Is breaking a hip a death sentence for the elderly?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Is breaking a hip a death sentence for the elderly? (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 2/5/2013 3:53:40 PM EDT

Every elderly person I have known, once they broke their hip they died in a relatively short time thereafter. Happened to all 4 of grandparents and great-grandparents that died, my parents' neighbor, and now someone else I know.

It seems like once this happens, they usually don't have much time left.

Have you guys also experienced this?

Posted: 2/5/2013 3:56:18 PM EDT

[#1]

Yup. That and foot surgery.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:00:01 PM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:

Every elderly person I have known, once they broke their hip they died in a relatively short time thereafter.

2/2 here

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:00:14 PM EDT

[#3]

Yep, they never get over it.

It's just one of those things.

I can't go into deep detail, but I've been around it enough to know once it happens, time is limited.

ETA: Called someone who worked as a nurse in a nursing home for a long period of time, they say it's because the bone is so large, and the person is so old, they simply can't get over it. Doesn't heal and it eventually saps their energy away and finally succumb.

She says no one really knows exactly why, but it just happens.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:00:30 PM EDT

[#4]

My dad died at 94 a day after breaking his hip

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:02:22 PM EDT

[#5]

Either a fat embolism, or clot, yeah. Seems one or the other hits after the fracture, and it's downhill after that.

Watch your footing.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:03:10 PM EDT

[#6]

Nope. My father absolutely fucking shattered his hip whike ice skating a few years ago. He's doing fine, even climbing ladders to fix shit on the foor, playing golf, and rowing regularly.

Mother in law broke hers a few months ago - also doing just fine now. Almost like nothing ever happened.

Medicine has advanced from when it was a near death sentence. A good healthy lifestyle also helps tremendously.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:03:14 PM EDT

[#7]

No but its a game changer. My grandfather lived 15 years after he broke his hip. Died at 99

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:04:24 PM EDT

[#8]

It was for my biological mother and grandmother

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:06:45 PM EDT

[#9]

No. My grandfather broke his hip 2.5 years ago, and while it was indeed a long recovery, he is doing well now for 86 years old.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:07:06 PM EDT

[#10]

Not always.
My grandmother broke a hip and had some type of titanium reinforcement put in. She was around 85 or so then, and lived to 96. For a small fragile woman, she really lived a long, and pretty active life. Its in the person I guess, some combination of spirit and luck. She was worried for me when I went out to the sandbox a few years ago. I told her "Grandma, if I'm half as tough as you've been, I'll be fine."

That said, the doctors were pretty surprised she did so well.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:07:19 PM EDT

[#11]

It also depends on how old the person is and what kind of health they are in.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:07:25 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Either a fat embolism, or clot, yeah. Seems one or the other hits after the fracture, and it's downhill after that.

Watch your footing.

It's more the 'reason' they fall (and their hip breaks) than the actual hip fracture itself.

They're generally in poor health, have brittle bones, poor circulation, etc. etc....

That makes them at higher risk than non-elderly individual that falls (and how often does someone in their young or early middle age fall getting out of bed or trip over the cat and break their hip?).

ANY serious or debilitating injury in an elderly individual isn't a good thing. Yes, Fat Emboli, clots etc. are dangerous to them after a hip fracture (and they certainly won't be moving around as quickly as someone much younger after surgery..which helps prevent clots), but their overall poor health is a major contributor..

AFARR

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:07:51 PM EDT

[#13]

Seriously high mortality rate.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:07:58 PM EDT

[#14]

It was for my Grandma. Basically you're immobile and open to all kinds of problems. Goes downhill pretty fast.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:08:53 PM EDT

[#15]

100% of the people who break a hip will die some time thereafter.

