How The Raizer Saved A Life

This captivating story is an account from a senior OT working within the Leeds district. In his role of Rapid Response OT, Aaron Craven visits a lot of critically ill people in the community to help prevent hospital admissions. A large part of these are people who have fallen and are unable to get back to their feet unaided.

Aaron can attest to how the Raizer lifting chair has proved itself time and time again in similar situations, but this particular incident stood out in his mind, showing how truly life-saving the Raizer can be.

The Client

This particular callout was to a man who had exacerbated COPD and was living in his home with carer support. It was during the peak of the ambulance strikes last winter when this incident occurred. During this time, paramedics were not responding to falls, which put greater pressure on community support and OTs to assist fallers.

The Challenge

The vulnerability of this man’s condition placed him at great risk. Fortunately, his carers were present when he suffered a fall from his chair. Aaron had just finished using the Raizer to lift a fallen lady when he received an urgent call to attend to this man. He was able to quickly pack the Raizer into its case and get straight out to this emergency situation.

When he arrived the man was in a serious condition, already presenting as hypoxic with blue lips, which was a big red flag as it meant his blood oxygen levels were depleting rapidly. Panic was starting to set in and it was a race against the clock to get this man in an upright position quickly, in a safe and calm manner.

The Solution

Fortunately, Aaron had the Raizer on board! For those who may not have seen it, it is a freestanding lifting chair that deploys in seconds and lifts a fallen patient in under a minute. Due to its simplicity, he was able to assemble it quickly around the fallen man. With the audio cues “taking the thinking out of its assembly”, the OT was able to focus on the patient, calmly reassuring him and preparing him for the lift.

At the touch of the button, the Raizer scissor-lift was in action and raised him from a supine to a 45 degree sitting position. As the lift progressed, the OT could visibly see signs of his breathing improving and the colour starting to return to his skin. The lift was paused briefly to check and reassure the man, and then continued to an upright perch position, where the care staff could support him into a standing position and return him to his wheelchair to get him on his oxygen flow.

The Process

The dangers of prolonged lies, due to not having the right resources or a no-lift policy, cannot be underestimated. This is something that Aaron could abundantly testify to, having seen seriously ill patients on multiple occasions, who without the right intervention and support would have experienced rapid health deterioration and potential death.

In Aaron’s words, “I knew I could trust in the Raizer to lift the patient and ensure his safety”. Having equipment as reliable and dependable as this is music to the ears of a healthcare professional in an emergency situation. Due to the Raizer’s compact design, he was able to carry in and assemble it quickly and independently using single handed care techniques.

The Process

The dangers of prolonged lies, due to not having the right resources or a no-lift policy, cannot be underestimated. This is something that Aaron could abundantly testify to, having seen seriously ill patients on multiple occasions, who without the right intervention and support would have experienced rapid health deterioration and potential death.

In Aaron’s words, “I knew I could trust in the Raizer to lift the patient and ensure his safety”. Having equipment as reliable and dependable as this is music to the ears of a healthcare professional in an emergency situation. Due to the Raizer’s compact design, he was able to carry in and assemble it quickly and independently using single handed care techniques.

The Result

The feedback from the man’s family and carers was one of overwhelming gratitude. If it wasn’t for the speed of response and the equipment, the situation could have been very precarious indeed.

Thanks to the intervention of the Raizer, this man was able to spend his final days in the comfort of his own home rather than a hospital.

For the OT who responded to the fall, this case study is just one of hundreds of people that he has helped to prevent unnecessary hospital admission for, and the Raizer is, in Aaron’s words “possibly one of the best pieces of kit on the market for assisting people from the floor”.

Read the full account from Aaron Craven in his own words:

“My name is Aaron and I am a Senior Occupational Therapist within the Leeds Community Healthcare Trust and an independent Occupational Therapist (founder of the OT4Life Occupational Therapy service). I have been working with Vivid Care for many years in my role as an OT within statutory services. Within my NHS role, I have worked as a Rapid Response Occupational Therapist and within this work I am frequently visiting very unwell patients with the aim to prevent hospital admissions. Part of this encompasses patients who are on the floor following falls. My job is to visit to assess the situation and try to get them back on their feet and make sure they are safe enough functionally and medically to remain in their home.

