A HOME help found an elderly grandmother who was laying on her bedroom floor for over 12 hours after a fall.
The 86-year-old had a fall in the bathroom of her Letterkenny home at around 11pm on Monday.
The woman managed to crawl into her bedroom, but lay on the carpet until her home help arrived just after 12noon on Tuesday.
Gardaí called to check on the woman after her daughter – who cannot visit as she is classified as high risk – became concerned when unable to contact her by telephone.
However, officers mistakenly believed the woman was fine when she responded as they called through the front window of her house.
“She is completely immobile and she was only found when the carers came to her,” her daughter, Lisa-Marie Wright, told Donegal Daily.
“She was on her own and fell in the bathroom. She has arthritis and a heart condition. She managed to crawl into the bedroom. She lay on the floor for over 12 hours.
“She wasn’t strong enough to lift herself up. She couldn’t even get a drink of water She tried to reach for the jug on her bedside table and it came down on top of her, so the poor woman was laying soaked.
“The guards thought she was okay and she was still there until the home help came.”
Lisa-Marie said her grandmother doesn’t have an alarm key fob, but will be seeking to get her one in the coming days.
Her home help called the emergency services, but her grandmother refused to be taken to hospital.
“She was afraid to go to hospital after everything that she has been hearing about the Covid-19 virus,” Lisa-Marie said.
“She is fine, though, thank God. It shows that people are scare to go into the hospital when they need to get looked at. The ambulance men were so good when they came. They were brilliant and so understanding.
“Granny is house proud and doesn’t want to bother people, but I’ll be getting her one of the wee alarms now.”
Lisa-Marie praised her grandmother’s home helps, who visit twice a day: “They are fantastic and they come in and do so much for granny.”
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