The stats don't lie.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:09:14 PM EDT

[#16]

My grandmother had one hip joint replaced 12 years ago. She broke her hip 15 years ago on the other side. It is a long recovery but she is 88 now and just as mobile and crazy as ever.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:10:11 PM EDT

[#17]

Wifes grandmother, 86 and broke it walking in the bowling alley on her team night. She was back to bowling within 3 months.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:10:22 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
It was for my Grandma. Basically you're immobile and open to all kinds of problems. Goes downhill pretty fast.

Immobility is rough. My Dad recently spent almost a month in the hospital; it was a night and day change when he moved to a rehab place that actually got him out of bed and didn't let him waste away.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:10:32 PM EDT

[#19]

Elderly women who break their hip are approximately twice as likely to die in the next year than their age-matched counterparts.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:11:32 PM EDT

[#20]

It is very frequently the beginning of the end. Some old folks come back from it, but damn few.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:11:49 PM EDT

[#21]

Grandmother broke her hip in 2003 at 77 and made a good recovery. She broke the other one in 2009 and didn't recover well, died last week.

She never exercised her whole life so I was favorably impressed with the fast recovery for the first one.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:12:55 PM EDT

[#22]

If they don't die, it's definitely a complete life-altering event. I think often the complete loss of mobility and increased reliance on others afterwards results in a lessened desire to live.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:13:07 PM EDT

[#23]

It didn't slow my grandma down, but she was a tough old bird. She also had a brain aneurysm and lived although it put her in the hospital for 6 months. It was cancer that finally got her.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:13:37 PM EDT

[#24]

Really depends on the overall health of the person. If they are already sick/weak that is a pretty tough surgery. Being bedridden in a weakened state opens the doors for a whole other host of problems to step in.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:13:42 PM EDT

[#25]

There is a study I read at the hospital that shows it's much more likely for men to die within a year or so after breaking their hip, if I remember the time-frame right. Women are more likely to recover and continue on.

ETA: Someone above said something similar, except reversed. Will see if I can find the study online, I might be remembering it wrong.

ETAx2: Found studies pointing either way, but most of them seem to say women are more likely.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:14:25 PM EDT

[#26]

Many elderly people never fully recover from such an injury.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:16:11 PM EDT

[#27]

Yep.

Slip on the ice and break your hip...you're as good as dead.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:17:40 PM EDT

[#28]

About 80% of people over 80 will die with in 1 year after a fx hip mostly from lung issues from loss of mobility

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:20:46 PM EDT

[#29]

i have more experience with this than I would like. It's often not so much a direct cause and effect. The fact that a simple fall leads to a broken hip is indicative of them being in pretty frail condition anyway. They are often headed rapidly downhill, and falls and broken bones are just evidence of it, rather than the ultimate cause of it. Sometimes they can get frail enough to where the hip breaking is what causes the fall, as opposed to the other way around. :(

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:21:07 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
About 80% of people over 80 will die with in 1 year after a fx hip mostly from lung issues from loss of mobility

Is it feasible to get swim exercise while recovering from a hip surgery?

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:23:16 PM EDT

[#31]

The elderly can be incredibly fragile. If someone already a bit frail or suffering health issues breaks a hip from a simple fall it is really bad news.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:24:05 PM EDT

[#32]

Sister is a nurse, said something like 50% of people over 65 who break their hip will ultimately die from it.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:26:02 PM EDT

[#33]

Strange this topic came up, my father got out of surgery about 40 mins ago

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:27:10 PM EDT

[#34]

It got my grandma.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:30:18 PM EDT

[#35]

Yes. My father died this past October at 92 years of age. He fell and broke his hip at the end of April 2012. Even though the doctors "repaired" the hip he never walked again and it was a painful recovery that never really happened.

I miss him.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:31:42 PM EDT

[#36]

When your body has a very small reserve, it doesn't take a whole lot to overwhelm it.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:34:37 PM EDT

[#37]

9/10 times it isn't a case of "I fell down and broke my hip."

Usually it's such a bad case of osteoporosis that the hip finally deteriorated, broke and then they fell down.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:35:06 PM EDT

[#38]

My 88 year old ex mother in law, who is a great gal, broke her hip just before last Thanksgiving.

