A bad fall
 

My younger sister took a bad fall on the ice on the lake we grew up on, (and where she still lives), over the weekend. She called me on Sunday and told me about it, happened on Saturday. She got a concussion, knocked out and doesn't remember what actually happened.

I decided to post about it here as a caution for members who live in cold, icy places. She has lived there her entire life and walks around the lake with her dog every day, (weather permitting), so it's not like she isn't familiar with ice. We talked a little about the dangers of falling as we grow older in the thread about the passing of Rusty Heap. It can happen to young people as well but gets worse as we age. My sister is 61 and in good health, not overweight and walks several miles a day. Here is what happened, minus the unknown parts:

It was a nice, sunny winter day and there was a kite festival out on the ice of the lake near the bandstand of Lake Harriet, (for locals). We are sponsoring a family of Afghan refugees who recently arrived in Mpls. and the youngest member is a 5-year old girl who is very sweet and love kites, so my sister was taking her to see them. She remembers walking out onto the ice and then being in the ambulance, (with the poor little girl strapped in next to her...she remembers that), apparently she called her husband at some point because he was talking to the paramedics and directing them where to take her, etc. She has no memory of calling him. They are both MDs, fwiw.

She can't figure out how she fell without injuring wrists, (usually we try to block the fall), also her forehead sustained injuries requiring stitches and her glasses were smashed. The current theory is that she fell backwards and was concussed, then tried to get up like a boxer in the ring and fell forward again face first onto the ice, which has the consistency of cement.

Her husband, my BIL, being the seasoned ER doc he is needed to rule out a seizure or heart arythma(sp) that had her faint on her feet and drop, CT and ECG normal. She is at home recovering and feeling better as of yesterday. She is the youngest of us and possibly my favorite person on earth, though her 28 y.o. daughter is giving her a run for the money. If anything really bad happened to her, I'm not sure I could take it.

This post might possibly be TMI about someone who doesn't post here, I just thought that if it causes one person to be more careful on ice, it's worth it.

It was about 7 years ago when my wife got out of her car in her mother's door yard, hit a small patch of ice and went down. She stuck out her hand to catch herself and fractured both bones in her forearm. Screws and a plate held things together. Several months recovery.
Be careful out there.
Hope your sister heals quickly. A couple of friends have sustained concussions in the past year and the road to recovery has been long for both.

Best
Les

Best wishes on her recovery.
Falling on ice can happen so fast and easily that you don't have enough time to get your hands in place. A fall of any kind is bad....but ice seems to amplify the force.

My younger sister 65 yo...had the same happen this winter in NC. Except hers was walking down steps that had ice and her back took the force of the fall. Fractured a vertebrae and had surgery about a month ago.

Hope she gets well.

Too late to help my older sister.

Concussion. Black eye. Broken wrist. Two nights in the hospital. Not at all happy.

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I had never in my life fainted or passed out. My blood pressure meds had my pulse down at 40 BPM or so, and I stood up and went into the kitchen for an apple, and the next thing I knew I was on the floor, holding my forehead and bleeding from my like a head-wound can bleed. It looked like a murder scene as my wife came in and started cleaning up blood everywhere.

I put a small towel on the wound to soak up the blood and my wife drove me to the ER for stitches. As I walked into the ER with gray hair and a bloody towel to my forehead, they just opend the door and put my in a bed and I never even had to break stride.

5 stitches, and they kept me overnight. Did lots of tests, and let me go the next day with a clean bill of health. I talked to my doctor and they changed my BP meds to something without beta-blockers. My pulse is higher and no more light headed feelings after I stand up. The amazing thing to me is my only injury was to my forehead, no sore wrists, knees or anything. I guess I did a literal header.

No passing out since.

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Fingers crossed that she's OK. It will have certainly given her a fright.

I used to work at an ice skating rink as a teenager as an "ice monitor"
One day I fell and hit my head, almost knocked out. It smacked several IQ points off the bean counter.

What happened, was, it was cold, (it was an outdoor rink). I had grown up on a lake too, very comfortable around ice. I had my hands in my pockets to keep warm. When I slipped, I couldn't get them out to catch my fall.

To this day I take my hands out of my pockets when walking on/around ice.

Makes me wonder if she was doing the same, grabbing a cell phone or some dog treats out of her pockets or something.

"Out walking, woke up in ICU, forehead contusion with mild concussion, wrists and hands fine."

This is exactly what happened to a good friend of mine (68yo).

Apparently (from eyewitness) she tripped on the sidewalk and went down like a felled tree.

The doc convinced her to stay overnight for observation. She still doesn't remember falling.

I gifted her a nice pair of walking poles, but I think now she's embarrased to use them, because she mostly just walks the halls in her apartment building.

Boy, you could have used a good ol' 'monkey roll'!! That woulda' saved your ass!

