Dear Nurse,
Someone needs to really look hard at what movement your patient still has.  Can this person move anything even ever so slightly (e.g., blink, raise eyebrows, slightly puff out cheek, open mouth a bit, move a toe, etc).  People on the list will be able to throw out some ideas for switch types and positioning but we will need to know if there is any, even slight, reliable movement. 

Sincerely,

Amy Roman, MS, CCC-SLP
Augmentative Communication Specialist

Forbes Norris ALS Research Center
2324 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
P (415)600-1263
F (415)673-5184



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--- On Fri, 4/8/11, Alisa Brownlee <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Alisa Brownlee <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: call bell
To: "National ALS Association AT Listserv" <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Friday, April 8, 2011, 12:52 PM

I am a registered nurse in a long term care setting.  We recently admitted a patient with advanced ALS.  She has no movement in her arms or legs and we were recently utilizing a call light system that was activated by moving her head.  She has since lost that ability and we switched to a call light system that was activated by blowing into a mouth piece.  This has also failed as she does not have enough pressure behind her breaths to activate this particular system.  Are there any other devices you are aware of that would benefit this patient?

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