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My grandmother has fallen twice in the past month or so. The first time she broke the vertebrae in her neck. She was getting around after despite the neck brace being a huge nuisance for her but now she is in the hospital after falling again and has broken her collar bone. It's happening mostly at night and they are saying she won't be able to go back to an assisted living center because they are not allowed to put bed rails up. It took her so long to adjust to the place she is currently at that I don't know how she will manage going to a new facility especially in the condition she is in now. As her family, can we request that bed rails be put on the bed where she is now?

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The problem with bed rails is that study after study has shown that they not only do not always prevent falls, they also cause more serious injuries because people who are determined to get up will climb over, under, through or around the rails. If your grandmother can't remember that she can't get up on her own without falling then I'm afraid she could be one of those who would attempt to get up anyway, she probably needs a higher level of care than this facility can offer.
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I agree with CW - if your grandmother were falling off the bed in her sleep, that would be one thing; but it's much more likely that she is getting up unaided and falling in the attempt, in which case the bed rails would tend to make things more awkward for her and more dangerous. Do you happen to know exactly what happened when the falls took place?
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screenname3, ask the Assisted Living facility which type of bed-rails would be acceptable? My Dad was allowed to have a small bed-rail, the type that is connected with straps under the bed.

This type of bed-rail, the elder wouldn't be able to get tangled up in. Some come with a cloth cover, and pockets to put the TV remote, eyeglasses, etc. Dad found the bed-rail a great help for him to get up at night if he needed to use the bathroom, as long as he used his walker.
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It happens when she goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I think she gets a little disoriented and has trouble getting out of the bed (maybe too quickly) and/or to her walker. The last time, they said they put her back in the bed and when they came back to check on her she was in the floor again. One side of her bed is against the wall so one small rail would be enough to get her to her walker.
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Do they have bed alarms available? This way staff would know when she tried to get out of bed and some to assist her. Another answer would be to put a matress on the floor beside the bed so she had something soft to land on. I do agree she probably needs a higher level of care which would happen eventually anyway.
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