poisoning so hopefully for all their sakes that isn't a regular occurrence 🤞

Maybe it's not the kind of thing insurance would cover, but no harm in checking.

I had to deal with a similar situation for DMIL last weekend (albeit from a distance). She refused a professional cleaner and can’t afford a VAX/similar.

I read something on here about cleaning solutions for pet waste - they have proteins/enzymes in to help deal with the smell. No idea if they’ve worked yet, but I ordered Dr Beckmann pet carpet cleaner on Amazon for them. Good luck.

FWIW, similar happened to me in my teens (turns out I had contracted dysentery while travelling). I got out of bed, collapsed, crawled for a bit and made it part of the way out of my bedroom and towards the bathroom before I passed out and was found by my parents a little while later (no idea how sick I was - I'd just gone to bed early as was feeling a bit peaky, so they were downstairs and didn't hear anything until one of them came up to go to the loo and found me.)

Anyway, as it was a diagnosed illness, we were able to claim for a professional clean/carpet replacement on the house insurance, who also paid for a short hotel stay for my parents (I was in hospital). So it might be worth checking their house insurance.

Was it something they’d cooked themselves or eaten out? Only asking as my DF is in his 80s and doesn’t believe in sell by dates ?
He has care but one of the carer’s roles is to throw out anything out of date .

Before this intervention he had campylobacter twice 😣

Poo never really comes out of carpet can you put vinyl down instead? Or you could put plasic strips around leading to the toilet. Or a few of those bathroom mats, they can just go in the washing machine if they get poo on them.

Sadly, incontinence is a side effect of aging!

Can claim on the house insurance, and then get plastic sheeting for the carpets for the future. :)