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May 20, 2007
No sooner than we had arrived....
We had only been home for a matter of hours, when reality set in... BIG TIME.
Because of jet lag, I happened to be awake and dressed at 4am, and was sitting down stairs having a cup of tea when there was this huge crash from upstairs. I ran up to my Dad's room to find him unconscious on the floor.
He remembers nothing, but it would seem that he was looking for his dislodged oxygen canular and became dizzy and overbalanced in the dark. He tipped froward and landed crumpled on the floor, maybe hitting the wall on the way down. I checked for breathing and pulse, and lifted him back into bed before summoning an ambulance. The ambulance crew were awesome and got my Father comfortable before taking him to Blackburn Royal infirmary.
Although he did not suffer any injury in the fall, his blood oxygen was desparately low and he has been admitted to the high dependency unit. He was x rayed and has a chest infection (very bad for a COPD patient) and has been put on a IPAP machine to help him breathe. The hospital is brand new and everything looks as though it has just been taken out of the box. Dad could not possibly be getting any better treatment and he seemed to be responding well to care as of our visit yesterday, giving me the usual long list of needs, wishes and wants.
All this has brought the family debate of Dad going into assisted care to the fore. If I had not been here, Florence would have had to deal with this crisis on her own. We have already had a meeting with social services and are coming up with a game plan for the future.
I am just very glad that I was here and that he, for now at least, seems to be doing better.
Ursula's beaming love to Dad, and processed the experience by sketching the scene and providing an illustration for the blog.
Posted by Andrew at May 20, 2007 3:33 AM