Whangārei woman Dorothy Fitzpatrick, here with her grandchildren, is recovering after a bad fall. Photo / Fiona Goodall
A Whangārei woman is happy to be spending more time with her grandchildren after recovering from a fall at home that left her in serious pain.
Dorothy Fitzpatrick is getting on with life after recovering from the fall, with help from ACC, and she’s one of tens of thousands of Northlanders who injure themselves in falls every year and have to make a compo claim.
Falls are a huge national problem and ACC is launching a free balance app called Nymbl on April 3 that Fitzpatrick says could prevent others going through what she did.
In 2022, ACC accepted 32,854 fall-related injury claims in Northland, which came at a cost of $87 million to help people recover. This was the highest cost of the past five years in the region. Nationally there were 749,610 fall-related injury claims in 2022 at a cost of $1.8 billion.
Fitzpatrick said Nymbl was a “wonderful opportunity for older people to put time into their balance”.
She remembers lying in agony, dazed, confused and in need of urgent medical attention after her fall.
In June 2021, the 78-year-old from Whangārei was walking through her front door when she tripped on the instep and went crashing on to the concrete tiles.
“I remember going down and it was a terrifying feeling,” the Jamaican-born grandmother said.
She landed hard on her right shoulder and hit her head on the concrete tiles.
“I was pretty dazed, and I was trying to figure out what had happened. I was lying there in pain, and I realised that I couldn’t move my arm. It was so painful, and I was shouting for help, hoping that someone would hear me. I could feel that I had a big lump on my head.”
Luckily for Fitzpatrick, her son and husband were home. They helped her up and took her to hospital.
“It was a really scary experience because I didn’t know what I had done.”
She had X-rays that showed her right arm wasn’t broken, but she had damaged the tendons in her shoulder. She returned home with her arm in a sling and was feeling OK until later that night.
“My husband was cooking dinner and I was sitting at the dining table. I remember saying I don’t feel very well and then next thing I knew I had passed out.”
Fitzpatrick had suffered delayed concussion and blacked out for a few minutes.
“I was in the ambulance and back to hospital again. The whole experience was very traumatic.”
It took her three months to recover from her accident and she said ACC had played a leading role in her rehabilitation, helping to address the root of the problem.
She has had physio twice a week, had regular appointments with her doctor, received specialist advice from the orthopaedic surgeon and had home help in her recovery.
“Just having everything covered was great and the home help was good because there were so many tasks around home that I couldn’t do, and that support was important,” she said.
The orthopaedic surgeon said it was unlikely surgery would make a big improvement to her damaged shoulder.
“He described it as a ‘well-used ancient arm’,” she said. “‘OK, I get it’, I told him.”
Fitzpatrick said her fall underlined the need to work on your strength and balance.
“It could have been much worse considering that I hit my head and I landed on concrete tiles. The fall had a big impact on my confidence. It had a big personal cost on me and my family, and took me a long time to recover.”
Falls are the most common cause of injury in New Zealand, accounting for 39 per cent of all ACC claims. Fall-related injuries most commonly occur in the home, and women are slightly more likely to be injured by falling than men.
Every year one in three people over 65 injure themselves in a fall, rising to one in two over the age of 80.
“Falls have a significant impact on a person’s quality of life, especially if it results in a fracture, so we want to do what we can to prevent them from happening in the first place,” James Whitaker, ACC injury prevention leader, said.
“We want to dispel the idea that falling over is part of the ageing process. Most falls are preventable. We want to help New Zealanders to stay on their feet, enjoy their independence and live the life they want to live. We’re committed to reducing falls for older people in their homes and community.”
In 2021, ACC funded the trial of the Nymbl app, which is designed to help seniors stay steady on their feet, using dual tasking, combining simple body movements with easy brain games, such as trivia, to challenge both the brain and body.
ACC has launched the app as part of its older people’s programme, Live Stronger for Longer, which is focused on preventing falls and fractures.
Fitzpatrick is one of 15,000 people aged 55 and over registered with Nymbl’s digital balance app. She found it very helpful.
“When I am not using it, I tend to stumble a bit more when I change direction or turn quickly, and that means I am much more likely to fall over. You have to keep working on it. I’m getting back into it because I know it makes a big difference to my quality of life.”
Fitzpatrick said on reflection she needed to slow down and was distracted when the accident happened.
“I needed to concentrate more on what I was doing. Since the accident I’m more aware of obstacles when I’m walking and where I’m placing my feet. You take these things for granted until you have a fall.”
She is back in the garden and playing with her grandkids, living the life that she wants.
Learn more about Nymbl at nymblscience.com/nz-fallsfree-welcome/