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  • Alzheimer's and driving
  • darbeze
    Free Member

    Dementia is a vile disease. There seems no rhyme or reason for it, or who it chooses to affect. My 75 Mum was diagnosed shortly after Dad died in early 2011. It became pretty clear soon after he died that he had been the “brains” of the operation. She would drive whilst he gave continuous instruction and directions. My brother and I went out with Mum in the car to see how she was managing and were frankly scared witless. We raised it with her GP who gave a full Mental Health assessment and diagnosed dementia and recommended that she not drive anymore. Obviously she forgot this almost immediately and we ended up disabling the car by disconnecting the battery. This worked for a while until “helpful” neighbours reconnected it for her!

    Anyway, to cut a long and sometimes difficult story short, the MOT was up so I removed the car to take it the the garage, and it never came back. (As I have LPA, I sold it for her).

    Many difficult and horrible arguments have happened since, but she accepts it now.

    I am not saying it ever gets better, as the disease robs you of the person you have loved all of your life, but they will forget awkward issues like this in time. I have even managed to be able to have a laugh about Mum’s driving with her since…

    Si

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    My dad is only mid-70s, and didn’t properly recognise me for the first time when I visited just before Christmas. 😥

    His wife sold his car when he started wandering off and forgetting where he was and how he got there. He then started randomly hitchhiking to distant cities to do the same. Alzheimer’s is a properly nasty condition.

    xiphon
    Free Member

    My Grandfather only recently agreed to give up his keys – he was a keen motoring enthusiast – at the age of 102. Yes, 102.

    For many years he refused to give them up, so we contacted the police / DVLA / etc, and all got told – “Only if his GP sees him unfit to drive can we revoke his license”.

    He went on one of those driving assessment courses – which I understand are voluntary – and claimed he had a perfect score….. we doubt that.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Interesting reading – I’ve posted recently about my 83yo mum if you want to check my history, though having taken her to the GP he considers that she is still capable of driving at the moment (to be fair she is a lot better than most of the others people are describing). Though the matter may be taken out of our hands as she has a court case next week for not having insurance which may result in her being banned. We’re also busy sorting out other aspects of her living conditions so that she no longer needs to drive to the same extent.

Viewing 4 posts - 41 through 44 (of 44 total)

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