Dwarves/Little People in LTCFs

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Specializes in LTC.

We have a dwarf at our facility -- how common is this? I may be misinformed or ignorant, but I'd always had the impression that dwarves had many health complications that prevented them from making it to their seventies, or even sixties. Our dwarf doesn't have many real issues that I, as a CNA, know of. Just an arthritic knee is actually all I know of.

How common are dwarves in LTCFs? Do any of you have any? What are their health issues like?

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Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.

Little people or people of short stature often have a medical condition called dwarfism, but to call a person a dwarf is considered politically incorrect in this day and age. Most little people live a normal life span. For more information, please see the Little People of America website http://www.lpaonline.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=37298&orgId=lpa

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We had one in our facility. His problems were same as others. CHF, urinary retention from BPH, ect. He was in his 70's when he passed away. He also had a twin but he had passed before this guy came into our place.

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Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.

We have a married couple in my facility. Their health issues are similar to others' of the same age.

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Specializes in Government.

I used to work on a pediatric floor that also had a specialty clinic for dwarfism (all ages). The admits we saw were mostly for respiratory and ortho. There are many different forms of dwarfism so the health issues can vary. Lifespan tends to be normal.

I find that all illness states prefer the "person with" designation. It took me years to stop saying "diabetic". Of course, in-culture continues to be very much slang based. I'd not call anyone a dwarf anymore but it was very common to hear 2 LP freely call each other "dwarf".

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