One in four senior citizens is likely to fall and fracture their hip, wrists, or spine. Surgery can get them back on their feet on the same day, but for some seniors, the emotional price — anxiety, social isolation — and financial costs are high.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Indians over 65 fall while doing simple tasks. The US Center for Disease Control reports that more than 25% of older people fall each year.
“Getting senior citizens to lie on the bed for months does heal the fracture, but could adversely affect the muscle strength and mobility.” Especially if the fracture is in the lower limbs. The quality of life of patients confined to bed after a fall could rapidly deteriorate and not improve. Post-fall mortality among the elderly is hence high. Nearly 1.5-2 million older people in India suffer injuries due to falls every year with 1 million succumbing to death as a result.
“Due to minimally invasive ways in which we operate these days, elderly patients such as this centenarian can literally walk back home, with the help of a walker, within a day or two of surgery.”
While most hip fracture surgery would cost between 2 lakh Rs and 5 Rs lakh depending on the surgeon and the hospital.
Hip fractures are the most common outcome of falls among the elderly, followed by wrist and spine fractures. Incidentally, elderly fractures have a gender skew, with more females than males sustaining fractures in their seventh and eighth decades of life.
“Often, trivial issues lead to falls; a cataract could be affecting the vision so much at night time that the patient stumbles and falls, or someone in the family forgets to keep a night lamp on for the senior citizen to see the path to the bathroom.”
