Before she was diagnosed with dementia – but likely as her memory began to fray – my mother was admitted to hospital. As she forgot things, she failed to ring the bell she was meant to sound whenever she needed help – for example, when she needed to get up to go to the toilet. Instead, she just got up and made her way to the bathroom on her own.
The nurses grew increasingly frustrated with her failure to listen to their instructions. “Ring the bell and one of us will take you,” they insisted. Mum kept forgetting, so eventually they attached an alarm to her seat. Every time she stood up from her chair after that, a shrill ring sounded through the ward. Mum was startled every time it happened – because, of course, she forgot what would happen when she stood up. She became increasingly distressed, near hysterical.