Something to be aware of if you sleep in a reclining chair.

That must have been a very trying experience for you both.
I think an afternoon nap is called for.???

I am sorry to hear of your bad experience with your recliner. I have a recliner but if there is a power cut it has a gadget (sorry do not know correct name for it) that over rides the battery and still enables the chair to rise or recline. Would it be possible to have one fitted to your chair? Mine was already on it when I purchased it. Just a thought.

Useful info travelnan! ?

I think you can buy beds (possibly electrically operated too, though) where you can incline the head end, some where each half of the double bed inclines separately.

Thanks, travelnan. I'll look into it.

Sorry to give you another problem to think about but if his feet are left dangling so to speak he could end up with a drop foot. The problem could be when the feet are lower than the body although the chair is in a reclining position.

I could not use my reclining chair as a permanent bed for that reason. It happened to a friend of mine.

I have a recliner but it's not electric - just mechanical.
ie sit down and bang your head on the chairback and it goes into recline.
Merlot your poor husband!

My old recliner chair also had a battery override but I have just checked and my new one doesnt. Thanks for the tip Merlot

Our recliners are mechanical , but sorry to hear about your poor Dh merlot, that must have been frightening, and it’s something you don’t even think about that could happen, hope he’s over his ordeal

Are you registered with your electricity provider as a vulnerable customer? If so, they should contact you to let you know how long the power cut could last, if it's a major one or if you have essential medical equipment, they will supply emergency generators. Worth registering with all your utility providers.

Thanks for all your advice. His feet don't dangle, Charleygirl but when he tried to shift his position so he could try and get out of the chair one foot got tangled up in the fleecy blanket he uses as a cover. It was dark so he couldn't see how to free himself.

I always know when there is a power cut (night or day) because our phones bleep and that sets Peggy off. She's a brilliant 'alert' dog. The first thing she does is scrabble at my bedroom door to wake me up but I was already up and heading for the loo with a torch. It wasn't until I heard DH say, 'Thank God you're up, I'm stuck in this bl**dy chair' that I realised his predicament.

I think he was more worried about not making it to the loo than anything else. I'll make sure I leave a torch on the small table beside him as well his reading light from now on. I think he'd have been OK if he'd been able to see what he was doing. We do keep a torch in the sitting room but it was out of reach.

You learn by your mistakes!

Your poor husband Merlot! Never thought of the possibility really. My DH sleeps on the recliner when his sciatica doesn't give him any peace. And what a clevere little dog you've got! Thanks for alerting us.

Teacheranne,thank you for the tip re registering as a vulnerable customer.My mum has an electric chair and electric bed,had never even thought of power cuts.

merlot,hope you and your husband are recovered from your busy night and thank you for posting on this problem.

In February of this year a 79y old man fell asleep in his reclining chair. He lived alone in his Spanish apartment. Some kind of fault in the chair (? remote) caused a short. The poor man died. The black smoke inhaled in his sleep killed him the fireman said.

Blooming heck!

Until you sort out an "overide" could you put a bell within his reach so he can summon you if necessary.
Mum would often sleep at night in her rise and recline but her's was battery operated. She did manage to fall forward out of it one day by "rising" it too far.

Well done Peggy!

Early last year had a fall and was in dreadful pain from my back. (Over two months later, an MRI showed I had actually had a stress fracture in the spine!!).
Although I have an adjustable bed, that proved impossible, as it only sat me up - and When I tried the first night, I actually got stuck in it not able to turn over of get myself out of it. Did finally do that after really causing myself dreadful agony.
Refused to go back to that and used my Reclining chair to sleep in for the next few nights.
My daughter came round trying to persuade me to go to hospital (which is what I should have done), but just felt too ill at the time!!!. I asked my daughter to bring down for me my large electric heated pad, which she did and she plugged it into the side of the chair. She did not realise that when she took a plug out of the socket, that was the extension lead which also worked my chair. Was not until about an hour after she left, I discovered this. I was stuck there.
Have since discovered that some of these chairs do have a battery back-up, and if I purchased another one, I would want one of those. Had to telephone my daughter at work to come back to me!!!!

Likewise, I sleep In my recliner chair, which was made and supplied for me by Mediquip, after the old one that I bought myself failed after just two years. This one is a Chair bed type, it will go completely flat if needed, with out any downward sag at the foot end, caused by underpowered motors on the leg rising section. It also works of a automatic Rechargeable battery, which is always connected to the mains via a transformer. I had to be measured up for it, and the correct level of pressure care prescribed for my needs. It’s far from a ‘One size fits all’ type of model sold by many so called Disability shops, which are often sold more on looks rather than the practicalities of a persons true needs, and it’s the old case of in the end, ‘you only get what you pay for’!
The original cost of my chair was around 3k, was VAT free, and funded by the Social services, but I have now had it for around 5 years, and it’s still useable virtually 27/7/365, so very cost effective when compared with my original chair that went to scrap at 2years old, and cost me £800!

True though merlotgran it was in our apartment block in Spain. Such a tragic end to a life. The fireman said he wouldn’t have suffered - smoke overcame him and he ‘slept his way to death’.

If anyone is thinking of getting one of the reclining beds we used a company recommended by Age UK for my mums.Like JuliaM mum was measured for the bed so it was custom made for her needs.Age UK kept track of every step of the process and checked with us several times that we and mum were happy with the company and the bed.We paid for the bed but going through Age UK meant no hidden charges and added extras.

Urmstongran,what a tragedy for the gentleman and his family.

Pretty sure that all recliner chairs have a battery pack somewhere but need to have batteries in them!! If you look under the chair you should find a thing that looks like a box.....check in there for the correct size batteries to put in.

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