Have you ever had to intervene and it’s NOT a family member but a next door neighbor???

It’s pretty obvious this couple has no business living alone. Is there any other family you could contact,even if you see them outside when/if they come to visit?

This couple, despite what the hospital said, is not “fine”. This was an unsafe discharge. If it were me. I would go to the Fire Chief and ask if there is anything he can do. He is a “mandated reporter”, and he is obligated to report a situation like this to Adult Protective Services. There are so many things that could go wrong in this situation; Fires, falls, one of them wandering off and not being found...

Sounds like the wife had dementia also. I'm not surprised the hospital found nothing wrong. We had the same problem with the hospital every time we ended up in the ER with my mother. She would fall and they'd say...no broken bones so we are sending her home. We would beg and plead for them to keep her and see what was happening with her because we knew something wasn't right. They would look at us like we were crazy and a problem. No offense to the wonderful health care workers of the world, but the heath care system was almost more frustrating to deal with than the horrible dementia problem my mom had.

Do you know if the hospital tested for a UTI? MIL acts out quite crazily when she has one - this behavior would have fit right in. "Couldn't find anything wrong" doesn't say what they tested for . . . . might be worth checking into. Certainly a scary situation for everyone involved, that's for sure!

That’s so sad, Elaine.

It’s frightening to think of an elderly person roaming around like that. Glad she wasn’t hurt in any way and that your husband got her help. I hope she is okay. Maybe it was a UTI.

Must have been scary for everyone, especially your son suddenly hearing a knock at his window. Your husband did the right thing by calling 911.

So upsetting for the poor woman and her husband.

I had a crazy neighbor once who would weed the cracks out in the middle of the street? Who does that???

This was years ago. I freaked out when I was coming home from work and saw this old woman in the middle of the street pulling up weeds from the street! She loved gardening and had a beautiful garden but talk about crazy or compulsively OCD with weeds! I begged her to stay away from the street. I rang her bell for her husband to tend to her.

Reminiscing about that neighborhood now. Was years ago. I don’t live in that neighborhood now. Another neighbor was constantly borrowing things. Once she borrowed my vacuum and was missing an earring. She actually asked me to go through the bag of dust to find her earring. Hahaha 😂 I handed her the bag and told her that SHE was welcome to look for it. I am severely allergic to dust.

Ay yi yi. As if you don't have enough on your hands already with your mother, huh?

My neighbor has 3 boys. 2 live in California and one lives in New York. We are in upstate NY and he lives downstate. He drove up right away and he is still there. Hopefully he is making arrangements for them to be placed together in a facility. I felt so bad for her. I got home that morning and couldn’t sleep. Is there even a test to check for Alzheimer’s or dementia? Does it even show up on an MRI or xrays? I couldn’t believe they sent her home. The whole time she wasn’t worried about herself but worried about her husband who has full blown dementia and can’t be left alone.

needhelpwithmom, weed cracks in the middle of the street? Oh my!!! She could have gotten run over!!!

lealonnie, I know, right??? I am waiting to see what they end up doing next door. Will one of the sons move back home and be a caretaker for both??? Will the sons look for a facility for both of them??? Or will all 3 sons be in denial and think Mom is fine to watch both herself and her husband and the sons will carry on with their own lives as if nothing ever happened. The one son is over there now. I feel like running over there and telling him NOT TO MOVE IN WITH THEM!! Don't make that an option!!! But I know, it's none of my business. At least this time, I don't have to take care of it.

There is something called Trans Global Amnesia (TGA). It can be caused by stress. A woman I worked with was worried about her only child, a son, fighting a wild fire. She got to work and coukdn't remember how she got there. My Mom had a head injury and a week later had TGA. She kept repeating the same thing. With it enough to call me and tell me something was wrong. TGAs can be a one time thing.

Joann, that’s very interesting, thank you. Hopefully if that’s all it is, it doesn’t appear serious and probably wouldn’t happen again. She is going back for more testing. She did say she hit her head but didn’t remember where or when. My husband said even when the EMTs were here she knew her name and birthdate and names of her husband and kids. My husband said by the time she left our house she seemed to be more coherent.