“6% of people with hip fractures die within 30 days, and roughly one third die within 12 months.”
A pair of statistics I wouldn’t believe, had I not spent the best part of my late teens and early twenties charging around on an ambulance.
A typical run of shifts would yield at least one person with a hip fracture (almost always to the neck of the femur – the top part of the thigh bone that connects the ball-shaped head to the shaft). Oftentimes several.
These were mostly “old” people (70+). Although the hoary long-in-service folk I worked with claimed they were seeing them occur in younger and younger populations:
The recent retiree slipping over while taking the bins out – their “golden years” snatched away in an instant after a lifetime of hard work and careful saving. A Sixty-something catching their foot on the lip of the bath after their morning shower before work for a premature and ignominious end to a storied career.
I’m not making this up. Both of the above examples are things I saw. Not the index event (although I dealt with plenty like them) – but the aftermath. The mind-numbing and nausea-inducing pain killers, the house that looked like a care home, replete with grab handles, stair lifts, and wet rooms, and the parade of new illnesses they’d developed since the initial injury.
The worst part?
It all could have been prevented, had they taken better care of their fitness.
If you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s or maybe even your 60s, all of this probably feels so far off it’s irrelevant.
It’s not.
I can see why you’d think that, but it’s not.
The choices you make right now, today in your training will echo down the decades.
Dismiss what I’m saying if you like, but don’t say you weren’t warned.
Although if you would like to learn a safe, sustainable system of training you could potentially use as a foundation pretty much forever, you will find one in the free eBook at the below URL.
Scroll down the page, and you will also find the option to book a call with me to discuss your situation in more detail, if you would like to:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/slow/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman