True Spirit Of Home Care

Posted: January 28, 2019

Some of you may recall an account of what I call "the true spirit of home care," as follows:

A home health aide in Maine visited a patient in the dead of winter. The main room of the patient's home was heated by a wood stove while the doors to the remainder of the rooms were closed, including the door to the only bathroom. The aide prepared to give the patient a bath. When she entered the bathroom she found a dead bear in the bathtub. This was not surprising to her because she knew that the bear was part of a source of food for the patient and family during the winter. But how was she going to give the patient a bath with a bear in the only bathtub?

The aide had a Hoyer lift that she used for the patient and quickly realized that she could use the lift for the bear, too. So she used the lift to remove the bear from the bathtub and move the patient into and out of the bathtub. Then she used the lift again to put the bear back in the bathtub where it "belonged."

©2019 Elizabeth E. Hogue, Esq.  All rights reserved.

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