I should have! My Marty Mcfly alternate life timeline has been screwed up ever since! :D

Prayers and best wishes for/to the best Speedette.

Sounds like you folks in snow/ice/cold country need chains or studs for your shoes!

Glen..I had the same problem with Beta blockers. Why is it that meds that supposedly help make you feel like krap-ola?

On falls...Yeah, I have to watch every step...I've suffered a few. Hey, at 81, I may walk like Biden, but I'm a hell of a lot better cognitive wise. The PA I visit gave a double take on my last "wellness" visit when I asked why the test questions are the same every time...

Speeder I hope your sister has a full recovery . Falling on ice/cement/hardwood floors can literally be a killer . Stay safe out there folks .

First, wonderful she is on the mend with the right folks in her corner. Awesome.

Second, while I know how cold adapted the folks in the northern States are, the past two plus weeks in Maryland, ice and now everywhere in my neck of the woods, I have gained a renewed appreciation of the risks involved often just getting to my car.

Nuts, Denis. I hope your sister heals quickly and that there are no long term complications.

They have those. Microspikes. They are popular with alpinists if crampons aren't quite required.

We talked about shoes in my first conversation with her and she said that she has some good winter shoes that she normally wears when out walking but for some reason was only wearing normal shoes that day…maybe because of where else she was going or (?)

I like the idea of spiked shoes and brought it up. When my parents were alive and still throwing their big Christmas caroling party every year, (maybe 20 years ago), I was in Mpls and slipped on some wet ice in their driveway and landed on my back. My melon made a loud cracking sound when it hit the pavement but I wasn’t knocked out…I let out one of those expressions that would get blocked out on this forum. :)

We talked about all of the concussions that my brother and I had as children. Mine were as a small child, falling off a wall and falling off of a playground “jungle gym” in kindergarten. That one was actually a pleasant memory…I woke up in the arms of my teacher who was a smoking hot 25 year old with huge tits. I honestly thought that I had died and gone to heaven for an instant. I wanted to do it again.

Anyhow…concussions are not a joke at our ages. They are dangerous as all hell. Be careful out there, Pelicans in the cold places, or warm places during a ski trip.

Wow .... in an instant.

Thanks for sharing ... best in her recovery.

Falls are sneaky .... waiting everywhere now :(

Good idea to post this as a precaution to others. Hoping for a full recovery for your sister, Denis!

My wife uses these when the ground is ice covered.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1738104391.jpg

After the broken wrist and hip fracture, she's not taking any chances.

Best
Les

Nice, like foot chain-studs!

Check out Yak Trax.
I was walking from the house to the horse shed two days ago. We get snow here, but it's normally gone in a day or two. Its been here three weeks, and has melted and refrozen several times.
A moment not staring out at my next footfall, and boom-down, no warning, frozen ground left shoulder and head. I just laid there for a minute or so, wondering if my next year was fully f'd, and eventually came around.
Falling at 65 is no joke. Its my biggest fear. I cycle, ride horses, drive fast etc but really fear that what'll get me in the in the end is a single unprotected slip.

Denis, glad its all more or less ok.

Check out Yak Trax.
I was walking from the house to the horse shed two days ago. We get snow here, but it's normally gone in a day or two. Its been here three weeks, and has melted and refrozen several times.
A moment not staring out at my next footfall, and boom-down, no warning, frozen ground left shoulder and head. I just laid there for a minute or so, wondering if my next year was fully f'd, and eventually came around.
Falling at 65 is no joke. Its my biggest fear. I cycle, ride horses, drive fast etc but really fear that what'll get me in the in the end is a single unprotected slip.

Denis, glad its all more or less ok.

It's one of the first questions on medical intake forms after they see you have medicaid for insurance; "have you fallen recently?"

I'm 65 also and I, too, cycle a bit; I broke my wrist in a relatively gentle fall off the bike last August and I hope to shout this minor injury ain't no joke.

An eye opener for me and the fellows that I ride with. My wrist still has issues and my basic fitness has taken a huge hit over the winter.

So many anecdotes in such a short amount of time on this thread shows that it's a real concern. Be safe, fellow travelers.

Yax Trax and MicroSpikes are great. There's quite a few brands of MicroSpikes clones on Amazon that are quite a bit less money than MS and have good reviews. YT's are light and can be thrown into the backpack for emergencies on the trail.

Just this afternoon I was shoveling snow off my sloped driveway. All of a sudden, I found myself sliding down the driveway backwards. Somehow I swung myself around so I was now sliding down the driveway frontwards, shovel in hand. Good thing too because I used the shovel to brace myself and prevent what would have been a spectacular feat of uncontrollability of my entire torso and all five limbs in mid-air.

Once I recovered I resumed work. For about a second.

Nope. Done for now. Nobody got hurt; the wiser you get the older you get and it's not the other way around.

