Mas Hatano knows he was lucky. When the 84-year-old retired
civil engineer took a bad fall a couple of years ago, the only
thing hurt was his pride. "I tripped and crashed on the
sidewalk," said Hatano, who recently signed up for a UC Davis
Health System fall prevention workshop. "As I sat there, a
passing car stopped and the people asked if I was all right.
Yes, except for my dignity." He is an exception to a deadly
trend. In recent years, California hospital emergency rooms have
been flooded with older adults injured after falling, and deaths
related to falls among seniors are rising, too. From 2000 to
2010, the number of Californians age 85 or older killed during
falls more than doubled from 415 to 860, according to the state
Department of Public Health. The rate of deaths related to falls
among that age group rose about 50 percent during that period.
"The reasons are still being studied, but we can surmise what
the data indicate," said Barb Alberson, the department's state
and local injury control chief.