Cherish and protect elderly
I WONDER what thoughts other people had if, and when, they read the report in the Herald of the death of the elderly gentleman who proudly would not accept offers of help, nor ask for the benefits to which he was, at 94 years of age, automatically entitled.
He was not receiving any outside help, he had fallen but had had no treatment.
His friend who visited once a week must have tried to give him the contacts that he needed.
The pathologist called the cause of death self-inflicted. The doctor had noted that he was malnourished.
What does this tell us about the society we live in? It is particularly relevant as we are coming into a period of time when people are going to be fighting for disability benefits and living allowances.
This gentleman was reported to talk a lot of the war, at 94 years of age, he could only have been speaking of the Second World War.
Born in 1917 – he would have been 27-years-old at the outbreak of the Second World War, but only three at the beginning of the first World War.
He outlived his relations and friends, and it sounds as though he had no family left.
As he was reported as always talking about the war, he must have been active and presumably useful to his country.
Where was the support for him in his old age? He did not want to go into the hospital as he thought he would never get home again (one sees his point), but we know the policy has been to keep the elderly at home because it costs less.
We have Neighbourhood Watch to protect our domestic consumables, but very little to protect and cherish our elderly.
It would not take much to survey every household, if the Council when they sent our council tax shaded an area near our own houses, on a map, and asked us to overlook folks of a certain age and frailty.
No need to be nosey – just be aware and phone in any signs of an elderly person who needs some care. I would rather have a scheme like this than a royal yacht.
JOCELYN McCARTHY
Dominica Court
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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roneoron
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:30 AMThat brought back memories Jocelyn. A couple of years ago I was siiting in Casualty at the DGH with my wife, watching over my 91 year old father-in-law as he was dying of a stroke. Here was a man who joined the TA when WW2 was on the horizon. He bought his wedding forward by six months, having had to apply to the Bishop of Chichester to do without the reading of the banns. A week later he was in France with his unit trying to ward off Hitler's panzers with a .303 rifle and 50 rounds of ammunition. Retreating to Dunkirk he managed to get back to Ramsgate on a fishing boat. He thought it was Ramsgate. As he said, he'd been on his feet for a couple of weeks and was too tired to take much notice. Re-equipped, he then went to North Africa and fought Rommel, into Sicily and fought through the length of Italy including the battle for Monte Cassino and into Germany at wars end. He was away from his wife for four years and always looked upon the whole thing as just his duty and nothing out of the ordinary. Very reluctant to talk about it, I only found out about his experiences when he was living with us after his wife died. I introduced him to the computer and we found out all sorts of things that he didn't know about the big picture he was involved in. His wife was an invalid for several years. We tried to get help from Social Services, but because he had been sensible and saved money during his long life, there was no help unless he was prepared to pay through the nose for private services. As a result my wife and I took on the job for the last six years of their lives. It was sometimes hard, but I'm glad now that we did it, and I learned a lot about that generation. The thing that I remember about the day that he died was the young man in the next cubicle at the DGH. Off his head with drink or drugs or both, he had thought it a good idea to put his fist through a glass window and sever an artery. It took two policemen and hospital security bods to hold him down while doctors saved his worthless life. What a contrast!
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