tragic accident!!!

[68RN]

I heard on the news about an elderly female Alzheimer's patient who wandered away from her area and fell down a staircase to her death!!! Can you only imagine the horror and grief at that place!! No one and I mean no one goes in to work to do a patient harm. And those nursing homes, assisted living are notoriously understaffed. I understand it was an upscale home. but why oh why have stairs any where near these type of patients?? i worked long term care for 9 years during my career and it was a problem just keeping up with them at a one level facility.

I don't know all the details on this and of course, my heart goes out to the family and staff that had her under their care that day, and the poor lady as she was falling down the stairs. Hope she wasn't aware of what was going on. Can you imagine if you were the RN in charge of this patient. but if it was:bluecry1: an assisted living, there might have just been a CMA on. I do not know the regs here on staffing.

Maybe some out here knows more about this. I just can't get this out of my mind!!!!

[Jo Dirt]

Falls kill more old people than any other kind of accident. It's unfortunate but it is not worth dwelling on. My father-in-law died from a massive brain hemorrhage from a (minor) fall recently. When they suggested we put him on the hospice unit rather than go through surgery we were not joyous that he was going to die, but the way we looked at it, it was a quick way to end what might have ended up being months longer of suffering.

Old age is sad but it is part of the cycle of life. When I get to the point where I'm going downhill I hope I'm taken quickly, rather than linger.

[Butterfliesnroses]

How terrible!!! I'm an aide in LTC and I feel awful and blame myself when my resident falls. It doesn't help when my MIL talks of how she thinks it makes an aide bad when their resident falls. MIL used to work in LTC in the 80s when it was okay to restrain. We don't restrain in the facility I work at. The only type of restraint is fall alarms. Problem with those they don't go off until the person is up. I once had a lady get a HUGE gash in her leg, blood everywhere, I was crying I felt SO awful (it was from a mans w/c)...Anyways no stairs where I work...I'm quite surprised that regs don't say no stairs d/t the risk of falling.

[nightmare, RN]

We do have stairs,it being an old building.The stairs all have gates on them with both bolts and security chains.If someone is trying to open the gate the noise of the chain rattling is usually enough to alert staff!

[llg, PhD, RN]

Falls kill more old people than any other kind of accident. It's unfortunate but it is not worth dwelling on. My father-in-law died from a massive brain hemorrhage from a (minor) fall recently. When they suggested we put him on the hospice unit rather than go through surgery we were not joyous that he was going to die, but the way we looked at it, it was a quick way to end what might have ended up being months longer of suffering.

Old age is sad but it is part of the cycle of life. When I get to the point where I'm going downhill I hope I'm taken quickly, rather than linger.

I was wondering how to express similar thoughts without offending people. Thank you for expressing them so well.

Having dealt with the deaths of my grandparents and parents, I have similar views. A quick accident in which no one else is hurt can sometimes be a "better" way to die than a long, lingering, expensive period of suffering that serves no positive purpose.

While I certainly wish harm to no one and believe we should protect all patients from such accidents, I can think of a lot of events that are far more tragic.

[missjennmb]

A quick accident in which no one else is hurt can sometimes be a "better" way to die than a long, lingering, expensive period of suffering that serves no positive purpose

I know this is not the topic, but I would rather have more time than less physical pain. I guess this is a wake up call that I need to discuss this with my family in case they are ever in the position to make that kind of decision for me...