Expert: Mary Gordon - 6/17/2011

Question
My Mother has Alzheimers and resides in a nursing home with 24/7 care.  She is unable to do anything for herself.  Her speech is beginning to diminish & is mostly garbled. She still shows facial expression & is generally always very pleasant & smiling.  She still gets very excited to see me & tells me "I love you" but never knows my name or our relationship.  I live in the Northeast US & my husband is looking to relocate his business to either Arizona or California.  Do you know of any medical air transport or any resources that could handle transferring my Mother if & when the time comes for us to move?  We are looking to make this move in the next 2 years & I want to look into this ahead of time. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Rosemarie,

You would do well to do some research about insurance rules and your planned move, as medicaid and medicare rules vary from state to state, so tranferring her care may or may not be a simple thing financially.

You will have to wait until closer to the time to make decisions about mode of transport and supports required, since so much will depend on her condition at the time.

Factors include her medical condition and needs, her ability to handle stress, her doctor's report and recommendation, the distance and nature of the trip (i.e. weather, length of time required, mode of transport, can she travel in a wheelchair, or will she need a stretcher, can she be hand fed, does she need special food etc.) You should probably count on stretcher transport, as sitting may be difficult for her for extended periods such as a long trip would involve - I'm presuming she is incontinent as well which means attendants will need to be able to change her in a prone position if the trip is longer than a few hours.

If you do a google search on non-emergency long distance medical transport, you will see many firms offer this - most of them go by ground in big specially equipped camper type vans or buses. Emergency transport over long distances can be extremely expensive, particularly by air, so make sure they know it's non-emergency. I'd also recommend a family member go with her irrespective of the mode of transport or what the company provides to keep an eye on her and how she is being treated.

Here are some typical companies that provides non-emergency long distance transportation
http://www.long-distance-medical-transport.com/
http://www.medtransportcenter.com/

You will see a lot of them focus on ground transportation.

Just an aside, but if she is in Stage 7 at this point, I hope you can plan for this move relatively soon, as over the next year or two, you are likely to see a marked increase in her fragility and frailty - i.e. once mobility is lost, they start to spiral, she will lose weight and become more and more delicate and require more and more nursing care. Many people in your mother's stage of dementia will not survive another 2 years. I don't say this to be unkind, but just to alert you that the longer you wait, the more challenging it may be to transport her.  As she deteriorates physically, she will have less and less physical and emotional stamina to tolerate stress and change.

Hope this helps

Mary Gordon