Tag Archives: carer
NHS elderly care: sole carer coughing blood sent home
NHS elderly care: sole carer coughing blood sent home
Hundreds of Daily Telegraph readers have contacted the newspaper, offering examples of just how badly the NHS is failing elderly people. Here is one:
By Andy Bloxham 8:00AM GMT 16 Feb 2011
Retired accountant John Williams, 80, is the sole carer for his wife Grace, 71, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
Last Saturday, Mr Williams, a former football referee and cricket umpire, began coughing up blood and mucus and was taken to West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen.
He was given an X-ray which showed “shadows” on his lungs but was told to wait overnight to be seen by a specialist.
By this time, Mr Williams had developed constipation which became increasingly uncomfortable. When, at around 4am on Sunday he requested a suppository, it did not arrive until around 11am, seven hours later.
The specialist, who Mr Williams said claimed to have already seen 50 patients during the weekend, told him he needed further tests but would have to wait three weeks, and he was discharged
Fighting back tears, Mr Williams told the Daily Telegraph: “I’m 80 years old and I’m coughing up blood every day. It’s getting worse not better. I was told to wait three weeks but I might not last three weeks.
“I’m going to be dead before long. Then my wife won’t have anybody to look after her.
“I’m the only person she’s got. I sort out all her pills. If I’m not there, she gets confused and takes the wrong ones. Last time, she ended up in hospital.
“I just feel that I’m dying and no one cares. I’m sure I’ve got pneumonia – I’ve had it before.
“Not everyone’s bad at the hospital: some of the girls are nice but you ask some of them to do something and they just walk away.
“I don’t want to die – I just want to be treated.”
No one from Carmarthenshire NHS Trust, which runs the West Wales hospital, was available for comment.
Carers’ manifesto gives candidates a yellow card
Carers’ manifesto gives candidates a yellow card
Monday February 14 2011
A mother who cares for her severely disabled son round the clock has become the public face of a ‘yellow card’ campaign targeting election candidates.
Alison McKim, from Terenure in Dublin, who looks after her son Zach (19), has fronted the campaign in a bid to highlight the plight of the country’s 160,000 carers.
“Zach is totally dependent. He was born with with cerebral palsy, is blind and suffers from seizures,” said Alison at the pre-election manifesto launch by the Carers’ Association.
She had only managed to get a few hours’ sleep the night before.
“Zach got quite chesty at about 10pm last night and I had to give him nebulisers and chest physiotherapy.
“By the time he was settled back it was 1.30am and he was awake at 4.30am this morning, suffering a couple of seizures.
“Thankfully they were not too bad and we got him back to sleep at 5.30am and we were back up again at 6.30am to get him up and ready for the day, giving medications and spoon feeding.”
Alison is reliant on the carers’ allowance of €204 a week but that was cut by €8 in the Budget.
She is thankful to the Carers’ Association for providing some hours respite every week but sometimes those 12 hours are the only time she can leave the house.
The yellow cards have been distributed across the country and feature Alison and Zach with a simple message: Act now for Ireland‘s invisible workforce.
Carers have been given a list of questions to put to candidates in advance of the election.
Enda Egan, the organisation’s chief executive, appealed to candidates to call to carers’ doors as so many are housebound.
The carers are also mounting their first virtual campaign which involves pictures of themselves holding up messages which can be uploaded and sent to www.carersireland.com. They are emailed to candidates.
Some of the poignant messages so far underline the carers’ despair.
One woman says: “Slave labour — do you work for less than €1 an hour?”
Another young girl looking after a relative simply says: “All work, no play.”
Mr Egan said family carers felt badly let down despite promises to protect the most vulnerable in society.
He said they had been the victims of harsh cuts and much reduced support services.
http://www.independent.ie/health/carers-manifesto-gives-candidates-a-yellow-card-2538860.html
Drink cherry juice to recover quicker
Drink cherry juice to recover quicker
Gym-goers and joggers have been advised to drink cherry juice after a study found that it helps reduce muscle damage caused by exercise.
7:00AM GMT 11 Feb 2011
Researchers gave 10 trained athletes one ounce of an antioxidant-packed cherry juice concentrate twice daily for seven days before and after an intense round of strength training.
The athletes’ recovery after the cherry juice concentrate was significantly faster compared to when they drank other juices without the same nutrient content of cherry juice.
After drinking cherry juice, athletes returned to 90 per cent of normal muscle force in 24 hours, compared to only 85 per cent of normal at the same time point without cherry juice.
This significant difference could affect an athlete’s next performance.
Researchers at Sports and Exercise Science Research Centre at London South Bank University believe that the powerful antioxidant compounds in cherry juice cut damage to athletes’ muscles – the damage that normally occurs when muscles are worked to their maximum – allowing muscles to recover more quickly.
The research is the latest linking cherries to muscle recovery.
Researchers attribute the benefits to anti-inflammatory, antioxidant compounds in the red fruit called anthocyanins, also responsible for cherries’ bright red colour.
Dr Wendy Bazilian, a registered dietitian and expert on super nutrients, said: “Cherries are what I call the ultimate superfood.
“Not only are they a perfect complement to a training routine since they are available year-round in dried, frozen and juice forms, but they taste great.”
Dr Bazilian says some of her favourite ways to include cherries in the diet range from topping dried cherries in oatmeal to enjoying a smoothie of cherry juice and low-fat yogurt.
In addition to the benefits of recovery after exercise, researchers also suggest cherries could reduce inflammation which is linked to heart disease and arthritis.
The research was published in the American College of Sports Medicine’s journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
http://goo.gl/UbUMu