Hopefully she will be ok. One of my good friends from the lodge fell last Wednesday, I generally go see him on Wednesdays, last week, the bartender called me to tell me that the lodge wasn’t going to be open because of the so called “Cold” weather that was expected. She then informed me that my friend Paul (who is in his 80s) had fallen that day and fractured his skull, with blood on the brain. He was supposed to go to a rehab, but I have gotten no response when I call the room and his cell phone goes directly to voicemail. Of course I am still dealing with the results of my Mother’s fall and the results.

From a local who lives 25 miles north of Lake Harriet, there is a lot of bare ice out there right now or ice with just a dusting of snow on top due to the lack of snow this season. If your sister walks several miles a day outside, she know the procedures and the risks. I wouldn't be out on a lake right now without my grippers I wear when walking on the polished icy streets that I use as sidewalks.
One of the risks of winter. Tell her to get well!

Sorry Denis. Hope she ends up okay! I think stuff like this happens most frequently when we are in our comfort zone and let our guard down. Something you’ve done for years, all of a sudden you get bit. They say most accidents happen at home, similar concept.

Hey Speeder. Send some good wishes to your Sis. She sounds like a great human.

Related: wife and I went for a hike Sunday. It was crazy icy. We bailed out after a short bit. I bought micro spikes yesterday. I never thought they were needed and I am a lifelong skier.

Guess what? Things get SLICK sometimes.

The funniest part was my pulse rate was at 40, as I was going in for a colonoscopy. The nurse asked if I was an athlete. I laughed and said have you looked at me? The Anesthesiologist said he was going to give me an additional drug to get my heart rate up for the procedure, as my pulse was too low for comfort. He said the bad news is I would have a bad case of dry mouth for a day. Boy was that the truth.

Every winter, we check the Yaktrak supply in the foyer closet. When it gets iced up here, you can’t even walk without them. Even with them, I’d rather drive than walk a block on PNW ice.

I keep forgetting that I have some wading boots with steel studs. Now those would work great on ice.

Denis, I hope your sister makes a full and speedy recovery, brother. This is a great warning and reminder for all of us as we get a little older.

Costco has ice grips on sale in fall and winter. $15 cdn. They work well. A little hard to get used to outside. Inside the stores they can be slippery to wear on tile floors though.SmileWavy

My driveway off the front door can be covered with black ice after a snowstorm. I always send my dog out ahead of me to see if she has traction. She once slid about 10 feet in front of me. I turned around and went back inside.

One of my friends was playing tennis and fell and broke his arm, and needed surgery to get it back in place and with a few plates and screws to hold it together.

Timely post. Like a dumb ass went to fetch my snow shovel out of my shed after a couple inches of snow with more coming in crocs. While carrying the shovel I slipped and fell back and due to holding the shovel I landed squarely on my right elbow leading to a dislocated shoulder. Was helped into the house by my sweety and was in the greatest pain I'd ever experienced. Even after a year with a bad hip that was ultimately replaced, fractured wrist, ankle, and torn ACL in separate dirt biking mishaps.

Tried to bear the pain cause the hospital is 12+ miles down the hill and the snow had increased significantly. No matter how I positioned myself and arm I could not lessen the pain. After an hour and a half I relented and let sweety drive me down the snowy hill to the ER. Got me in quickly, but you know how ER's can be with the waiting x-rays, the pics to be reviewed, further consultation, and finally some pain meds. The nurse and doctor had to wait for clearance from the lightly staffed pharmacy to clear the morphine use, but once I got it was the first bit of relief I'd felt for hours. The doc gave the meds 15 minutes or so to take before returning and popping the shoulder back into place. You could actually hear it "pop" back in. Doing better than expected and will have to wait until 2/11 to visit an orthopedic doc for hopefully a cortisone shot.

Here I am high AF on the morphine just after having it reset...


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Sorry to hear about your younger sister Denis. Piling on the best wishes from others here for a great outcome.

24 years ago I passed out at Target, fell back head first onto the concrete floor. Halo skull fracture and impact seizure - I "woke" in the ER that day. Took me out of work for nearly a month So I have some experience here. Consulted with the neurologist who worked on me and others during follow up care. Bottom line is there is still much to learn about the brain and it's many differences between us. He said he has treated folks with damage like mine, generally vehicle/motorcycle related, and some (like me) luckily turn out just fine. He also treated folks with minor bumps to the head who suffered long term/permanent damage.

Consider your sister and family lucky sir. Head injuries are no joke and when we get older the famous “monkey roll” is just a pipe dream.

a close friend of mine (Frank) - he hit a f'n banana peel while riding his bicycle.
no helmet - got a concussion - died 2 days later, in the hospital.

Here's some handy fall prevention advice and an app all for mature people.
https://www.acc.co.nz/preventing-injury/trips-falls/preventing-falls-for-over-65s
Enjoy !