Falls are a huge, huge issue in elder care.

Case in point.

I was visiting my father-in-law in rehab. I saw his former room mate and I asked, “Rudy, why are you here?” He said, “I fell and I was on the floor for five days. Now I’m here in rehab.”

Rudy had fallen in his home. He lived alone. His sister who is deaf and half blind and lives near by called on him for five days. When she knocked Rudy would yell but she could not hear him and she could not look in to see if he needed help.

Finally, she contacted a neighbor who knocked on the door and then realized what the problem was. She called 911 and got Rudy to the hospital, and then into rehab.

Could you be on the floor for five days? No water? No food? No meds? No bathroom? How would you sleep? What would you think about?

A woman falls in her home. She has a remote phone in her hands. Her daughter calls twice with in a 15 hour period. The mother never tells her daughter that she had fallen. She did not want to tell her daughter because she feared that she could lose her independence.

It is only when a neighbor stopped by with a tuna casserole that the woman’s plight is known. She was taken to the hospital because she fell in such a way that the circulation in her leg was compromised.

The thing that struck me first about falling was the inability of the elderly to get up. It would seem such a natural thing to do but it is not. And it goes beyond the physical limitations. It seems that mentally sometimes they just can’t figure out how to do it.

It is also troubling that, sometimes it seems, they aren’t interested in their own safety.