Pendant saved horror-fall gran’s life
77-YEAR-OLD SAYS SHE WOULD HAVE BLED TO DEATH WITHOUT HER ALERT GADGET
THE life of a Winshill grandmother was saved by a small gadget around her neck after a fall in her home left her unconscious and bleeding heavily.
Muriel Hoose, 77, who lives alone with her cat Pebbles, tripped and fell in her bedroom one evening and was left unable to get up from the floor.
Fortunately for the retired nurse, she was wearing her pendant from First Call, a service from Trent & Dove, which she pressed to alert first responders that she was in distress.
She said: “If I hadn’t had this round my neck, I wouldn’t be here today. It’s as simple as that.
“I would have lay there slowly bleeding to death if it wasn’t for this.
“They were all marvellous and helped me when I needed it.”
At around 10.30pm in the evening, Muriel was tucked up in bed when a bulb in a lamp she keeps on during the night blew and needed changing.
She got up, without her torch, to change it but tripped over her duvet. She then fell over her chair and ottoman before hitting the wall.
Being on the medicine warfarin at the time meant that her blood was not clotting and she started to bleed more profusely than would normally be expected. The blood loss was causing her to drift in and out of consciousness.
But help soon came after she pressed the button on her pendant.
Within seven minutes, people from First Call trained in first aid had arrived at Muriel’s home and found her unconscious. They then called an ambulance.
Muriel spent four days at Queen’s Hospital, in Burton, before returning to the home she has lived in for 55 years. The grandmother-of-three is now hoping her experiences will convince others to sign up for the scheme that saved her life. Muriel pays around £30 a month for the First Call service, which means she is able to stay independent for longer, while knowing there is help just around the corner if she needs it.
The service, provided by Trent & Dove, offers fall detectors, temperature control, door sensors, smoke detectors and bed sensors.
She said: “What I pay works out at around £1 a day. What is that when compared to your life? Smokers pay far more than that on cigarettes, where this could save your life – it did mine! I’d never be without it.”
Muriel has now recovered from the incident and is in Manchester, enjoying the Christmas market with her daughter Bev.