Falls At Home Injure And Kill
Just last month I wrote about falls being the leading cause of injury for seniors. Soon after, a 40-ish year old friend died from a fall at home while dealing with lights – are you concerned?
You should be. Unintentional falls send nearly 2,000 Canadians of every age to hospital every day, of which over 400 each day require hospital admissions:
- falls and slips are a leading cause of injury for all ages
- falls are the most common way to suffer a brain injury
- falls are responsible for over 90% of hip fractures
- fall and slip victims on average miss 11 days of work (14 if hospitalized)
- most falls are preventable.
Those who fall once are 2 to 3 times more likely to fall again. Reasons include:
- anxiety, stress, tiredness and sleepiness
- temporary health conditions, eg. flu, cold
- muscle weakness, especially in the legs, eg. office workers
- imbalance, causing unsteadiness on your feet
- dizziness or lightheadedness, eg. from weather changes
- black outs, fainting or loss of consciousness
- foot problems — including pain and deformities
- memory loss, confusion or difficulties problem solving
- vision and hearing problems, eg. from headaches
- taking medication that makes you dizzy or drowsy
- drinking too much alcohol, especially with medication
- chronic health conditions, eg. neuropathy, low blood pressure
“We all think of cancer and heart disease and strokes as being the big problem – they are serious and you do sometimes die of them – but you also find that falls are extremely common and although they don’t usually kill you straight away, sometimes they do”
– Geoff Fernie, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.
For preventing falls at home checklist, see www.albertacleanair.com/blog/homefallschecklist/
Falls from ladders and chairs while doing home maintenance when not used to climbing is common; lightbulbs need changing, so do batteries in smoke and CO detectors – climb or hire a pro, your choice.
by Carla Berezowski,
Home Comfort Expert
