The accident

30th May 2020

Wendy has two regular carers that take her out on Saturday afternoons. They both give her different experiences and the idea is, that Wendy has the opportunity to go where she wants to go.

Beach, movie, fete, shopping, choose her lunch and have someone that she can share stories of her week with, while relaxing and having a laugh with a friend.

Wendy has always looked forward to these outings and when either of the two ladies couldn’t take her out a substitute was found and Wendy as social as she is would take it in her stride to go out happily with someone new.

This is what happened on this particular day a different carer who Wendy had been out with once or twice before. She is about 60 and a quiet timid type of lady, gentle and Wendy liked her.

On this particular day they returned somewhat later than expected by more than half an hour. I had noticed they were over their expected time but had been busy and not got to the worried stage. As expected they did soon appear.

The carer greeted my by saying that she was sorry they were late but they had been in an accident. I had seen the car pull up and I knew it was fine and the pair of them before me were looking pretty good.

The story came out that they had been in the local Westfield and on the travelator – which isn’t reommended for wheelchairs and when the carer had gone to take Wendy’s wheelchair brakes off at the bottom, she had been pushed from behind, by a large lady which had resulted in her falling and grazing her leg badly. Leaving Wendy without a “driver” and toppling out of the wheelchair.

The security people and a couple of by standers had come to their aid but the worman who caused it had hurried off into the crowd and not come forward to assist. To top it off the carer said the CCTV cameras were not operating at the time.

As Wendy is on warfarin – a blood thinner for her heart and if in the event of a fall she should be sent to hospital for scans to ensure she has no bleeding on the brain. In the past this has happend as part of the duty of care of both carer and the ambulance that had been called to check her over. She assured us that Wendy was ok and that the way the chair toppled she hadn’t impacted with the the floor heavily.

I was in the midst of painting our warehouse floor and wanted this assurance as I didn’t really want to go through ER on this Saturday afternoon. Let’s just say it is a selfish decision I regret deeply.

I reiterated the importance of us knowing how she had hit the ground and also let her know that we didn’t blame her as accidents happen and so long as we were being told the truth it was all good. We can handle the truth but need it to make the right informed choices. I did repeat this as a little corner of me was a bit suspicious on this story but I went against my better gut judgement and didn’t take Wendy to the hospital.

Wendy didn’t have anything further to add, she hadn’t seen anyone push past, and she said she wobbled and then was on the floor. She had a small bump on her head and a chipped and wobbly tooth. This really should have been my blinding moment of light to take her to the hospital but I resumed painting! (Wendy’s tooth was a dead tooth so she wasn’t in any pain fortunately)

That night the carer called to see how Wendy was and I could report that Wendy was in fine form and had had a good day. I again let her know the truth was more important, as we knew there would have been no ill intent. Accidents can and do happen and that if she did think Wendys landing may have had more of an impact after having some time to replay the event and calm down I would take Wendy to the hospital for a scan. Again she assured me that Wendy had not had a rough landing.

On the Monday dad took Wendy to the dentist. The dentist was able to do a repair on the tooth and secured the front tooth to the two other wobbly teeth! So three teeth had been damaged in the event.

Wendy has quite brittle teeth but never had she had this happen. The dentist commenting on what he could see in the x-ray; said he hadn’t seen anything quite like it before either. he showed dad the image. The teeth had been sheared off at the root below the gum. She would need to have surgery to remove the teeth.

This is when dad and I had a conversation that we doubted we had been told the truth by the carer. I began to feel quite guilty but a few days on and Wendy was thank God bobbing along normally.

A couple of days later Wendy showed me her upper thigh. It had a large bruise about the size of a bread and butter plate. My response was “Wow, Wendy that looks bad. Does it hurt?”

“No, but it is a dark purple”. That was all I heard about that bruise. I took a photo of it thinking this is not normal.

Within a few more days I got a call from the carer providers HR lady who informed me that she had been following up the incident report and had found that there was CCTV footage of the event and it wasn’t as the carer described. What had happened was she lost control of Wendys wheelchair and fell herself, half way down the travelator. The chair didn’t just gently topple over at the end but had come off at speed and there was no third party involved.

This information took my breath away, I felt and knew I had failed Wendy as her sister and advocate. I identified that she really couldn’t speak up for her self any more. There really were more changes going on for Wendy than I knew. Not all that long ago she could tell me when something bad had happened and who went through a red light, got honked, got a parking ticket,etc. I know as she could dob on us all in her family and friend network really good in particular so we do have a 100% open realationship on who did what so no hiding because of Wendy.

I felt so sad and appologetic toward Wendy; she had been unable to articulate the speed, loss of control and chaos that must of ensued with her falling like that out of her Wheelchair in a public place. She must have been completely overwhelmed.

I never saw the footage but it apparently showed her tipped over and the seat belt giving way for how her teeth were broken. Amazing that she only got the mildest of fat lips from it.

The HR lady came to visit us and to let Wendy know on behalf of their organisation that they were sorry. Next she wanted to know if we would want the carer stopped from ever taking Wendy out again. I could only say yes.

If she had come back and told the truth then sure we could have her care for Wendy. Accidents happen but there is no excuse for lying when in the role of carer. The trust was taken, and it was clear Wendy wasn’t able to articulate the situation even enough for us to directly question what had happended. This made me sad and was a another piece of change in the Wendy we knew.

Wendy went on to have tooth surgery, so had a day in hospital during COVID which was a new way of doing things, but I was grateful I was able to be with her.

She trialed invisaline dentures first, which we found she was going through a set every 2-3 months and health cover wasn’t going to keep covering that. We have now gone to acrylic dentures and although bulkier and taking longer to adapt to she seems to now be doing ok with them.

Her teeth in gneral will continue to be a problem as she does still have a few baby teeth. Our parents were told that due to medications that she was on as a young person not all her teeth developed. I do wonder if this is true or it is common for down syndrome children to just not always get all their teeth.

I have just googled that question and the answer is more probable that Wendy just didn’t get all her teeth.

A link to Down Syndrome – Dental Issues