A micro light switch is easier to push and has less of a distance required for activation than the easy touch call light I am familiar with.

 

Just because she is on a vent does not rule out a pneumatic call light. If she can close her lips around a straw, and generate enough force from her mouth and lips to apply suction or blow bubbles into a cup (I recognize she may also be NPO but you could experiment with this) than a pneumatic switch would be a very stable call light. And I have a number of people on ventilators who are still able to activate them.  If she was able to use this it would be a lot easier to mount on average than a micro light.

 

If she is able to move her eyebrows vigorously you could also try a piezoelectric switch but I would try the above two options before I did that.

 

Ed Hitchcock OT/L

Technology Center

Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

 

 

 

Any suggestions for this writer?

Thanks

 

I am a nurse at a chronic care hospital and am currently caring for a woman with advancing ALS.  She has been using an EZ touch type of call bell, but is having an increasingly difficult time moving her head even the 2-3 mm needed to use it, especially when fatigued. She would be unable to use any puff/straw type of call bell because she is on a vent.  She is able to move her eyebrows vigorously at this time, but not much else.

 Do you have any information regarding more adaptive call bell systems that may be helpful for her?

     Thanks so much for any suggestions.

 

 

Alisa

 

Alisa Brownlee, ATP

Manager, Assistive Technology Services

ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Association, National Office and Greater Philadelphia Chapter

 

Office line: 215-631-1877

Business Cell: 610-812-0361

 

Twitter: alsassistivetec

Facebook: Alisa Brownlee ALS