How can this happen?

DeejayR

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2,375
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
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Diet only
A little tale from one of my neighbours.
She and her husband are both diabetic, and like me were called in recently for the annual retinopathy test at the local hospital (conducted by an outside source, not the hospital).
Her husband is in his eighties, has poor eyesight, is almost completely deaf, and walks with difficulty with sticks. However, he gets around in an electric buggy.
He got himself to the hospital in his buggy, as he has done in past years, and no one has ever suggested he should not drive himself home.
This year because of his deafness he could not respond to the tester's instructions about looking left and right, and in the end the tester apparently gave up without getting a result.
Our old chap, presumably with his vision even more defective than usual due to the eye-drops, then encountered roadworks on his way home, turned round to seek another route, and got lost.
Long story short, a police patrol found him six hours later, five miles away, hobbling along the verge of a dual carriageway on his sticks, his buggy having run out of power. He was of course confused and distressed. It seems no-one else had stopped to help him,
The police rang his wife and took him home. She seems resigned to "yet another episode among many", but rather worse than most.
How could that happen at the hospital? I'm gobsmacked.
 
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CarbsRok

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4,688
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Type 1
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Insulin
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pasta ice cream and chocolate
Surely the apt letter stated no driving? And if he is that badly sighted he isn't legal to drive a buggy anyway. Perhaps ask his wife if you can steal his battery so he can't go out in it?
 
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DeejayR

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,375
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Surely the apt letter stated no driving? And if he is that badly sighted he isn't legal to drive a buggy anyway. Perhaps ask his wife if you can steal his battery so he can't go out in it?
I'm sure it did say no driving -- we all get the same letters.
He goes out every day in his buggy, shopping, library -- even went to the tip with rubbish when we had a tip. He recognises me from several yards away but can't hear anything I say (or shout).
 

Phlogiston

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Messages
163
Type of diabetes
Gestational
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Diet only
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Diabetes, ofsted inspectors, uninvited phonecalls
But I guess he thought mobility scooters didn't count.
Shame someone couldn't have gone with him. We have an annual trip to visit father in law for that. (We do visit for other reasons!)
 
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Lamont D

Oracle
Messages
15,793
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
A little tale from one of my neighbours.
She and her husband are both diabetic, and like me were called in recently for the annual retinopathy test at the local hospital (conducted by an outside source, not the hospital).
Her husband is in his eighties, has poor eyesight, is almost completely deaf, and walks with difficulty with sticks. However, he gets around in an electric buggy.
He got himself to the hospital in his buggy, as he has done in past years, and no one has ever suggested he should not drive himself home.
This year because of his deafness he could not respond to the tester's instructions about looking left and right, and in the end the tester apparently gave up without getting a result.
Our old chap, presumably with his vision even more defective than usual due to the eye-drops, then encountered roadworks on his way home, turned round to seek another route, and got lost.
Long story short, a police patrol found him six hours later, five miles away, hobbling along the verge of a dual carriageway on his sticks, his buggy having run out of power. He was of course confused and distressed. It seems no-one else had stopped to help him,
The police rang his wife and took him home. She seems resigned to "yet another episode among many", but rather worse than most.
How could that happen at the hospital? I'm gobsmacked.
It would be funny, if it wasn't so serious.
The caring society? Ha!
 

DeejayR

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,375
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Could be that he also might be in the early stages of dementia?
I think mentally he's very switched on normally, but his diabetes is causing him a lot of problems. I'm not Type 1 so I can only guess. He once spent several hours trying to walk in his nightshirt from his bedroom to the bathroom, but no matter how hard he stomped he couldn't move forwards or backwards. We got him a chair to rest but had to call the paramedics and he spent three days in hospital before he was stabilised.
 

DeejayR

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,375
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
His wife, who is Type 2 and on no medication, told me today she found a recipe for sugar-free cake which only has apple and currants in, so she added a banana ...
 
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lizdeluz

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1,306
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Local hospital found wanting in this case. Obviously not able to go home alone. Weird that they left him to his own devices, unable to see and hear!!:eek:
 
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MarkE

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72
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Tablets (oral)
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Woo
Local hospital found wanting in this case. Obviously not able to go home alone. Weird that they left him to his own devices, unable to see and hear!!:eek:

I've been caught myself this sort o thing- only in my 40's, but after a kidney stone op (ruddy big stone, alas) and drugged to the nines- thought it was a great idea to get the bus home... NOT a genius idea. Wife nearly went potty trying to find me, think she'd have killed someone were she less of a gentle woman.

They don't always think things through.

The results can be tragic- or, thankfully, merely comic.
 

kateincornwall

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645
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Diet only
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People who lie , animal cruelty , boredom and pineapple !
Poor old boy , care in the community eh ? I think not , glad all ended safely but it could have been very different , shame for him :(
 
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PatsyB

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2,956
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Type 2
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How awful for him... I do hope some one told the Hospital of this poor man's horrible experience so it does not happen again :(