Fallen Down, Can't Get Up: What To Do?

A few Saturdays ago, I got out of bed and fell down.

I didn't trip, nor did I pass out. My legs just gave out from under me and I fell.

Normally, falling down wouldn't be a big problem for me. Usually, I'm able to get right back up and go on with whatever I was doing before I fell. I even try to make it look as if it was something I intended to do all along.

But this time was different. I was like that little old lady in the television commercial who used to say: "I've fallen and I can't get up!" The commercial was for an emergency service that would notify somebody that she was in trouble.

I didn't have the emergency service and my wife and kids were gone for the day. If I was going to get off the bedroom floor, I would have to do it myself. But the more I tried getting myself back on my feet, the more my legs refused to go along with the plan.

As I struggled to get up, I thought back to an incident a friend, who also has multiple sclerosis, told me about. He had fallen between the toilet and the wall one morning and gotten wedged there. The more he struggled, the more frustrated he became. The more frustrated he became, the worse his situation became.

He ended up spending several hours wedged between the wall and toilet until his wife came home from work and freed him.

That Saturday I also spent a few hours on the floor. I wasn't hurt, but my legs wouldn't work. Every time I tried to pull myself up, my legs would lock and they wouldn't support me.

To pass the time, I started writing this column.

When something like this happens, I wondered, what should a person do? I could get to a phone (a portable one is next to my bed), but should I use it to call 911? If a fire truck shows up, do they pick me up and put me back in bed? Or are they required to take me to the hospital to have me checked over?

If the last thing happened, I didn't want my wife and kids to come home and find a note on the front door, saying I've been taken to the hospital and they could find me there. That might upset them.

After talking with several fire departments in the area and some people who have fallen down, it turns out there are several options available, from calling 911 to having an emergency button on your person to call for help. Some people keep a cellular phone with them at all times.

If I had dialed 911, said Lt. Dean Harm of the Bellevue Fire Department, a fire truck (or a medic van) would have shown up and the firefighters would have gotten me back in bed.

"We would check you over, and if you aren't injured, we would have gotten you up," Harm said. "It's all part of our community service."

A lot of times, Harm said, an older wife will need help getting her husband back in bed.

"If it happens every day, we will refer the person or couple to a community service that will help them make their home safer and evaluate the situation," he said.

If the caller tells the 911 operator it is a "non-emergency" response, the fire department will show up without the sirens screaming, Harm said.

Lt. Donald Sharp of Seattle's Medic One unit said they also help people who fall, and they try to find out what caused the fall. If they think the person needs to be taken to a hospital, they will call a private ambulance for them, Sharp said.

"We'll transport to the hospital if there is a need to," he said. "If someone falls on the sidewalk, we aren't going to leave someone lying until an ambulance comes."

Irene Stahl of Tacoma uses the Tacoma Fire Department a few times a year to help her get off the floor. She has multiple sclerosis, and she said she has learned to fall so she doesn't hurt herself. "I fall very gently," she said.

The first time she fell in her Tacoma apartment, she called 911 and four firefighters showed up.

"They were very nice about it," Stahl said. "They know how to pick me up without hurting me. They got me back to bed."

When she calls 911, Stahl said she tells the operator that it's a non-emergency, non-injury situation. She also tells them her door is unlocked (Stahl lives in a secured apartment building so the front door is locked) and that she just needs help getting up.

Now she has a medic-alert alarm that will call a monitoring service. An operator at the service has a list of names of relatives and friends to contact who can go to Stahl's apartment. But if no one is available, the Tacoma Fire Department is called.

The medic alert used by Stahl and thousands of people around Puget Sound is operated out of Boston. Most major hospitals have similar alarm systems or can put people in touch with one. Most of them work like this: When someone presses an alarm button they wear on their clothes or around their neck, an operator talks directly to the person through a speaker in the device itself or set up elsewhere in the house.

The operator asks the nature of the emergency and whether an aid car is needed. If so, they will call one. If the person says they don't need an aid car, some of the services call back in a few minutes just to make sure everything is OK.

Janet Jolley of Providence-General Hospital in Everett is the program coordinator for Life Line Services. She said most of the calls are for help in getting back up. The monitoring service costs $25 to set up and $25 a month to operate. Jolley said there is financial help available for low-income people.

"I get an incident report every time someone presses the button," she said. "If it happens a lot, then we contact the caregiver to find out what is going on."

In my case, I stayed on the floor until my 14-year-old daughter came home and she tried to help me stand up. But I was too heavy, so she called my 18-year-old son, who came home and put me back in bed.

Next time I fall (and I imagine there will be a next time), I won't stay on the floor for four hours waiting for someone to come home. Now I think I'll just give my family a couple of hours to show up before calling 911.

Getting Around runs the first Wednesday of each month in the Scene section of The Seattle Times. You can reach Steve Johnston at 206-515-5634, fax him at 425-453-0449, write to him at The Seattle Times Eastside Bureau, 10777 Main St., Bellevue, WA 98004, or e-mail him at east@seattletimes.com

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