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

For everyone fearful of…caring for…or recovering from…a broken hip,  Help! Aging Parents chronicles Senior Advisor R’s fall, her “rescuers,” surgical considerations, rehab highlights and insights, and lastly her preparation for returning home.  She will go home with an alert pendant, a cane, and a walker for going out when anticipating a great deal of walking. No caregiver.

What follows may repeat snip-its from earlier posts.  But the chronology and additional information make it hang together better.  A recap of R’s experience is also a helpful frame of reference for those going through this not-for-sissies/prima-donnas experience.

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

R. didn’t have an alert pendant. In late September as she walked from her bedroom to the kitchen, she noticed her twice-a-month cleaning help had moved something on the desk she was passing. She reached around 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 recalls she grabbed at a table leg thinking she’d pull herself up. 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 31 feet to the bedroom, and 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.

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 on next post 1/18/11.

Help! Aging Parents is again a finalist in  the “Best Senior Living Blogs by Individuals.” Thanks to all who voted. Click 2014 badge at right to see and link to all finalist blogs.