Cancer Diary: Thank You, Hoyer Lift

 



The Hoyer lift made life work for us when Carl came home on hospice. I had been told about it by a friend after Carl had fallen several times and needed help getting up from more than one neighbor working together. Had I known a little earlier, I could have saved the neighbors some effort and Carl some dignity.

Actually, once Carl went on hospice, the hospice company provided us with the lift. (Their aides would not have been able to lift Carl without it.) Having it at home meant that we could move Carl from bedroom to living room and back so that he could spend his days with his family out where they were and where he preferred to be.

The Hoyer lift, as see in the picture is a tall pole with a moving base and patient sling for lifting patients who cannot stand. There are at least four kinds of Hoyer lifts:

  • power lift (highly recommended for large patients with small caregivers)
  • manual (less expensive and works find for average-sized patients and average-sized caregivers)
  • ceiling (uses a track system, generally for bedroom or bathroom)
  • sit to stand (for patients who can sit up)
If your patient is not on hospice, it is possible to buy a Hoyer lift. They are not exorbitantly expensive, and it might be worth finding out if your insurance company will pay for it as DME (durable medical equipment). Please note that the link here is just a list of places that sell Hoyer lifts; I am not recommending any one source in particular; you will need to check these sources out for yourself. 

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Blog editor's note: As a memorial to Carl, and simply because it is truly needed, MSI  is now hosting a web page, Carl's Cancer Compendium, as a one-stop starting point for all things cancer, to make it easier for those with cancer to find answers to questions that can otherwise take hours to track down on the Internet and/or from professionals. The web page is in its infancy but expected to expand into robustness. As part of this effort, each week, on Monday, this blog will carry an informative, cancer-related story -- and be open to guest posts: Cancer Diary. 


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