"The paramedics were absolutely outstanding"

The paramedics were absolutely outstanding.

We received a call from my mother-in-law who was in a very distressed state and just managed to call us. We left our home immediately to go to her, on the way we phoned her doctor and let him know what had happened and also for advice. The doctor said he would call us back and did so when we had got to my mother-in-law’s house. We were able to give him more information about her condition, he advised us to call 999 for support.

The paramedics arrived within 14 minutes and were excellent. I’m afraid I only got their surnames, Moreland and Foster, both of the ladies were lovely. They checked my mother-in-law very thoroughly and assessed her as being severely dehydrated. They made sure she had three mugs of water whilst they were there. They noticed she had cut her elbow and cleaned and dressed this for her.

Whilst we were chatting to them we explained that we thought she was not taking care of herself by not eating and drinking as she should. The ladies put us in contact with the Rapid Response team who are now assessing my mother-in-law for home help or residential care if needed.

The paramedics were very clear in explaining what they were doing and why and made sure they kept us informed of everything all the time. They were a really good team – one lady looked after my mother-in-law whilst the other took care of the paperwork.

In the end they thought it would be better for my mother-in-law to be checked over at the hospital as she was still not steady on her feet. They asked if we would be able to take her to the hospital as they had not come in an ambulance and one would not be available for a while. They helped to get my mother-in-law into our car and were extremely caring.