It was a bad break and they had to scew a rod into her pelvis but they had her walking the second day after surgery and has made a complete recovery.

It is amazing to see her up and about with no sign of an injury, still walks with the slight aid of a cane though.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:36:03 PM EDT

[#39]

Nana broke her hip in 2000 or so. She is starting to slow down now, but she's 102!

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:36:07 PM EDT

[#40]

A great many elderly people who break their hip are dead within a year

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:36:29 PM EDT

[#41]

My Grandmother broke her hip and had replacement in 1989 at age 73 and lived to 91.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:36:33 PM EDT

[#42]

Quoted:
Strange this topic came up, my father got out of surgery about 40 mins ago

Hopefully he will enjoy a complete recovery; prayers sent.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:37:18 PM EDT

[#43]

My Grandpa broke his hip falling off a tractor in his early 70's. He died in the hospital from a secondary infection (malpractice)...15 years later after being involved in a head on collision with a semi.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:37:39 PM EDT

[#44]

What came first the hip or the age. Oldsters by their very nature are closer to the pearly gates anyway. In theory.

My grandmother lived 5 yrs after her hip Fx. And she was old as dirt.

Needs more arfcom study.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:39:13 PM EDT

[#45]

My 88 YO MIL broke hers in November. She healed enough to send her back to Arkansas last Friday.

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Posted: 2/5/2013 4:43:39 PM EDT

[#46]

Quoted:
It also depends on how old the person is and what kind of health they are in.

This is correct

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:43:59 PM EDT

[#47]

Not so in my grandfather's case. He fell on the steps to his front porch somewhere between 1974 and 1976...I can't remember exactly any more. He was born in 1899 so he would have been between the age of 74 and 76 at the time. He had surgery to repair the break and picked up a staph infection. The infection resulted in the subsequent removal of his entire hip joint. I guess back then a joint replacement wasn't feasible, or at least not in his particular case. He lived the rest of his life like that...with no hip. He used a walker, but he continued to drive, do his own grocery shopping, and live completely independently except for the small things that he let my parents and his grandsons (my brother and I) do for him. He was fiercely independent. If he didn't think that my brother or I were keeping his yard mowed in a timely enough manner to suit him, he mowed it himself...with a 70's vintage Lawn Boy 2-cycle push mower. He'd push the lawn mower a few feet ahead of himself, use his walker to catch up to it, and then repeat. He was still working for the local Chevrolet dealership when he fell. He was never able to go back to work after that, but he had every intention of doing so until the hip was deemed unsaveable and removed. His bedroom and primary bathroom were upstairs and he continued to go upstairs to bed everynight. he sat on his butt and scooted himself up the stairs. He kept a walker on both floors. He lived this way until his death in January of 1985. He put on his coat, grabbed his walker and was headed out into a miserably cold, snowy winter morning to go to the grocery store when he had an anuerism, or embolism, or whatever you call it...I'm not a doctor, and was dead before he hit the floor.

Sorry to be long-winded, but he was major part of my life up until his death and I hope he never doubted how much he meant to me. I still think about him every day.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:44:55 PM EDT

[#48]

Quoted:

Yup. That and foot surgery.

my wife's 80+ granny broken her foot in 3 places 3 months ago, still in a nursing home for rehab and support.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:49:38 PM EDT

[#49]

Yes, it is currently the focus of a massive education/treatment campaign being taken on by most of the community health and education centers in hospitals around the country. It gets downright ridiculous when part of the AHA curriculum taught to say a boy scout calls for talking about fall prevention in the elderly, but imo a little nonsense in a problem as massive and preventable such as this is worth it.

Posted: 2/5/2013 4:50:41 PM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:
Strange this topic came up, my father got out of surgery about 40 mins ago

And we hope he does well.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Is breaking a hip a death sentence for the elderly? (Page 1 of 2)

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