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San Juan Bautista, CA: Hip Fractures Are Dangerous: Make Your Home Safer: View From A Private Duty C
The recent magazine from the American Association of Retired Persons called attention to something that we deal with on a daily basis at Family inHome Caregiving, the possibility that our senior citizen clients can suffer from a fall, resulting in a devastating fracture. The story focused on retired schoolteacher Isabelle Jackson, who suffers from excruciating pain two years after she fell and broke her hip. At 89 years old, Isabelle had never broken a bone in her life and thought she was the picture of health. "I was determined not to be like my sister," said Isabelle, telling the reporter that her sister fractured her hip and was in a wheelchair for the last six years of her life. "That was not going to happen to me," she said. Despite the pain and suffering both sisters felt, they may be considered lucky because 20-30% of the 300,000 Americans 65 or older who fracture a hip each year will die within 12 months, while many more experience significant functional loss. The recovery time from a hip fracture can be very long for an elderly person, with 90% of those who needed no assistance climbing the stairs prior to the accident unable to climb even five stairs a year after breaking a hip. About two-thirds aren't able to get on or off a toilet without help, and 50 percent are unable to raise themselves out of a chair. Don't let this happen to you. My grandmother broke a hip when she was in her mid-90's and she was living with me. Her doctor said she might not even make it through the hip replacement surgery given her advanced age. Going under anesthesia in your 90's is something that your body sometimes just can't take, making surgery of any type more dangerous. Thankfully, Nana recovered fully (they were able to do the surgery using anesthesia only from the waist down) and she had few mobility problems after leaving the hospital. But that situation is rare. She was quite the trooper. There are a number of things you can do to make sure that the risk of a fall in your own home are reduced. I often do a walk through with a client and their family and advise them to take out loose rugs (particularly those with fringe around the sides), put in bars in the bathroom to provide support getting up and down, and putting on raised toilet seats. Depending on how frail the person is, it may be necessary to convince them to use a cane or walker. This is often a difficult proposition. Nana was advised to use a walker but she refused, saying they were for "old people." I was finally able to convince her to use a three-pronged cane. This provides more support than a typical cane, but much less than a walker. Although not ideal, sometimes you have to work up slowly. People can get stubborn as they get older! But one thing is for sure, if you're taking care of an older person you should do everything in your power to make sure that their living environment as safe as possible.
About Richard Kuehn & Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey:
After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member I was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. I became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula. Please visit my blog where I talk about important senior issues at:
http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/Blog
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