Laguna Woods resident Terry Cantine took a nasty spill outside her house while heading out for a walk.
“I was not focusing and fell and could not get up until a man helped me,” recalled Cantine, who gives her age as “over 75.”
She suffered bruises and a hurt knee, but no broken bones — or so she thought. Two weeks later, while she was getting prepped for an unrelated surgery, she learned that her clavicle had been fractured.
“A lip on the cement path stood out,” she said.
Cantine also fell in the shower once, slipping while tossing a bathing suit into the sink.
“I did this pirouette and let go of the grab bar,” she said. “No more fancy business. With age you have to be smarter.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nationwide at least 1 out of 4 seniors over age 65 falls each year. About 36 million falls are reported among older adults each year, resulting in more than 32,000 deaths. About 3 million older adults are treated in emergency departments each year for a fall injury, and at least 300,000 older people are hospitalized for hip fractures. Women fall more often than men.
At MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, 1,842 patients were admitted to the emergency room in 2022 due to falls, according to emergency services manager Luke Schademan. (MemorialCare does not keep statistics on how many of those patients were Village residents.)
“Before the pandemic, ambulance calls due to falls were the biggest problems here,” said Marcy Sheinwold, president of the Foundation of Laguna Woods Village.
At the time, the foundation had an intern who figured out that 50 percent of ambulance calls out of the Village were due to falls, Sheinwold said.
“It’s right up there with heart disease,” she added. “I have fallen three times in the last six months. It’s an issue.”
Marcelle Paja, a physical therapist at MemorialCare, said she sees fall patients start to come in around age 60. She…
Read the full article here
