So that’s why they call it Sioux Falls:
…the CDC reported in 2021 that South Dakota ranks third in the nation in deaths from falls, and second in the nation in terms of percent of older adults who suffer falls.
That’s according to Natalie Fick, an outpatient physical therapist with Sanford Health.
…“We do know that falls are multi-factorial, so it’s not generally just one thing that causes it,” Fick explained. “Oftentimes we think many of the causes can be something as simple as lower body weakness, difficulty with walking or balance — vision problems — as well as just home-hazards” [Jacob Newton, “South Dakota Among Worst States for Fatal Falls,” KELO-TV, 2023.06.16].
Those CDC stats refer to harmful and deadly falls among older folks. Minnesota and Wisconsin have higher fall-death rates among older folks… but don’t blame ice and snow. North Dakota winters are just as hard as South Dakota’s, but their elder-fall-death rate is less than ours by a third.
It’s imperfect dogma and lousy hard statistics . . . yet . . . if one breaks a hip or pelvis after age 65 . . . death often follows 6 months later, give or take.
One can almost set ones calendar by it.
Get rid of those cute throw runs and runners.
A stout stick to lean on is handy at times. It also helps to ward off the neighbors’ dogs.
I lived in ND one winter. My theory on the ND statistics on falls is that you have to have the right conditions to get ice on sidewalks. When they get snow it’s more common it will be the light and fluffy kind, which is easy to move off sidewalks. Also, probably fewer days of melting and refreezing.
But, yeah, falls have killed two older folks I knew, one on ice, one from a hip bone failure. There are exercises you can do to improve balance and bone and muscle strength, but it’s hard to keep ice off all the sidewalks all the time in Wisconsin and South Dakota.
Your incessant wind is a factor. As one’s hearing diminishes so does one’s balance. The wind continually whipping into your ear canals is disorientating and upsetting to elderly balance.
If Joey were to visit SD for 10 minutes we would be number one by a long way.
Montana is first but South Dakota is number two as the most lucrative state to practice medicine thanks to its medical industry triopoly. South Dakota has the fourth least punitive medical board and second lowest payout for malpractice while pay for doctors in Montana is fifth best but South Dakota is 29th in competition among physicians.
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-doctors/11376
President Biden visiting one of the tribal nations trapped in South Dakota is overdue.
There is a growing movement among Democrats and others to fund Medicare for all but I like the idea of rolling the funding for Obamacare, TriCare, Medicare, the Indian Health Service and the VHA together then offering Medicaid for all by increasing the estate tax, raising taxes on tobacco and adopting a carbon tax.
There are few “curb cuts” in South Dakota towns plus plenty of frost heaves in the sidewalks, and awkward steps up to enter businesses. Once you’ve visited a town that made an effort to be accessible you will understand the difference.
Hearing aids makes any amount of breeze seem like a hurricane. I have/had balance problems due to hearing loss and lower spinal disk disease for most of my life. I am at risk for falls and I don’;t bounce as well as I used to.
C’mon, South Dakota. Still no curb cuts? 1968 was a long time ago. Never mind. Insignificance is as insignificance does …
grudznick pokes a little wad of tissue into each ear and saunters forth into any gale, wearing an appropriate hat, high-stepping up over obstacles instead of shuffling along like a particular downbeat disgruntled fellow I know.
Good for you Grudznick…don’t fall, you’d be amazed how hard the pavement is …stick out your arm as you fall and take the brunt on your forearm,,,you’d be surprised at how hard the pavement is and how much you bleed. My worst fall came when walking on a boardwalk and the board under me broke in two…I took a header.
My dad’s fall happened when he was called up to supper. Although he rarely sat still and watched TV, on this occasion, he was fully reclined in the chair. My mom must have been making something his nose fancied because he got up too quickly, took a few steps, and at 6’5”, his blood rushed from his head and big tree fell hard. The EMTs helped him into bed, my mom assumed he went to work the next morning while she was staying upstairs babysitting my niece and nephew. He fell on Friday and my mom found him half off the bed, seizing on Tuesday from no food or water and probably a concussion. He semi recovered but died in a nursing home a year later. I told my mom if she was trying to kill my dad, she should have known better. I come from hardy stock and our kind don’t die when we should, we just get more retarded. It’s true. I hated her for awhile but know it would make my dad happy to forgive her so I do the things he taught my brothers to do for my mom. I’m also more aware of those ‘freebies’ we tall people get when standing up too fast. Falls are killers.
Grandchild takes a frost-heave side-walk spill yesterday as parent and grandparent look on, always a “slow down!” warning for the always sprinting child. The sickening slow motion thump of a young skull on concrete is a sound I can do without. Goose egg.
It happened to me last month on slippery linoleum, a grocery bag handle snaring a socked toe. Forearm, shoulder and ribs took the brute force, flat on my face in a fraction of a second. Luck of the draw missing every hard obstacle on the way down.