After speaking with the team at Vivid Care, I am wanting to share my experiences of saving someone’s life using possibly one of the best pieces of kit on the market for assisting people from the floor. The equipment I am referring to is the Raizer II Lifting Chair. Without doubt I come across a multitude of people that fall and need only getting up from the floor with no adverse effects or further issues. However, on occasion I am called to seriously ill patients who without the appropriate support would experience health deterioration very rapidly causing potential death. The case study I will focus on is one man in particular, however I have had the same experience and same positive outcome with other patients in very similar situations to this.

To set the scene this event took place during the peak of the Ambulance strikes where paramedics would not respond to falls, therefore the service I work for was tasked to pick up falls callouts on ASAP response times. On this particular day I was finishing up with the Raizer from a lady who had fallen and needed support getting up from the floor when the call came through for a gentleman in the final weeks of life with exacerbated COPD. His carers were present and he had fallen from his chair and was on the floor with carers with him.

I quickly cleaned down and reset the equipment and made my way to the patient. Upon attending the scene he was laid out supine presenting as hypoxic (lack of oxygen and cyanosed blue lips), and upon taking some observations I noticed his blood oxygen levels where depleting rapidly. He was in a state of panic and his anxiety levels were high. Time was of the essence to get this man upright to stabilise his breathing and allow us to get him on his oxygen therapy to restore his oxygen sats.

As staffing levels were low I attended this visit alone, however I knew I could trust in the Raizer to lift the patient and ensure his safety. Due to its compact design I was able to carry in and assemble the equipment independently and use single handed care techniques to fit the components. The simplicity of building this accompanied by audio feedback for when components are fitted correctly makes the Raizer very user friendly and takes the thinking out of its assembly; allowing the operator to focus on the patient. After assembling the components, I began to operate the device to bring the patient up from supine lying into a gradual sit at approx. 45 degrees, and already I noticed that his levels were restoring gradually and the cyanosis disappearing. His breathing was beginning to rectify and he regained natural colour in his skin.

We paused momentarily to allow him to adjust to the change of position before proceeding to an upright position. In its fully upright position, it allows the patient to either remain seated or extend into a perch position to stand. Once up we managed to stand and care staff supported me to get him to a wheelchair to get him on his high flow O2 to fully rectify his breathing.

We had feedback from the carers and the family afterwards stating that without the response given and the equipment, they would have feared for the worst for this gentleman, but given we managed to stand him in a short space of time he made a recovery with wrap-around support, and managed to live out his final days at home not needing admission to hospital.

I do feel I managed to save that man’s life that day and it was due to the innovation of the Raizer II and despite the situation with ambulance strikes and NHS shortages, it allows for a single-handed care approach to facilitate moving and handling in transfers for both user and operator. As we all know, no one falls in the ideal places but the versatility of the Raizer allows me to get into the smallest spaces and stand people who are able with ease.

This equipment is used multiple times a day in my service but its reliability and performance on every occasion never ceases to amaze me.  This case study is one of hundreds of people that I have prevented unnecessary ambulance reliance and hospital admissions for in my district. This is not counting those callouts to my colleagues in other parts of the city within my Trust. I now go into rapid response calls confident if someone is medically able to stand, I can facilitate this using combining my skillset with this amazing piece of equipment to avoid every unwarranted ambulance callout and admission where possible.”

This Account was provided by Aaron Craven, Independent Occupational Therapist at OT4Life Therapy. Aaron is a dedicated Occupational Therapist with a multitude of experience in OT rehab, advanced training and competencies in multiple settings across health and social care. Registered with the HCPC and Royal College of Occupational Therapists.

Contact Aaron on 07967 648543 or [email protected]