About Pelosi’s hip fracture
First of all, a disclaimer: I make no predictions about Pelosi’s recovery from a hip fracture she sustained in a fall the other day. But anything is possible.
I read these musings:
Statistically, when a woman in her mid-80s breaks her hip, the consequences are cataclysmic. Up to 33% of older adults with hip fractures die within a year. 50% are unable to bathe, feed, wipe their butts, or dress themselves.
About one in five end up in a long-term care facility.
During the first three months after a hip fracture, older adults have a five to eight times higher risk of dying. And this elevated mortality rate lasts nearly a decade.
An untreated hip fracture is even worse. 70% of victims are dead within a year.
It’s not a trivial thing.
Often, it’s not that the broken hip itself is so medically dangerous, but it’s an overall indicator of physical frailty: if your grip-strength, stamina, balance, and bone density have all severely deteriorated, you’re more likely to fall and break your hip. It could be more correlation than causation.
All that may be true, but I don’t see it as having much relevance to Pelosi’s situation. A great many people who fracture their hips are already in bad shape, and it’s not my impression that that’s the case for her. The article actually points this out.
But what I’m thinking about is my own mother. She fell and fractured her hip (or did she fracture her hip and then fall?; sometimes it’s that way around) at the age of 96, and that was a couple of years after having a stroke. She was pretty darn frail at the time, although she could still walk with a walker.
At 96 her prognosis was awful. The hospital hesitated to even operate, which would have left her in terrible shape. They did a bunch of tests on her cardiovascular system and pronounced her strong enough to at least withstand the surgery, and so some sort of hip replacement was performed.
She bounced back. It was uncanny. There was a 65-year-old woman with a similar injury sharing a room with her who had a lot more post-op pain and a slower recovery. And it’s not that my mother was so cooperative with rehab; she was not. She just recovered quickly and no one knew why.
I remember being stopped in the hallway of the hospital by one of her doctors, who said in a between-you-and-me way: “You know, your mother is a very strong woman.”
My answer was, “I guess she is, but I never knew it before.”
My mother lived to be 98, and during those two years, up until the final month or two, she was walking around as before with her walker. The broken hip didn’t seem to have much effect on her.
That’s just one person. And of course, she did die two years later. But considering the age she was when she broke her hip, that amount of survival was a pretty good deal.
The Washington Examiner reports that Pelosi had a hip replacement, performed at Landstuhl Army Base in Germany. She seems to have been quite an active person, but as you point out, Neo, recovery rates vary greatly. What I will say is that she’s 84 years old, and wearing four-inch stiletto heels seems unwise.
Kate:
Yes, the stiletto report is quite amazing. I have to hand it to her. I can’t recall the last time I wore them, but it was quite a while ago and I’m not 84.
My mother was 91 when she fell down the basement stairs and broke her hip. She crawled to the phone and dialed 911 and then crawled over to the basement door to unlock it for when the paramedics showed up. She recovered fully in a few months. Didn’t even have to use a walker. Throughout she professed to feeling little to no pain. In fact she rarely felt any pain, from anything. She was extraordinary in that regard. She was one tough Irish woman. So was her mother. And her mother’s mother, born in Ireland, was also very tough — she lived to 98, dying in 1948 (two years before I was born), still collecting the army pensions of her husband and three brothers, all born in Ireland, all having served in the Union Army in the Civil War (two KIA, two WIA).
My mother was one of the two toughest people I have ever known. The other was my father. He was tough in a kindly way, steady, dependable, unflappable, and good-humored. My mother was old-fashion tough: stubborn, stoic, uncomplaining, fearless, sometimes a bit grim, a bit crazy — and a little scary for all that.
She couldn’t cook, though. Worst cook I ever knew. Another Irish trait.
Miss you, mom. Suaimhneas síoraí, mháthair.
Kate:
Yes, the stiletto report is quite amazing. I have to hand it to her. I can’t recall the last time I wore them, but it was quite a while ago and I’m not 84.
Hand it to her???
That was supremely stupid.
Vanity, thy name is woman.
Girls and shoes. Makes no sense.
Lee:
Do you mean I’m supremely stupid for saying I have to hand it to her?
Or do you mean she was stupid for wearing the shoes?
Or both?
As for “vanity, thy name is woman” – I’ve known plenty of vain men and non-vain women. But women are indeed judged by their attractiveness more than men are – it’s just a fact of life. And a woman in public life like Pelosi has reasons to be mindful of her appearance, although I think she’s had way too much cosmetic surgery and procedures. If she hadn’t, she’d be mocked for looking old.
