Mattress Spacer
This elderly client required a spacer to fill a gap in her mattress. She had been supplied with a pressure-reducing mattress topper, which (strangely) was 6″ too long for a standard double-bed.
Normally, this would not cause too much of a problem, but the client had balance problems and she perched on the end of the bed to get dressed. On several occasions, she had fallen off the end of the bed, because the topper was made from very floppy foam which hung over the edge of the bed and gave her no support. We were not permitted to cut the mattress topper as it had been provided by the Council services.
The solution
The solution to her problem was to pull the ‘normal’ mattress 6″ down the bed which gave plenty of support to the topper at foot of the bed. This left a gap at the head end, into which the pillows sank. An infill was needed.
Solid polystyrene was considered, but rejected due to concerns over fire risk. A simple, lightweight, plywood box was constructed.
The infill cured the problem.
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Hi,
You probably already know this!
I am an 82 year old ex. Design Engineer who now helps the Sue Ryder (Nettlebed) hospice by repairing beds and chairs for sale to the public. We have a chart from John Lewis which shows bed sizes. In this case, an extra 6″ to be designed for a “Super king bed”, or in our local town Henley, for the 6-7 ft rowers.
My assumption would be that the local authority supplied the incorrect item in the first place and should be able to re-supply with the correct size.
Regards,
Dave.