Stories

My first patient had many illnesses. The person in charge of the assignment told me I had to turn her body over every 90 minutes every night. One day, while helping her go bathe, her legs had no strength and to make sure she doesn't fall, I injured my wrist. I was unable to work for more than half a year. The second patient also needed 24-hour care. I was unable to sleep because she called for me every 1 to 2 hours. Because I could not get proper sleep at night, and got busy and tired, I slipped in the shower and was injured. I still assisted the patient because her son lived far away and did not vist her often. Without me, she would live very painfully and with no dignity. But after awhile, my injury and pain became so much. I had to retire.

Long hours, 24 hours, destroy families. I say it from my own experience. I got pregnant and lost my pregnancy because I was under stress. Stress and the problem at home, because of what was happening. I realized and had proof that as I was leaving, another woman was entering my house [to be with my boyfriend]. She would leave my house the day I went home, and come by when I had to go to work. And just as it happened to me, it happens to a lot of people…

My daughters pleaded with me to leave the job but I said I couldn’t leave. It was the only way I can support my family. My daughters saw the toll it took. They said, you put up with so much abuse to your body. If you try to close your eyes for even a minute, the patient cries out. The most I slept on a shift was an hour. I had many patients throughout the years and many of them were very difficult cases. I have chronic back pain and hip pain. I take medications and I am completely dependent on them. If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t do those 24-hours if I had the chance. Never.

Long period of doing 4 days a week, 24-hour shifts to take care of the patient is really exhausting. I've been dealing with insomnia, waist strain and bone pain. In order to make a living, I've neglected my own family to do 24-hour home attendant work. The company has not only underpaid us. In order to avoid paying us for work we have done during the night, the company told us not to give water to patients at night, not to get up to change their diapers, to ignore the patient when they call for help. We can't do something this inhumane. The patient needs 24-hour care, and our responsibility is to do the job well. That's why 24-hour workday system is inhumane for both the patients and the home attendants.

All those years I could not sleep. Now, even though I stopped working in 2018, it's not easy for me to fall asleep. All those years of having to be vigilant and alert to my patient's needs have affected my sleep and my health. I have high blood pressure from all this stress. I have such pain in my two legs from having to stand so much and having to support my patients, helping them to the bathroom. For any of us, 24-hours is inhumane.

I have taken care of a patient for 10 years. The patient cannot take care of himself. Every day I have to move him several times to sit in the wheelchair. I have to use all my strength to move the patient, that's why my waist, hand and shoulders are often strained. My day off can only be used for physical therapy. For a long time, in order to make a living, I have dealt with fatigue, lack of sleep, psychasthenia, waist pain and leg pain. What's even more ridiculous is that there is no pay for hours we work at night! It's like being a slave. I filled in the work record from every night on the details of all the tasks I have to do whenever I woke up then I gave it to my employer. The next month, I was fired.