An elderly man’s death after falling and lying helpless for at least a week on the floor of his apartment was the sad culmination of several things that went wrong, said the board chairman of a non-profit housing complex.
Ray Allen, 81, died Tuesday in hospital after being discovered Monday morning by his daughter and the administrator at the Gorge-View Homes Society on Chown Place in Victoria. His daughter had been on holidays out of town, said chairman Don Fouracre, and she rushed over to see why her father had not responded to her phone messages. As well, Allen, who was hearty enough for long walks around town, had indicated he was going away. Allen’s son had also been phoning him.
“It’s a very unfortunate incident,” Fouracre said. “It’s one of those things where if it could go wrong, it did go wrong.”
It was the first of two incidents within 24 hours. Also Monday, a 55-year-old man with health problems was found by Victoria police and firefighters after they were summoned by a concerned friend. The man had been lying on the floor of his home on Comerford Street in Esquimalt for four to five days. He remains in intensive care at Royal Jubilee Hospital.
Allen lived at a part of the Gorge-View complex that is the furtherest away from parking and the office.
“This man was not alone,” said the Gorge-View administrator, who did not want to be named. “He had safeguards in place and he had indicated that he was also going to be off somewhere,” she said. “We are very concerned about our residents and, at this time in particular, we are very concerned for the family, who are devastated. … Unfortunately, the best laid plans sometimes don’t work out.”
Residents are arranging a meeting to discuss ways to prevent such incidents.
Victoria has an exceptionally high rate of people living alone — 49 per cent.
The incidents are shocking, said Dr. Vicky Scott, senior adviser on falls and injury prevention for the B.C. Ministry of Health, but she has heard of them before.
She wants to get the message out that devastating falls can be prevented.
It’s crucial that people let their physicians know the first time they fall for seemingly no reason. “No matter if you’re injured or not,” she stressed. All physicians have a screening checklist to try to determine the reason.
A fall often brings on “a rapid decline in people’s health,” said Scott, noting that half of those who suffer a hip fracture never regain previous function. The average cost of a hospital stay for a fall is $18,000, and more for hip fractures — not including medications, follow-up care or therapy. There are about 11,000 fall-related hospitalizations each year in B.C., among people 65 and older.
Safety suggestions
There’s a balance between privacy, independence and avoiding falls, says Dr. Vicky Scott, senior adviser on falls and injury prevention for the B.C. Ministry of Health. Her safety suggestions include:
- Prepare your living environment so that you can crawl to a phone.
- Have more than one phone, carry a phone or an alert button.
- Take 2000 IU of vitamin D daily and eat protein to strengthen muscles and bones. “It doesn’t take more than a day or two in bed before you start losing bone density and muscle,” she said.
- Keep hydrated to prevent dizziness, whether or not you’re incontinent.
- Wean yourself from sleeping pills, which are highly associated with falls.
- Women should be aware about wearing different kinds of shoes that make feet less likely to adapt to a given environment.
- If you fall, don’t jump up; that can compound a hip fracture.
