A Christmas Gift – Don’t Fall

As we celebrate the holiday season our thoughts turn to family, friends, and gift giving.  For more than twenty-five years my family has assembled in Northern California for dinner together on Christmas Eve, and then gift giving, along with my spaghetti sauce, on Christmas day.  We long ago abandoned the practice of everyone giving a gift to everyone else.  That would require the purchase and wrapping of thirty separate gifts by each of us.  Nine hundred gifts total.  We now buy one gift each, and distribute them on Christmas day with a “White Elephant” gift exchange.

But it seems to me that the most important gift, the gift of caring, doesn’t have to cost anything.  As my holiday gift to you I offer an idea that I hope you will pass along to everyone you know.

My gift is a simple suggestion.  Don’t fall.

According to the Mayo Clinic, unintentional falls are the seventh leading cause of death in the United States (22,631 in 2008), and the leading cause of death for people over 65.

I will say that again.  It is not heart disease, which is the overall number one cause of death.  It’s not cancer or stroke, which are number two and number three.  It’s not even land vehicle accidents, which are number four overall.  In the United States the leading cause of death for people over the age of 65 is FALLING.

I personally know a few hundred people.  During the past several years two of them have died from falling.  One, an attorney, fell and hit his head. He thought he was okay but died three hours later from swelling in his brain.  I’m told by doctors that if you hit your head hard you should go to an emergency room immediately. If there is brain swelling your chance of survival is much higher if you are treated promptly.

Celia, who was sixty-three years old, fell in her kitchen, and died two days later in the hospital after suffering from complications related to her fall.

Even if a fall doesn’t result in death it can be debilitating. The mother of one of my employees recently fell, breaking her arm. And last week Roberta, the seventy-year-old sister of a close friend of mine, underwent knee replacement surgery. Roberta has always been independent.  So even though she was instructed by her doctor to ask for help when getting out of bed, she didn’t. She fell and broke her arm, adding injury to injury.

I’m particularly concerned about falling on stairs. This is partly because I trip on them about two times a year.  That’s why I always hold onto the railing.  Recently, at a friend’s house, I tripped near the bottom of the staircase. I grabbed for the balustrade but it wasn’t secure and popped out in my hands. I fell hard onto the brick flooring and landed on my hip, which was seriously bruised but, fortunately, not broken.  From now on I will be sure to hold onto the railing.

All of us can offer, as our holiday gift of love, a reminder to our friends and family to do whatever it takes to avoid falling.  Saving a life, or protecting a friend or family member from serious injury, is the best gift I can think of in what I hope will be a joyous holiday season.

Happy holidays!

Alan