Elderly lady breaks leg
By David Waters, Managing Director CHIS and PrimeCare Insurance
December 10, 2011
We have a client who runs a lovely care home - the residents and staff are all active and happy. It's always a pleasure to visit. Last year though they had an unfortunate mishap involving one of the elderly residents.
The resident was being helped carefully and considerately into a wheelchair. The home was short of two carers this day. After helping the resident into the wheelchair, the carer then went to push the wheelchair but the resident's foot was not on the foot plate.
The wheelchair hit her leg with her foot caught underneath the footplate. Her bones were brittle and she suffered phenomenal pain and a broken leg.
All the carer could do afterwards was to cry and keep saying "I'm so sorry". She had never thought the consequences could be so damaging and, of course, could so easily have been avoided.
I'm pleased to say the lady resident made a full recovery, and although her health has since deteriorated, she returned to the care home when she came out of hospital.
Her family have started legal proceedings against the home and we are waiting to see where this will go.
Lesson
The shame with this story is, as with the majority of claim circumstances I see, it could so easily have been avoided. This employee experienced an extremely unfortunate lapse of judgement which certainly highlights the need for carers to work in groups.
In my experience, the system seems to breakdown when an employee is either off on holiday or sick. Sick-leave tends to be the worst situation as most care businesses have no plan in place for anyone to take on the managerial responsibilities when they're short-staffed.
It's vital to supervise the actions of your staff even more so when there are staff absences.