But on a deeper level – and the real reason I said I hand it to her – I’ve noticed over and over again that when people stop caring about how they present themselves to the world in terms of looking good or looking attractive, it usually is evidence of a cognitive and physical decline and a bad sign. I’m not talking about nuns or saints – I’m talking about people in general. It’s often a good idea to “prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.”
IrishOtter:
Do we perhaps have the same mother?
My mother wasn’t Irish, but she demonstrated surprising toughness in her elder years. And she couldn’t cook.
Maybe the latter correlates with longevity?
Art Deco:
Please read my comment to Lee below yours.
Not exactly the same but when my mother was 80 she tripped over a curb and broke her pelvis. Prior to that she was walking completely unaided and would go on longish walks every morning with friends and thankfully she didn’t need surgery but the doctor warned her that she would probably never walk again without a cane or walker. But, after a 3 month stay in a rehab facility she went from barely being able to stand up to walking on her own again and it was about 5 years before she even needed a cane.
The doctor at the time mentioned how she had very good bone health for her age which was great and kind of interesting because her sister had very bad osteoporosis which pretty much led to her death after a minor car accident in her late sixties.
neo:
LOL!!!
As for “can’t cook=longevity”: For mothers, it would seem so in our cases. For wives: I hope not! Or else I’m a dead man, given that Mrs. Otter is a terrific cook!
Pelosi is short, and wishes to add the 4″ to herself in public to be more impressive. I understand that. However, in 2020 she did a BLM kneeling stunt in the Capitol and had to be helped to stand up. At the event where she fell, the group were standing on a marble floor in front of a marble staircase. Stilettos require strength and balance.
Perhaps from now on we will see Pelosi in shoes more sensible and safer for her age. They don’t have to be ugly.
I’m not 84 (68 in October) but I still wear 5″ stilettos. I love them, I can walk easily in them. Of course, I don’t wear them all the time, just when we go out to a special dinner or the like.
My mom is almost 90, she’s a great cook (or was, anyway, before she went into assisted living).
Pelosi is a vile evil woman and her infantile ripping up of the State of the Union speech diminishes our nation. She is a poster child for term, age and career limits.
I imagine there are patterns or distributions in where the hip or pelvic breaks happen, right? And I wonder if they’re at different locations in men and women.
For those beyond their 80s, falling is an ever-present danger. I have fallen three times in the last three years. No broke bones, but some painful bruises. I try to be careful, but the falls have resulted from not seeing an item that tripped me up. (My bad eyes contributing.) I have a real fear of breaking a hip. That’s usually the end of mobility for oldsters. Neo ‘and Irish Otter’s mothers excepted.
Pelosi will get top notch care and rehab. She may have to spend time in a rehab center, but since she’s been active her muscle tone will probably return.
I don’t like San Fran Nan, but I feel a sense of compassion for any older person who takes a bad fall. I wish her a speedy recovery.
Please read my comment to Lee below yours.
==
Why?
Perhaps from now on we will see Pelosi in shoes more sensible and safer for her age.
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Chuckles.
==
My mother broke her hip in her mid eighties, but recovered. She died at ninety from the effects of a stroke, which she had been expecting for a couple of decades. Indeed, when she was eighty she gave herself ten years. OTOH, my step mother died within a year after fracturing her hip. One thing led to another, and she eventually died of a lung infection.
I’m 78, and while I still do some daily hiking, there are a number of hikes I don’t think I will be able to do in two or three years, the statistical odds are I will be dead in ten years. So it goes with all of us.
For those beyond their 80s, falling is an ever-present danger.
I’ve taken to using hiking sticks. While I don’t need them on nice, graded trails, they are a great help on more technical trails. They have saved me from several falls. This time of year I’ve started using EXOspikes on my shoes, and I feel far more secure on the ice and snow of the trails.
This article says “Pelosi appeared unsteady and frail according to witnesses in the room during the meeting.” Then she fell down the staircase. Her recovery may perhaps not be rapid if she was already fragile before the fall.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14193131/Nancy-Pelosi-health-update-hospital-injury.html
There’s not room in journalistic narratives for statistical distributions, unfortunately, or the concept that “average”, “typical”, “common”, and “expected to happen” all mean very different things.
For good or bad, Nancy Pelosi is a one-in-a-million or maybe one-in-a-hundred-million person, in more than one way, and there’s not much point in reciting statistical averages about her health or anything else.
