Another important and must-have is turning air mattress. I use portable Europa mattress. Before using this mattress, somebody had to change my body position every 3 to 4 hours day and night to prevent skin pressure sores from developing. As you can imagine, this was hard for the caregiver and myself as I was woken up several times during the night. The Europa mattress brought the end to this regular wake ups.
The mattress supposedly turns (rolls) about 20 degrees side by side every 12 minutes or so. I can barely feel the movement but have been told by experts (nurses at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center) that the amount of turning is good enough to prevent skin pressure sores. The mattress is $4000-5000 (not cheap) but it is highly recommended by the experts. In my case I ordered it to match the 220 electric voltage in Korea. For quadriplegic person like myself skin pressure sores can develop in less than 1 or 2 hours if we lie down on hard surface. The contact for Europa mattress is:
The Volkner Turning System and James Air Support Surfaces
Manufactured by James Consolidated, Inc./JCI International
P.O. Box 3483
Walnut Creek, CA 94598
www.volkner.com
Unfortunately there is no reseller in Korea and so one must get directly from U.S. It is expensive but there are much more expensive system that basically does the same job. So in my view it is worth the investment.
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Interesting post. Personally, I prefer a memory foam mattress to an air mattress, as they can mould to your body shape and also account for movements during the night. All round a better sleeping experience!
To prevent or treat pressure sores it is important to have movement to allow the blood to circulate to those parts not receiving blood, which is the cause of pressure sores. Foam mattresses simply do not cause movement--the patient just lies there, A turning mattress does just that, it automatically turns the patient who cannot turn himself, allowing the blood to flow.
I agree, the Europa turning mattress works extremly well.We tried all types of foam mattresses but they simply had no movement at all to allow the blood to circulate to those parts getting no blood and causing pressure sores. The Volkner Europa turns the body automatically--we all now sleep through the night.
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Turning Mattress Overlay
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