My horror at finding beloved neighbour collapsed in her flat

NEWS Limited journalist Angela Saurine writes about discovering her frail, elderly neighbour collapsed on the floor of her flat.

I found my neighbour collapsed on floor

IT'S a sight that you never want to see, and an image that is sure to stay with me for some time.

As I turned the key to my elderly neighbour's door and slowly pushed it open I spotted her immediately, lying face-up on the floor at the entrance between her hallway and lounge room.

As we rushed to her side the realisation hit us that our beloved neighbour had been lying there for up to 24 hours - alone, unable to move, thirsty, hungry, and unable to go to the toilet.

A couple of days earlier I'd run into my increasingly frail neighbour on the stairs of our unit block, where she was struggling to work up the courage to take on the final step where the railing ended.

She told me she'd had a bad fall earlier in the week, and was nursing a painful bruised bottom.

I grabbed her rubbish bag and took it to the bin and retrieved her newspaper from the letterbox for her as she slowly made her way back up the stairs to her apartment.

It was still fresh on my mind when I arrived home from work on Monday night and saw a box delivered by Australia Post sitting outside her door.

I also realised I hadn't seen her kitchen light on for at least a couple of days.

When I knocked there was no answer, so I checked in with another neighbour, Carol.

"I know what you're here about," she said straight away.

It seems I wasn't the only one worried.

One of my elderly neighbour's relatives, who lives several hours drive away, had been trying unsuccessfully to reach her by phone all day, and had called Carol.

Not wanting to panic, he had suggested waiting til the next morning to check, but Carol had a key to her unit and I didn't want to wait.

I imagined she might still be in pain from her fall and may have been in bed in need of a bit of TLC and a cuppa.

But what we found was far worse.

When we tried to help her up she grimaced, so we decided to call in the professionals.

It's the second time in a year I've had to call an ambulance, after my nan also suffered an attack last year.

In both cases two masculine young men have turned up, and in both instances I have been amazed and awed by their cool, calm, caring attitude with elderly patients.

With an ageing population, it is a situation they are going to face more and more.

My fiercely independent neighbour is now safely in hospital, undergoing evaluation by an aged care assessment team.

When I reflect on the incident I think how lucky we were that someone had a spare key, and I am glad that we didn't wait any longer to check.

Too often in these kind of situations we may hesitate out of fear of embarrassment - to ourselves or others - or fear of what we might find.

We are also busy, and after my neighbour's fall I was racked with guilt that I hadn't done more for her sooner.

I could have bought her milk, or bread, or checked if the light bulb in her kitchen needed changing.

This incident is a reminder that we all need to look after each other, especially the elderly.

*For information on aged care support services phone [phone] or see www.agedcareaustralia.gov.au

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