Nancy Pelosi is a one-in-a-million or maybe one-in-a-hundred-million person,
RLY? What are the odds?
gwynmir on December 14, 2024 at 4:40 pm
“… I still wear 5? stilettos. I love them, I can walk easily in them.”
That leaves me with an image that stiletto wearers are getting pretty close to ballet dancing, but with “a little help”.
Sweeping generalizations seem to come naturally. Not one in 320 million?
I have heard stories of women (and possibly men, but women are usually mentioned more often) breaking a hip while just standing. Osteoporosis apparently weakens the hip to such an extent that the top of the bone just breaks when one puts a normal amount of weight on it. Very grim.
My wife and I are 82. She suffered a “stroke” of the spinal cord (spinal infarct) four years ago and uses a walker all the time. She also falls about once a month, usually while trying to focus on something that takes her mind off her balance. Fortunately, she learned to fall while in rehabilitative care after the stroke and doesn’t seem to break anything. If that changes, all bets are off. Her mother lived three months short of the century mark, so she should have several years left to her by my reckoning.
I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’m taking care of my Dad ( 94).
I haven’t seen anything about when Pelosi will be flown home post-surgery. She is a small woman of European ancestry, which is a classic profile for osteoporosis, and in fact sometimes people break hips and then fall rather than the other way around.
That is indeed unfortunate for her. I can’t help imagining, though, that when she breaks anything she leaves a puddle of silicon, plastic, botulinum toxin, and gin on the floor.
I was once in a San Francisco jury pool on the case of a woman who fractured a hip while descending the airline passenger stairs and was suing the airline.
One potential juror stood up and declared that he had followed such stories and concluded that it wasn’t the stairs but that woman’s hip was about to go and it finally did.
I assume he was cancelled from the jury.
A puddle of silicone not silicon, a very common error,
Warning! Warning! Pedantic prose ahead!
Silicon, the element, is used to make Silicone polymers such as silicone caulk, silicone oils, silicone coatings, silicone medical devices.
Silicon is used to make silicon dioxide crystals for microelectronic devices, but before that for old timey crystal radio sets. Natural crystaline silicon dioxide is most common as quartz. Inhalation of fine quartz dust leads to silicosis and lung cancer. ….
F
In his final years, my grandfather said that he didn’t break any bones when he fell because when he played football–captain of his college team–he learned how to fall. Roll with it, he said.
While Nancy Pelosi and I differ in our political stances, I wouldn’t wish a broken hip on anyone. I hope she recovers from it, though at her age, that is problematic.
A friend fell and broke bones in her wrist and forearm. While the bones healed, she did not, and died four months after her fall. She lived to be 88, and was active until her fall.
I recall George W. Bush graciously congratulating Pelosi for becoming the first female Speaker of the House. Also recall Pelosi launching a nasty personal attack on him, not that long afterwards.
Also recall her making a demeaning personal attack on Trump in his first term. After that he fired many unfiltered verbal bullets at her.
Soooo…let’s take a look at why/how some people die shortly after or during “recovery”. Is it because they did not have the benefits of physical therapy? Do they stay in place (bed or recliner chair) for so long each day that they begin to breath in stale air and don’t exercise other parts of their body? Is it because they just mentally “give up on life” or perhaps they feel there is “nothing to live for”? It appears there is more to recovery than the condition of the bones!
Anne:
Actually, my mother was dismissed from the hospital early (that is, she was kicked out) because she was refusing to cooperate with physical therapy. And yet her recovery was very quick.
Go figure.
This is a topic of great interest to me; both my husband (76) and I (73) have fallen in the last few years.
He tore his quad, needing surgery, after slipping on icy steps this year. His recovery was long, and is still not complete. He has lost both strength and balance, which has led to some emotional upheaval. For the first time in his life, he is feeling old. He is impatient with the convalescence required, and consistently attempts to take on tasks he is not ready for physically.
I’ve tripped several times over the last decade; I was never known for my grace, and sprained my ankles at least once every 6-8 years over my entire life. As a result, I’m well aware that soft tissue injuries take a long time, and much effort, to heal.
As a result, I don’t waste time fussing about the reduced mobility of the recovery period; I use it as a time of rest, reflection, and enjoyment of reading. I’ve been more accepting of the aging process, and less inclined to resist the necessary changes, including making sure pathways in the house are clear, asking for assistance with lifting, and using canes/walkers as needed. Assistance doesn’t make me feel old, it ensures that I will be able to continue activities without fear of injury.