His wife will either be a widow soon but until then she needs to look for some place to place him. If he goes to the hospital again the hospital may not release him to her care. Although I am over 100 pounds at barely 5 feet it was considered to hazardous to my health to have my husband come home. If she does not have a POA try to talk her into it. She can use it to place him if the doctor will sign off that he is a hazard to himself. Which it really sounds like he is. It will be hard on both of them but mentally better for her to know that he is in a safe area than thinking if she had only tried harder he would have been safe. Advise them to see an attorney to complete the paperwork that is needed. She could use the excuse of what if his hospital stay was longer than a couple of weeks what would happen to get him there.

After three days until changes are made a hospital can direct admit to a nursing home/rehab facility and Medicare will start picking up the costs.

If someone falls, at least here, if you mention that the person hit their head that is enough to take the person to the hospital in an ambulance. Which means the hospital ER will see them sooner than if you just bring them in.

I think that fear drives a lot of the "decisions" of the elderly. The fear comes from a loss of control in their lives. Others worry and want to make decisions for you based on what they see.

I don't know what the right thing is (honestly)...and I'm interested in this discussion.

Is it okay for someone else to have control?

My dad fell recently. He was on a ladder doing something and fell and hit his elbow and broke it and it was a mess. But he has hurt himself in the past and has resisted (vehemently) any kind of medical intervention when it was clearly needed.

I see the frustration in his eyes when we tell him he can't go up on the roof anymore. I see that he feels less of a man for his inability to do the things he's used to doing....

It's a battle between keeping the spirit alive and keeping the body safe...

If a person is on a blood thinner and falls and hits their head, it is essential that they have a head CT. I've seen too many people die after such an event. My uncle, for one.

I went through this with my husband and my father. It is the most heart-rending thing to watch, and I pray that I don't burden anyone if and when it happens to me. One of my older friends was well, participating in daily activities, doing all her usual things but suddenly passed away in her sleep. That is how I would choose if I had a choice.

Falls are the # 1 cause of trauma related death in people age 65 and older.

Death may result from injuries sustained during the fall (e.g., head, chest injury) or an underlying medical problem (e.g., cardiac dysrhythmia, stroke, low BP from internal bleeding) that caused the person to fall.

Are there charts like this for other first world nations with strict gun laws? Look at all those white spaces that involve gun deaths!

I think he gets to make the decision as to where he'll be, if he plans on caring for himself, getting his own meals, taking his own baths, washing his laundry, doing all the chores needed to keep him home. If he expects his wife to pick up any slack in his care, then I say she has a say in whether he comes home or not.

This happened to my mother. She had a standing fan by her bed. When she was getting out of bed, she grabbed on to it to steady herself, and fell, pulling the fan down and hitting herself in the head. I thought she had a stroke. She was unable to talk. I took her to the emergency room and then she went into the hospital. She had two blood clots on her brain. They made what they called "burr holes" and "vacuumed" out the clots, and though she recovered somewhat, she never was quite the same again. She was 88 when this happened and up until that time had been very independent. She lived to be 97 but had to spend the rest of her life in a nursing home. I am amazed that she was able to live that long in one of them. Her doctor said she was the strongest woman he had ever seen for her age.

And now we know where you get your strength and spunk from, Marilyn!

My husband fell last night. He went out to the van parked in the driveway and instead of walking on the sidewalk he cut thru the yard. We've had tons of rain and the yard is swampy..he slipped in the wet yard and down on both knees. Says he's fine. He's an old fool and won't listen to me. Today he has a lot of back pain (he does have buldging disks). Flatly refuses medical attention. He is on blood thinners. Xarelto.