Broken Hip: 97-year-old's Fall, Surgery, Rehab, Amazing Recovery--Part 1 (of 4)

97-year-old Recovers and Regains Independence After Fall and Broken Hip--Part 1

Finally, I'm back. Getting wireless internet connection while out here with R, as she prepares to leave rehab, took longer than expected.  That said, a recap of R's experience will, I hope, provide a frame of reference for those going through this not-for-sissies/prima-donnas experience.

For everyone fearful of...caring for...or recovering from...a broken hip,  Help! Aging Parents will chronicle Senior Advisor R's fall, her "rescuers," surgical consideration, rehab highlights and insights, and lastly her preparation for returning home.  Ultimately she will be aided by an alarm wrist bracelet, a cane, and a walker with a basket for carrying things (the rehab therapist says she only needs additional support when things must be carried from place to place). No caregivers.

Part 1: The Fall, the Rescuers (911 and doctors)

What follows may repeat snip-its from earlier posts.  But the chronology and additional information make it hang together better.  R. didn't have an alert pendant.  In late September she was walking from her bedroom to the kitchen when she noticed her twice-a-month cleaning help had moved something on the desk she was passing.  She reached over to reposition it, realized she was losing balance, grabbed the nearest chair, but it wasn't heavy enough to support her weight, and they both fell on the carpet.

R. remembers she grabbed at a table leg thinking she'd pull herself up; she couldn't. One side of her body would not move. She knew immediately she couldn't get up. That ad, "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up," for the first time--resonated, R said.

The next 3 hours were spent inching her way back towards the bedroom, to a telephone.  She rolled over on her stomach and with her arms in front "kinda pulled her knees and body along." Her knees sustained carpet burns, one of which is still not completely healed.

The phone, on a table, was too far to reach from the floor, but there was a waste basket nearby.  R grabbed it, was able to reach up and, after repeated attempts, knocked the phone out of the cradle.  "Very hard work," she says.  She phoned a nephew, who drove to her home, called the doctor, got the answering service, who told him to call 911.

The paramedics came immediately. First 2, then more to make certain her condition was stable then to place her on the gurney and transport her to the hospital designated by her primary care doctor (who by this time had been contacted).

Now in the "right" hospital, the next step was the "right" surgeon, for this 97-year-old, with a broken femur. R's primary care doctor was insistent on one particular orthopedic surgeon who had "technical excellence" and "good hands."  Why?  "Surgery is a trauma to the body. It is not tolerated as well in the elderly as in the young," according to R's highly regarded doctor.  "It's important to get in, get out, do a quick job with less anesthesia, less blood loss, less time in the operating room.  That means less trauma."

Clearly these early steps cleared the way for R's ultimate excellent recovery and gave us far-away-living children (one of us was out here almost all the time) confidence that--in terms of helping parents age well--we were on the right track. To be continued...


Also visit my new site: http://helpparentsagewell.com

Aging Parents; Fall; Broken Hip; Care Center

Independence vs. Broken Hip

We try to help parents age well and we're aware of the statistics. After 65 the chances of a fall increase; ditto the damage which  increases as people's bones become more  brittle. Down the line we realize that many people age, and suddenly look more fragile.

So I write yesterday's planned post today, from a rehab center where my 97-year-old mother-in-law and a senior advisor, R, is recovering after falling 10 days ago in her home and having surgery to put a pin in her hip.

R., (on my new site click on the "senior advisor" tab) like many older people fortunate to have (as she calls it) "a good brain," values her independence above all. She took precautions to prevent falling in her home and has never hesitated to gracefully ask for help (your arm) when she feels unsteady.  She never dreamed she would fall in her home and thus, rejected the idea of a pendant that would alert someone she needed help.

The result: she fell in her living room, while walking to the kitchen, having noticed a decorative object on a desk had been moved by her every-other-week cleaning person.  She reached over to move it, lost her balance, and grabbed a nearby chair.  But it wasn't heavy enough to hold her upright. Both fell on the carpet. The next three hours were spent crawling on the carpet to her bedroom and a telephone; she called a nephew; he called 911, then came to her home.

I share R's experience to help aging parents and other older people who live alone and resist bracelets or necklaces with those pendants. While they won't prevent falls, they do prevent skinned knees with carpet burns, and pain and possible further damage from crawling to a telephone.   And they don't need to be worn all the time.

Indeed, a woman in her mid-80's who shares an apartment with her son in the northeast, only wears the bracelet when she enters her Florida apartment--where she live alone in the winter.  She says she leaves the bracelet near the door and puts it on the minute she enters that apartment.

While we do our best to help our aging parents, the odds can catch up with even the most smart, independent and remarkable seniors....evident from the older people with broken hips in this rehab center.  We can only try to reduce the damage. Perhaps R's experience can provide an opening for discussion with older parents who live alone without one of those pendants.

Also go to my new site:http://helpparentsagewell.com.  Same blog, more "bells and whistles."