How hospitals end up being death traps for patients with dementia

Where problems often occur is when dementia sufferers have to be taken to a busy hospital, perhaps for a physical problem or investigation, where they do not get the one-on-one attention they are used to. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • Very many of these old folk are cared for lovingly in their own homes by relatives or by carers paid by the family.

  • Others are installed comfortably in nursing homes, perhaps not sure where they are, but assured of tender care.

  • John’s Campaign fights for more compassionate care for dementia sufferers and has achieved notable successes.

An old woman wandered the streets, asking people where her husband was so he could take her home. He had been dead many years.

In a nursing home, an old friend of mine, a retired teacher, was visited by her nephew. She thought he was one of her past pupils.

A television documentary showed an elderly man, looking worried and baffled as he opened door after door in his house, trying to remember the way out.

85,000 VICTIMS

You will have guessed that all three suffered from dementia, the disease of our age. As people grow older, the number grows bigger. There are 850,000 elderly dementia victims in the UK today and the figure is increasing at the rate of one every three minutes.

Very many of these old folk are cared for lovingly in their own homes by relatives or by carers paid by the family. Others are installed comfortably in nursing homes, perhaps not sure where they are, but assured of tender care.

Where problems often occur is when dementia sufferers have to be taken to a busy hospital, perhaps for a physical problem or investigation, where they do not get the one-on-one attention they are used to.

JOHN'S CAMPAIGN

Campaigner and journalist Nicci Gerrard described in The Observer newspaper how her father, John, went into hospital for leg ulcers. Hard-pressed nurses could not give him the attention he needed and visiting hours for loved ones were restricted. He became confused, dehydrated and malnourished and died seven months after leaving the hospital.

Nicci launched John’s Campaign, which fights for more compassionate care for dementia sufferers and which has achieved notable successes. These include a carer’s “passport,” which allows access to dementia patients outside of visiting hours, reclining chairs, pets allowed to visit, meals and cups of tea, rooms set aside if patients have to stay the night, anything to make patients’ lives less scary.

More than 1,000 wards, hospitals and other institutions have signed up to John’s Campaign whose aim is that institutional care will never be dangerous to people who are frail, confused and frightened.

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After actor Daniel Kaluuya and comedienne Njambi McGrath, motor racing driver Enaam Ahmed is the latest star with East African links to make his mark over here.

Aged just 18, Enaam, who grew up in London, won the British F3 title in 2016 at his first attempt, having picked up five go-karting titles as a younger teenager.

Moving to the European F3 was the obvious next step but motor racing at that level is prohibitively expensive and his entry was held up while he searched for funds. His father Shami, a Pakistani, and his mother, Samina, a Kenyan Indian, even put their house up for sale until financial backing was eventually secured for 2018.

Enaam now leads the current European F3 championship after a podium place at Pau in the opening round and victory last week at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary.

His dream is Formula1, following in the footsteps of his hero, Lewis Hamilton, the first black driver in Britain.

Although his mother is too frightened to watch him drive, there will be no let-up in Enaam’s ambitions. “In racing you have to be on it at all times,” he says. “I just love it.”

Actor Kaluuya’s mother comes from Uganda but he was born in London, and Njambi McGrath, grew up and was educated to university level in Kenya before relocating to the UK.

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Faced with declining numbers, the Church of England is turning to technology to boost its cause.

Last March, the Church announced that it would begin taking contactless card payments for services such as weddings and christenings at more than 16,000 churches, a move it said should appeal to young people who often do not carry cash.

Now it is offering worshippers the chance to use voice-activated virtual assistants to pray. People can ask Amazon’s Alexa device to read a prayer of the day, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer or to recite a grace before meals. The device can also find churches in or near a specified town, answer the question, Who is God? and deliver a statement on “What it means to believe in God.”

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A church minister bought a lawnmower but could not get it to work, so he took it back to the shop. Said the assistant, “You have to curse to make it start.” Shocked, the minister said, “But I haven’t cursed for thirty years.” “Just keeping pulling on the starter rope,” the assistant said, “and the words will come back to you.”

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A minister and a priest from a small country town stood at the roadside with a sign saying: “The end is near. Turn before it is too late.” When a car passed the driver shouted, “You guys are religious loonies.” Moments later there was a loud splash.

Said the minister to the priest, “Do you think we should just have written, ‘Bridge broken’”?