Accidents Can Lead to Needing Long Term Care

Betty and Bob Smith (not their real names) were a rural farm couple, with reasonably good health for their ages (81 and 86 respectively), enjoying their retirement years by being active in their community, family and church.  Both had knee replacement surgery a few years earlier, and in both cases the surgery and following rehab had gone well, and they resumed their normal activities soon thereafter.  They had prospered in the dairy business and were well off financially.  Both had been healthy for most of their lives, and as a result didn’t spend much time in doctor’s offices.  However, their children had earlier noticed that Bob’s hearing was deteriorating and he reluctantly went for an exam, which showed that he would benefit from hearing aids, for which he was fitted. But for reasons unclear to his children and other relatives, he quit using them after a trial period. 

Those around him noticed that they still had to repeat themselves often in normal conversations.  They tried to get him to wear his hearing aids, and he would wear them for awhile, but would ultimately find some reason to discontinue them, saying they didn’t help.  Then one day a friend of Betty and Bob’s ended up in a local hospital.  Deciding to visit her, they jumped into their noisy, old diesel pickup truck and headed for the hospital, 20 miles away.  It was a cold, November day, so they were bundled up well in their winter garb.  Arriving at the hospital, Bob pulled up in front of the main entrance to let Betty out while he parked the truck.  She exited, slammed the door shut and Bob proceeded to park the truck. He began driving around the entrance circle drive when he noticed someone frantically urging him to stop the truck.  He stopped, got out, went around the truck to the frantic stranger, and to his horror saw that his wife’s coat had gotten caught in the truck door and he had dragged her over the concrete driveway for about 100 feet.  Now anyone who has ever ridden in a diesel truck knows they are very noisy, especially to those sitting in the cab.  And coupled with Bob’s hearing impairment, there was no way he could hear his wife’s frantic screams as she was being dragged and bounced over the abrasive, hard concrete.
    

She was immediately taken to the emergency room, treated and stabilized and placed in intensive care.  She remained in the hospital for about a month, and was finally able to return home in January.  At home, it was clear to her children that she had suffered more than bodily damage; there were also strong indications that that she had suffered some brain damage, though her doctors were not definite about that, nor did they run specific neurological and psychological tests to determine any damage.  She was okay in the larger neurological sense, but it was clear to all that she was now a slightly “different” person personality-wise.  Closed-head injuries are like that.

Over the following months extensive medical and long term care nursing assistance was needed by Betty to enable her to remain at home and avoid going into a nursing home.  This long term care was expensive, and since they had no Long Term Care Insurance, the money for much of this care had to come out of their savings. They had adequate medical and hospitalization insurance, but it did not cover their long term care needs at home or in a facility such as assisted living.  Also, Bob expressed feelings of guilt about his role in the accident, and he still struggles with these feelings to this day.
    

Betty finally died at age 87, six years after the accident.  Over the years she gradually worsened in her mental, social and physical abilities which required an increasing amount of long term care.  She was able to stay out of a nursing home due to assistance from her husband, son and daughter who still lived in the community, and also purchased assistance from various home health-care workers to provide long term care assistance with her activities of daily living.  Even so there was considerable stress on the family helpers as she got progressively worse and approached her final days.  In addition to losing their mother, there was considerable grief over the $400,000+ lost in inheritance that went to pay for her long term care care that would have been covered by Long Term Care insurance if they’d had it.  A sad corollary to this is the fact that Bob is still alive at age 95, living at home, in poor health, and also draining his remaining savings as a result of him needing 24/7 long term care assistance.  All the children can do is to take care of their father as best they can, along with the professional home health care workers, and watch his long term care needs drain away all the financial resources he worked so hard all his life to build up.  Clearly this was a couple that would have benefited immensely from Long Term Care Insurance. 

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