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."
No....but I wish YOU were. heh!
What's a nice girl like you doing on a thread like this? :-)
Oh! And I guess you think I am a NASTY GIRL! `geeeesh...............
OMG,the great Richard Widmark !
No fooling around there !!!!!
He wasn't a negotiator, that's for sure!!
If you smoked for 30 years then you smoked prior to the ETS insanity.
You lit them when you lit them and no one cared---you were not being thoughtful,it just wasn't an issue.
It was an inside joke aimed at me and no one else.
"LOL! yeah there's nothing like smoke to enhance one's "quality of life"..."
No, no; Gabz is ALWAYS gettting in trouble on the smoking threads.
That's all I meant.
In Arkansas, people can't even smoke in their own cars if it is parked on hospital property. Everyone has to go across the street to the cemetary now.
In Arkansas, people can't even smoke in their own cars if it is parked on hospital property. Everyone has to go across the street to the cemetary now.
Give it time. That will pass.
Maine started that no smoking on hospital grounds a few years ago. Within the past year when I go go over there, I see visitors stepping out side the door to smoke, and I even saw the emt's smoking before they got in their rig. No one said one word!
No problem. Howlin and I have been on each others ping ling for several years.
You have no answer to the facts so be sarcastic. Way to go.
OK - glad we all got that straight and know we're all just funnin'.........sheesh!!!!
How do you explain then, the people who complain about people smoking OUTSIDE a building?
3,4, 5, 6 dollars a pack. 1, 2, 3 packs a day. Grow your own, Buy over the internet, roll your own, bitch about the price/tax and buy them anyway....Yea, I'm the one brainwashed....
Quit smoking then get back to me about which of us is brainwashed.
And I can't wait for some of these people to get their comuppance. I doubt they will get much sympathy when they start complaining about being denied their BigMac. Just imagine a scale at the door of the eatery and a person has to step up and be weighed first, then if they top a certain weight, they are handed a lowfat menu. "But I want a steak!" Tough. Take it up with the gubmint. LOL
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