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Many seniors with hip fractures don’t get a full recovery

On Behalf of | Sep 16, 2016 | Trusts |

An injury can have the potential to impact a person for the rest of their life. This can particularly be the case for seniors, as the various things that go along with old age can make recovering from an injury difficult. Elderly individuals sometimes never fully recovery from an injury.

This can be seen in a recent study on hip fractures. The study suggests it is common for elderly hip fracture sufferers to never reach a full recovery.

The study looked at 733 hip fracture sufferers over the age of 65. It investigated what happened with the functional abilities of these individuals after their injury. A variety of different factors were looked at in determining an individual’s level of function.

Only 31 percent of these seniors ended up getting their daily functioning back to where it was prior to the injury. Recovering their full level of function was particularly rare among those with dementia, with multiple comorbid conditions or who were over 85.

A permanent reduction in a senior’s functional abilities can have many ramifications. For one, it could result in the senior needing long-term care for the rest of their life.

So, sometimes, it only takes one injury to make long-term care a permanent reality for an elderly individual. Given this, long-term care needs can really sneak up on a person.

This is why making advanced preparations for long-term care can be important for seniors. Trusts and other long-term care planning mechanisms could help a senior get important protections in place to help in the event that a sudden injury or other unexpected occurrence causes them to have significant long-term care needs and costs. Elderly individuals can go to experienced elder law attorneys for guidance on what long-term care planning strategies might be a good fit for them.

Source: Science Daily, “Hip fractures: Most elderly unlikely to fully recover,” Sept. 8, 2016

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