If you have elderly parents who are getting frail, you know their safety in the home is a worry.
Earlier this month I was asked to come to the home of an elderly woman and fix a blood stain on the carpet where the poor lady had fallen and hurt herself.
A large blood stain to repair in Sydney
Beautiful Killara is on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, and is a suburb of large homes and plenty of greenery. Wendy’s mother had built in this lovely area 20 years ago after her husband died. Unfortunately she was no longer able to stay in her home after falling and injuring herself in the bedroom. In fact, reluctantly Wendy’s mother had to be moved to a nursing home.
Unfortunately the injury had been a bad one. When I arrived a blood stain covered a huge 4m x 2m area of the bedroom carpet. But the home was needing to be put up for sale, so the stain absolutely had to be fixed.
Replacing the entire bedroom carpet was not suitable. The same carpet ran through all rooms of the single level home, and it would have looked odd to have different carpet in one room. It was also a good quality wool carpet, so a replacement would have been expensive. In the end Wendy decided the best solution was to repair the stained area.
How I fixed a large carpet blood stain
Because there was no spare carpet piece large enough to cover the entire stained area, I had to use leftover off cuts to patch the carpet. My approach was quite simple.
- Entirely remove the 4m x 2m blood stained section of carpet.
- Replace and patch the area with about 5 pieces of carpet off cuts.
Overall, Wendy was pleased with the results and it met her expectations. Obviously the repair could not be invisible under such extreme circumstances, but with the furniture and the bed back in place the room was greatly improved. The property will be on the market shortly.
It was a very pleasant surprise to find Wendy had left me this kind feedback!
Wendy
Killara
If you need to fix carpet stains of any kind, anywhere in Sydney, call me. My name is Patrick J Deck, and I own and run Invisible Mending.
About fall prevention for the elderly
The situation with Wendy’s mother is sadly not uncommon. According to the NSW government, in 2010-11 there were almost 35,000 hospitalisations in NSW from falls among people aged 65 or over. Falls among the elderly can be very serious, resulting in broken hips and life threatening complications. If you are concerned about the safety of your parents in their home, this fall prevention checklist from the NSW government may be useful.