A new study conducted by Linda Hunt at the School of Occupational Therapy at Pacific University, Oregon indicates that driving when suffering from Alzheimer's can be dangerous. Of 207 drivers with Alzheimer's who went missing while driving, 32 died and 35 were found injured. Another 70 were not found at the time the data was analyzed. Pretty scarey stuff. . . . Drivers with dementia are estimated to be 2-8 times more likely to be involved in an automobile crash as unimpaired peers.See the Alzheimer's Reading Room link under "Favorite Links" at the right. When DH has his test on October 13th, they will deal with this issue and I won't have to, thank God. Once I took DH's keys away from him and he rebelled. There is a sign on his steering wheel that he is not supposed to drive. He talks a lot about this issue now. He is reading a manual on driving in FL to try to ace the test.
The last two Sundays he has taken his car to our circular driveway ready for me to drive us to church in it--our tradition--his comfortable car on Sundays so it gets a spin. I hope that the neurologist at the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute lets my husband drive if I am in the car with him. Both of us will grieve if his license is taken away. I love his driving me. He even schools me when I am driving and distracted by my iPod.
Oh how I feel for you......
ReplyDeleteI always loved having David do the driving. He was an excellent and careful driver, until he had the wreck shortly before his diagnosis.
Regular driving was fine, but I started noticing when we came to an intersection with turn arrows, he would seem confused on what to do.
Five years later, and I still miss him driving!
Hugs,