Elderly mother broke arm. What now?

[yogz1976]

My mum is 84 and has Parkinsons. Last Sunday she was in the garden when she tripped and broke her arm in two places. Paramedics came and took her to A&E who put her arm in a sling and told her to rest at home and take paracetomol. It has been 5 days since she broke her arm. Her arms shake uncontrollably from the Parkinsons and she was in a lot of pain. I called her GP on Tues and he prescribed codeine which has helped to make her a bit more comfortable. But we seem to be in limbo and I am worried for her. I get the impression that we are supposed to be contacted by the fractures/orthopoedic clinic, but this should have happened before now, is this right? I am worried her arm wont heal properly the longer this continues...

Some fracture clinics are still closed and face to face physio is still limited so you may have to be noisy to get the response you need.

Any paperwork from the hospital? Call them. Does she have a Parkinson’s nurse, or a clinic/consultant? Call them. A referral to the local falls team should have been made - you can call the gp, tell them you are worried she is going to fall again, and that should trigger a falls assessment which in turn should trigger occy health/physio etc.

@Purplewithred

Some fracture clinics are still closed and face to face physio is still limited so you may have to be noisy to get the response you need.

Any paperwork from the hospital? Call them. Does she have a Parkinson’s nurse, or a clinic/consultant? Call them. A referral to the local falls team should have been made - you can call the gp, tell them you are worried she is going to fall again, and that should trigger a falls assessment which in turn should trigger occy health/physio etc.

Thank you! I will do all you suggested. I was going to call the fracture clinic to find out what's going on, but I will also contact those other teams to try and get it pushed along. Hopefully a virtual consultation with a specialist should be enough as they should have all her x rays. I really feel she needs surgery though.

If you can't get swift answers go through PALS to speed things up.

@Babymamamama

If you can't get swift answers go through PALS to speed things up.

Thank you! I will bear that in mind