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A True Story

I'd like to start out the new year by telling you a story and by giving you a small gift. The story is true. The gift is yours to use for yourself and anyone you care about - you may have as many as you'd like to use.

Here's the story:

The week before Christmas I was asked to visit with an elderly lady and the profoundly disabled woman, about age 45, she was caring for. I arrived at the appointed date and time, and no one answered the door or the phone. I could see mail in the box at the front door. Two days later, after making several more calls that went unanswered, I began to feel uneasy. I drove by the house again. More mail in the box, and still no answer to the bell.

I knocked on several of the neighbors' doors, but no one knew anything about the two women who lived in the house in question. Knowing that I would feel like a fool if I were wrong, but also knowing that I couldn't ignore a possibly serious problem, I called 911.

Within half an hour of my call emergency responders were able to gain entry to the house. Inside they found what I had hoped they wouldn't...an elderly lady deceased in her bed, and a younger woman still alive, but in terribly bad shape, near death and unable to communicate.

I couldn't answer most of the paramedics' questions. I had not yet met the women, so I didn't have much information about the younger woman's health history. I didn't know her physician's name or what medications she was taking. All this vital information I had planned to gather during my first
assessment visit.

The emergency room doctors were gravely hampered by not knowing much more than their patient's name. Most of the critical information they needed to treat this young woman died with her caregiver. Some has since surfaced as distant relatives have been able to fill in some blanks, but the doctors
are still working with sketchy information.

It appears now that she will probably live, although this is far from certain. The doctors and nurses have done a heroic job of caring for a medically complex patient under the worst of circumstances with absolutely no information. How much faster and more efficiently could they all have addressed her needs had they had even the most basic information?

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What Would Have Helped?

One of the first things I suggest to clients when I visit them for an assessment is a Vial of Life. The Vial Of Life gets its name from the container that was originally used to contain vital medical information about an individual in a private residence. When the idea was first introduced, a large pill bottle was suggested - hence the "Vial."

(With reference to medication, "vial" usually indicates a glass container of liquid medication, but we won't quibble with the concept). Emergency Medical Personnel were instructed to look for a "Vial of Life" - a brown pill bottle containing a homeowner's medical history - in the refrigerator.

There was quite a push for this program several years ago, but the momentum seems to have slowed down. When I stopped into a local fire station a while ago to ask about the Vial of Life program in my own hometown of Dallas, Texas, the paramedics just looked at me blankly. They had never heard of it.

So, because not every EMS knows to look in the refrigerator for medical information, now the idea is to place it in a clear bag taped to the outside of the refrigerator. Paramedics can locate the information immediately without searching, which they are often not allowed to do.

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A Vial Of Life On Every 'Fridge

If you've been reading this newsletter for any length of time at all, or if you've poked around the Eldercare Team website, you know that I strongly recommend...advocate... push for...insist - by any name you want to call it - that you have medical information for the people you care about handy.

But what if emergency personnel need to help your loved one right now? They don't have time to look through purses and wallets for I.D. and emergency contact information, and in some communities they aren't permitted to. They don't know what medical problems your loved one might have. By the time someone in an emergency room gets around to calling you, assuming they know you exist, critical time can be lost.

If one of your parents is caregiver for the other, would your less able parent be able to give critical information to emergency personnel if the caregiving parent were taken ill?

The solution is a Vial of Life bag on the refrigerator in every home where medical history and medication information would be critical to emergency care.

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My New Year's Gift To You

I've put together a Vial of Life kit that you can use to make as many sets as you and your family might need.

Complete the information form as soon as you can, and tape your small plastic bag to the refrigerator. Put your alert sign on the front door.

Like any insurance, you hope you never need it. Unlike most insurance, it costs you absolutely nothing but a few minutes of your time, a bag, and some tape to make potentially lifesaving information immediately available to emergency personnel who might urgently need it to help someone you love.

Make this one of your achievable resolutions today - grab a Vial of Life kit. Get one up on the refrigerator in every home where emergency personnel might one day need vital information.

Please pass this gift on to everyone you know. Ask them to pass it along, too. If you'd like to put the URL in an email to someone, it's: http://www.eldercareteam.com/pdffiles/vialoflife.pdf

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Happy Birthday Baby Boom

January 1: Baby Boom Birthday - The 18-year period known as the baby boom began on January 1, 1946 (the first full year of peace after WW II). 600,000 more babies were born in 1946 than in 1945. Kathleen Casey, born one second after midnight, was the first baby boomer.

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And on that note to all Baby Boomers everywhere, I'd like to remind you that:

Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese.
-- Billie Burke

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Don't keep us a secret. If you know other people who should be reading this too, then do them and us a favor by telling them about Care Matters: Mastering The Eldercare Maze ™. Just send them to this link: http://eldercareteam.com/resources/newsletter.htm

We have an ever-growing collection of articles on the subject of caring for older adults. Some have appeared in this newsletter, some haven't. Browse around as much as you'd like at
http://www.eldercareteam.com/resources/articles/index.htm

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Molly

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Molly Shomer
Head Coach
The Eldercare Team
http://www.eldercareteam.com
mshomer@eldercareteam.com
Box 700291
Dallas, TX 75370
(972) 395-7823

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© 2005 Molly Shomer, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from Elder CareTips: Mastering The Eldercare Maze (TM) as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link and email link. I would appreciate it if you would let me know where the material will appear.