Hoist – a cautionary tale

[Doug Carpenter]

My bedtime carers were very late yesterday evening. The office rang to say that there was an incident at the previous client.

Apparently, the lady had been hoisted up from somewhere and then the hoist stopped working! The battery was fully charged and from what I could tell, the problem was a fault in the controller. They eventually released her by building a pile of duvets and pillows underneath her. I don’t know the exact details.

I have always assumed that there is a manual override system on the hoists. Either this hoist did not have one, or it too was faulty.

A frightening experience for all concerned, I’m sure!

Doug

[Ellie]

Doug, the usual culprit for a hoist to suddenly stop working is that someone inadvertently pushed the emergency stop button, which hoists have, and carers unaware of the hoist's workings.

And hoists have an emergency release switch too, not that it suddenly drops the person!!

It might be the perfect time to familarise yourself and your carers with both the emergency stop button (mine, for example, is a push in to engage, but needs a twist to release it) and locate the emergency release button on your own hoist - if you don't know where they are, the user manual has all their details.

I've had both of these issues in the past.

Love Ellie.

[Doug Carpenter]

Thanks Ellie.

Good advice! Will do.

Love

Doug

[denise]

oh my goodness. imagine being stuck like that. how horrible. even worse if the same carers would be coming round to put you in a hoist. its a worry.

[Suefromwakey]

Ellie that's one to think of then, I can imagine the patient and the carer being a bit er panicked!

[Ellie]

Suefromwakey Just a tad Sue - thankfully the day my hoist ran out of juice mid-lift, I had common sense carers on and knew about the emergency release, so I wasn't left suspended in mid-air!

I found out another carer had been 'charging' the hoist with the emergency button pushed in for some strange reason - note to hoist users: the battery does not charge if the emergency button has been pressed 😏

Still, a good training prompt for all my carers, including a "if the charging lights don't come on when the hoist is plugged in, you need to let me know"...

[matthew55]

Personally I have been taken Ibuprofen since day one and recently by the bucket as it is my only pain relief. My breathing is fine. We are all different but never give in to fear. 😀x

[Ellie]

See, you do it too - make random posts in threads!! 😂

[richard]

See, you do it too - make random posts in threads!! 😂

But we still love him

[matthew55]

It was more due to early onset dementia 😀x

[Ellie]

That we do richard