I am a caregiver for husband with multiple health problems including dementia. If I had a health emergency would the ambulance take him too?

My wife's insurance will pay for respite care if something were to happen to me. Of course someone would need to notify the case manager to get things going.

Imho, you'd do yourself a favor if you called your daughter to watch your DH. Also, she would be your ride to go home after your presumed medical emergency was handled since EMSs' are not taxi cabs. (Insert - you'd need to think ahead as to how you would get home since oftentimes medical emergencies occur at odd hours and as such, release hour could be in the middle of the night.)

Never hurts to be prepared. Call your senior help line county program-- 211... get expert help and be safe. Include your daughter.

I was with EMS for 26 years. We ran into this issue occasionally. We always took the spouse with us, if need be. We also took children, if they had no where else to go.

No ambulance crew would leave your spouse unattended, at home, once they learned there was a diagnosis of dementia.

I would post a BIG note on the refrigerator, as others have noted - or wherever medicine bottles are kept. We always look for medicine bottles!

No, I don't think the ambulance can transport your husband to the hospital too due to liability concerns. What is needed is a plan for such an occurrence. A programmable medic alert system may be useful here. Some of those devices allow for emergency notification of the family once the system is activated. Another useful tool may be the vial of life. It is available for no cost and it can be ordered online. Order 2 of them. One for your husband; one for you. Yours can contain emergency contact information for your husband. You place the sticker in the front window or door and the vial in the fridge. You can also contact your local ambulance company to see if they have any additional suggestions.

There are necklaces and watches (apple watch) that will detect a fall or can be notified 911 is needed and you can have emergency contact members to also be called. Plus I have a list of all medications for both my husband and myself on a red notification card, in the refrigerator, as we were instructed to do in our senior community in in FL. The paramedics knew that was the place to find it for residents. On there I also have all contacts listed. Not sure if all paramedics in all areas will know to look in there.

An uncle of mine had a stroke that left one side paralyzed, and he spent his days in a wheelchair after that. His wife had to go to the hospital for a few days, so he was put into a nursing home during the meantime.

There is a protocol set up for emergency workers when someone they are called to help is incapacitated and has small children. I imagine there is something similar for caregivers.

We got medical alert pendants for the Alzheimer's patient and another one for her caregiver which would alert them that he was the caregiver for a dementia patient in case he was stricken and could not tell them himself.

In the early days, he would be able to leave her alone briefly and go shopping or for a walk and we worried about what would happen if he were hurt and she wouldn't know how to call for help. The medical alert pendant made everyone feel safer.

I have had the experience. Both myself and my patient do not have family or friends or neighbors who might be available to host my patient, if I had an emergency. The situation I had was a kidney stone episode, but since I never had suffered from a kidney stone I did not know what it was. It was mid afternoon and my pain was progressing. I tried to get my patient into bed so I could go to the hospital ER alone, but he would not cooperate. I finally called the EMS for myself. When they arrived I explained that my patient needed to go with me. However, they could not take take 2 people in one ambulance, so they had to call a second one for my patient. Later, I met them in the hospital ER. Looking back on the situation, they probably could have taken us both in the same ambulance because I could not lay down and be still on the ambulance stretcher because of my pain, but my patient could have done it. If this happens to you make sure you have written instructions in case you are not able to provide them. Also, you could incur two ambulance bills, as well as, two hospital bills.

Give your Ins. a call and they will let you know.

This is a VERY good question and something I've never thought of before. Must be quite a few others in your exact situation too. Good for you for being so proactive. Your husband is lucky to have you.

This happened last week. My mother had a stroke. The ambulance did not take my father. I had to make a choice between seeing her at the hospital or going to him at his home. It would be good to line up al alternate caregiver that could be summoned for the husband.

Thank you so much for bringing this up. I am in the same situation as you, and hadn’t thought about this. I will make some calls today to see how it would be handled in my area. I would guess everyone has a different procedure 😏. I will repost if I get any good advice

I would have a big note placed on my refrigerator that listed your husband's medical problems and people to contact. If you were the only one with your husband, then they will take him with you. With your note, somebody should notify your family to come get him from there.

Call the police non emergency number to ask to have notes made on your address. With those notes there dispatch will notify first responders. I did this because mom's behavior at times was off the charts. The trigger that prompted me to make that call was when mom had been accusing a caregiver of being a thief and demanded that cg leave immediatly. Mom actually had the phone in her hand and was threatening to call 911! She probably would have if she had been able to remember how to use the phone.

And what if something happens to you when you are out?

Get one of those health warning bracelets so responders know care is needed for husband as well.

My in-laws lived together in independent living apartment. He initially was taking care of her as he had for years due to ALZ. He also began to fail and when he developed UTI and was taken to hospital, she could not be left alone. Their apartment was associated with assisted living and memory care and had an care agency in place for residents. I was able to call and arrange a 24 hour live in aide. As he was already failing, he could no longer care for himself or her. We kept the aides in place After his discharge until we could arrange for them to move to memory care near our house.

in this case, you could locate one or two nursing agencies, that could be contacted either by you if you are able, or by a friend to have services start until you are able to resume. I don’t think EMS would bring her to hospital with you. What would they do with her? There are facilities also that can do respite care for short term stays.

your concerns might be an indication that your LO might be better off in a facility if funds permit once the Covid emergency is over. They will have 24 hour care from a team, not just from you and you can focus more on your own health.

If you have an aide through an agency, IME, they can arrange emergency coverage.  I would talk to them in advance as to what to do.

I wondered about that as well. I asked the Home Health Agency we use. They told me if I got sick my 97 year old mother would be placed in a facility until I recovered. I checked this out at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Hopefully we will all stay healthy and safe.

Can you contact your local ambulance company to tell them of your concerns? Maybe you can have a standing order with them so that they know the scoop. I also wonder if you should put a sign on the wall inside your home so that the EMTs would see it and follow the instructions?

Good plan to think ahead and handle this before it becomes a problem.

We have family friends, when the dh who was providing care for his wife had a heart attack, she was also taken to the hospital as she needed 24/7 attendance. But this was in Canada and pre Covid.

She was in the hospital for more than a week until home support could be set up for her. At that point she was put on a wait list for a nursing home. She has been in the nursing home for almost 2 years now. He is now living in Assisted Living.