How Many Nurses Does it Take to Break a Man's Shoulder?

A Hoyer lift is a necessary part of life for most quadriplegics and many others with mobility challenges. There are different kinds, some portable and others that are ceiling mounted. With the Hoyer lift, which bears a strong resemblance to an engine lift in an auto shop, someone can be lifted from their bed to a wheelchair, and vice versa.

We’ve bee in an out of three hospitals over the past 3 weeks, and had trouble with the Hoyer lift in each one.

Dan had hand surgery, called a tendon transfer, where a lesser-used tendon is moved to another area to facilitate greater use; in Dan’s case, he had a tendon moved to his thumb. The hope is that he will be able to move his thumb to his forefinger and be able to grasp joysticks, pens, spoons, etc.

The surgery went very well. However, during the transfer with the hospital lift from the bed to the chair, Dan’s shoulder was broken. Employees who undertook the transfer were not trained, and were not interested in my help.

Dan landed at Jefferson Hospital in Cherry Hill the next day. He had X-rays and a cat scan, and was looked over by an orthopedic doctor. When it was time to go, they couldn’t find their Hoyer. I knew that they had one, because Dan was in there twice last year with pneumonia and the lift was used a few times in both stays. I had to drive back to the hotel and bring our Hoyer over. While I was gone, they did find it, but couldn’t find their sling.

At Cooper, where the surgery to repair the shoulder was done, they couldn’t find their Hoyer either. It took an hour, and someone had to go and pick out the Hoyer amidst a jumble of other random equipment.

We’ve got to be able to do better than this. In the state of New Jersey, based on numbers from the Christopher and Dana Reed Found