Quality of life after severe fall??

[MicheleWeinberger]

My fil fell over his banister 3 weeks ago and broke 10 ribs and 6 vertebrae. Has been battling pneumonia the whole time as well in hospital due to his broke ribs. He is now on the hospital ward having been in icu.

Just wondered if anyone's parents have been able to recover from a severe fall. He is 77 and been really fit and healthy before this not frail at all but does have osteoporosis.

If they did recover how long did it take.? Recovery just seems unimaginable but he's made it this far so looking for other experiences

Thank you xx

Longer he’s in bed immobile the more chance of his leg muscles atrophying and being unable to mobilise again. I’d be managing your dh expectations.

50% of broken major bones result in care home admission according to my last manual handling course.

To be honest we have no expectations for his life after hospital/rehab. Im surprised many of the responses where the elderly person survives after a year.

We will start sorting his house in the new year. But we don't plan for him to return home. I guess we will start managing fil expectations as well so he can get to grips with his future now

Yes, that's what we've had to do, but it's been really hard for him, his brain is still good but he has so little physical capability, most of the people in the home are the other way round, advanced dementia but more mobile. This is another aspect of the falls causing care home admissions issue, the psychological upset of being independent one day, having a fall, going into hospital and never going home again.

I wouldn't work on his expectations right now if he's feeling optimistic about recovery. While he's had very serious, lifechanging injuries, it's still important that, once he's able, he regains as much function as possible. It doesn't feel like it now, but the pain will diminish as the fractures stabilise, and he will be able to engage in some physio and assisted movement. Even if he regains the ability to cough and manage his airway effectively, he will have a better quality of life.

But if he starts to feel that things are hopeless and he has nothing to live for now, his motivation to engage with therapies will diminish and it becomes a self fulfiling prophecy.

What the person above said… I think it’s correct to say that elderly people lose 10% of muscles per week in hospital… so if you’re in for a while the prognosis is unlikely to be good. DF broke his ankle badly at 82 while playing golf. It was a nightmare at the time but he’s recovered well. Can’t walk as far but is living independently. Getting your FIL up and moving will be vital - but not sure how possible that will be.

My 91 year old FIL broke 3 ribs a few months ago. He was in hospital about 6 weeks. He was frail with a walker and largely housebound before the fall. He did manage to go home again and has recovered to pretty much how he was before. He fortunately didn’t get pneumonia which I guess made recovery more straightforward. He was delirious much of the first week or two in hospital.

I hope your FIL gets a good outcome OP, it must be in his favour that he was fit beforehand.

Thanks for all the input. Good news is fil is being moved to a rehabilitation centre/unit not sure what they are officially called. In the next couple of days when there is a space. As he is progressing well. Hopefully we can get him living independently again.