Middle aged and older women take care!
By sylvia13
@sylvia13 (1850)
Nelson Bay, Australia
March 28, 2007 4:58am CST
Be careful so that this does not happen to you! The problem I am going to talk about actually happened to my aunt Margaret, who lives in California and is 86 years old. One day she decided to have a bath to relax and so she could wear something nice afterwards. I guess she run some water on her bathtub and then went in. I don't know exactly how hot that water was, but when she finished her bath and tried to get out she found that she couldn't! The afternoon and later the evening came and although she tried many times, she found that she wasn't able to! The next morning one of her neighbours noticed that there were two newspapers on her front door and that gave her the alarm, so she called my cousin to come and investigate. My cousin did come, they found my aunt and she ended up in hospital for a check up. My aunt joked about it afterwards, but it is not funny! When I told my sister in law about it, she sadly told me that was the way they found her grandmother, dead in the bathtub!
2 people like this
4 responses
@trinidadvelasco (11401)
• Philippines
28 Mar 07
This is alarming. Since we cannot stop people from taking baths and using the bathtub, it is now wise to consider placing some gadgets or improvements around the tub which, can help those who get into this situation get up. Something to hold on as the person in the bathtub struggles to get up might be a good thing. This will have to be two units, one for the left hand and another one for the right hand.
1 person likes this
@lafavorito (2959)
• Philippines
29 Mar 07
OMG. It's a good thing that we don't have a bathtub. My 86 year old granpa have his own caregiver who assists him in the shower, people in the age of 70 - 80 should seek help while taking baths.
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
28 Mar 07
This is something to be feard for younger people that also have phyical disabilities as well. not onlu could extra ades be put around the tub but some way to call for help should also be kept very close to the tub. One of those help monitors that are shown on tv that is worn around the neck would be a good idea.
@lisagayle (393)
• United States
29 Mar 07
I am only 31 and I hav had this happen to me before, I got too relaxed, I guess, I was lucky though, my husband was home and came in to check on me and I told I could'nt get up and he lifted me out of the tub, put me on the bed and just put a sheet over me, I think I got the water too hot and basically had a small episode of heat exhaustion, it probably could have lead to a heat stroke, if he had not gotten me out when he did, that may be what happend to your aunt, since she is older and more succeptible to heat and cold.
