Posted on 02/26/2006 4:41:16 AM PST by SheLion
A WOMAN in a wheelchair must go outside into the cold weather for a cigarette even though she is 93 - because smoking is banned in her nursing home.
Gladys Gornall, known as Chris, of the Norwood Lodge Nursing Home in Nore Road, Portishead, took up smoking 10 years ago after her husband died.
Daughter Joan Mock, 68, says it is the only thing she has left that keeps her happy.
And she says she fears her mother is more likely to die from exposure to cold winter weather than from smoking.
Mrs Mock said: "She's 93, she's in a wheelchair and she has to smoke outside. Last week I had to stand outside with her with an umbrella over her while it rained. We know it's not politically correct any more, but she is old and she will die of hypothermia rather than smoking at this rate."
Mrs Gornall said: "I'm sick and tired of going out there in the cold. I'm fed up with the whole situation. What else have I got to look forward to? I've got no other pleasures."
Mrs Mock said the home used to have a small room where smokers could light up. But she said the smoking ban in the building has now been enforced for health and safety reasons.
She said: "For God's sake, what can she do? There aren't any other smokers in the home now. This is all she has left as her bit of independence. It's so pathetic."
She said relatives of other residents at the home have sympathised with Mrs Gornall's plight.
The only real health problem the pensioner has is osteoarthritis in her knees.
Mrs Mock said: "She says they aren't going to stop her having a fag."
Mrs Gornall moved into the home with her husband, Albert, in 1996 but he died within weeks of their arrival. She took up smoking soon after his death.
Gill Lee, group operations manager for Belmont Care, which owns the home, said the non-smoking policy had been in place since before Mrs Gornall went into the nursing home. She said: "We've had a policy for years in Norwood Lodge of no smoking, mainly on health and safety grounds.
"Mrs Gornall, her daughter and her social worker had a meeting with the matron in May 2005 to explain to her the no-smoking policy in the home, and this was confirmed to her in writing."
She said none of the staff smoke inside the building. But she would not comment on whether the company's policy on enforcing the smoking ban had been tightened.
And she said allowing Mrs Gornall just to smoke in her own room would be "even worse".
She said: "To allow smoking in their room would cause even more health and safety issues."
Oh come on. I just read your profile and you seem to be pretty smart and professional. You must have been kidding. This women survived many difficulties in this world and actually made it the way it is today so cut her a break and let her have a cigarette. I mean the last thing I am worried about is supporting someone who sacrificed and worked hard for our country when we are allowing millions of illegals to have our medical care. I would gladly support her medical issues IF she even ends up having any.
Well, it goes both ways! Fires start all the time, and not always by a careless smoker.
Mrs Mock said the home used to have a small room where smokers could light up. But she said the smoking ban in the building has now been enforced for health and safety reasons.
The home used to have a small room for smokers, so I doubt very much if there was oxygen around. Stop spinning.
However, rules are rules. If the only thing in life she enjoys are cigarettes she can move her butt outside in her wheelchair ... or find something else to enjoy.
You're all forking HEART, aren't you! Maybe someday YOU will have to go to a home. Let's see how happy YOU are!
How is it unsafe to smoke in a room, particularly if your daughter is willing to stand next to you? Furthermore, at 93 the health issue is a moot point. She's already way in the black on life expectancy.
Yes. And even some on this thread are no better! Sickening, aren't they!
We keep allowing the retarded rules/laws they keep coming up with so it is kind of hard to say anything about them after they start affecting you or your family.
They should put a Biozone air purifier in her room or make a small room available and put a Biozone in that room.
Either way, the smoker would be a non-issue.
THANK you! I have two Sharper Images air purifiers in my home and my friends come in and they can't even SMELL cigarette smoke.
There is no reason today that the non/anti's have a reason to bitch about "THE SMELL!"
Are you dense or what! Can't you read where the home used to have a smoking room? Do you really think they had OXYGEN in that room? heh!
Mrs Mock said the home used to have a small room where smokers could light up. But she said the smoking ban in the building has now been enforced for health and safety reasons.
Exactly. And a family member could be there in case she was too feeble to be trusted, to watch over her while she enjoyed a cigarette.
LOL! Love that cartoon! (post 25)
These administrators sound like they learned their trade working at a public school. ZERO TOLERANCE of a 93 year old woman.
hehe
Pretty good, eh? :)
This is the U.K. so I don't know about the regs, but on this side of the pond I'd have to say 95% any long term facility that has been built or renovated in the last 20/25 years has mandatory sprinkler systems, so at least Granny would probably only off herself.
You forgot your /s.
Government in the hands of unelected goobers doesn't help either.
Exactly and they will continue to make life miserable for the rest of us because too few of us will stand up and fight.
I liked it too.
I'm secretly looking forward to become old & decrepit so I can laugh
at the other old geezers who are sitting around dying of NOTHING.
Better to have 70 years of freedom, fun, pork chops and beer
than 80 years of yogurt, regimens, raw plant sticks and anal retentiveness.
It's funny watching the Nazis tapdance on this thread about oxygen fires.
It's the spark of independence this old gal is showing that's scaring the hell out of them. Now there's a flame they really fear.
Shame on them for gloating about her being denied this small pleasure in the short time she has left.
Their lives must be very small.
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