Trixie has bad fall after mix up
A 96-year-old woman who fought health officials when her home help came under threat was left in a mess of blood and porridge after suffering a bad fall.
Trixie Cottingham fell at her Levin home on Saturday, February 11 when attempting to fix her own breakfast after her carer did not arrive at the usual time of 8am.
Her care provider, Healthcare NZ Community Health, extended its sympathies to Cottingham and apologised for any miscommunication the carer’s start time.
Cottingham, who narrowly avoided having her home help cut by Midcentral District Health Board last year, said her carer had recently begun to help her prepare breakfast on Saturdays.
But on the day of her fall, the carer did not arrive when expected and Cottingham fell while trying to make it herself, which resulted in a ten-day-long stay at the Horowhenua Health Centre.
The fall happened on the way from the kitchen to her bedroom.
Cottingham had one hand on her walker and the other balancing a bowl of porridge when something caught her foot, causing her to trip.
‘‘Down I went, porridge, muesli, and blood all over me, down to the floor.’’
Cottingham said she would have waited for the carer if she had known they were coming later.
Cottingham returned home on Monday.
‘‘I will be alright. I’m home and that’s a blessing.’’
Healthcare national operations manager Eleanor Mactavish said their carers came at varying times, between 8am and 10.30am.
‘‘We apologise for over any miscommunication that might have occurred around the rostered time of arrival.’’
The carer arrived at the rostered time of 9am at which time Cottingham had already been taken to hospital, Mactavish said.
Healthcare will support Cottingham’s recovery and will work with Midcentral to determine any changes needed to her service, she said.
Horowhenua Grey Power publicity officer Terry Hemmingsen said carers should arrive at the same time every week or inform people of a time change.
‘‘It’s absolutely crucial, otherwise we have incidents like this.’’
Home care was both mentally and physically helpful for older people, he said.
‘‘If you ask older people where they’d rather be for their emotional security, as much as anything else, they will tell you they want to be in their own home.
‘‘Some people see going to a care facility as a prison sentence.
‘‘They know going in they are not coming out.’’
Midcentral District Health Board, which organises the home care provider, came under fire in November when Cottingham received a letter informing her the home care would be cut.
After a Manawatu Standard investigation, the DHB decided to continue providing her with home help, though it was cut from 90 minutes to one hour per week.
Midcentral spokesman Craig Johnston said the DHB funded the home care, but the details of what days, times and specific tasks were involved were agreed on between the individual and their care provider.
‘‘All our local providers have good mechanisms for dealing with client concerns around their care.
‘‘When problems arise the first step is for the client to talk to the provider.’’
Cottingham said she was reluctant to make a formal complaint because she was ‘‘too old to deal with all that’’.
She had also not had time to think about it since getting out of hospital, she said.