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'Don't Fall' Fair Targets Seniors

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By CARL ORTH

The Suncoast News

Published: October 8, 2008

HUDSON - Pat Sovonick hopes to spare other people the pain she suffered after watching her husband die from injuries from falling.

Statistics are scary enough, said Sovonick, president of the Pasco Fall Prevention Coalition.

In 2006, Pasco County had 65 deaths as the result of falls. Pasco County hospital emergency rooms had more than 3,000 visits from people who had fallen that same year.

Nationwide, about one out of every three older people will suffer from falls.

"It's gone up every year," Sovonick said.

In older people, falls can cause broken bones and other medical problems that can prove fatal, doctors say.

That's why the Pasco Fall Prevention Coalition is preparing for its "Don't Fall" Health Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 18 at St. Michael's Church, 8041 State Road 52, Hudson. Community Aging and Retirement Services Inc. is helping with the event.

"The scary part," Sovonick recalled, is there was nothing she could do to help her husband, Frank. He sustained a broken arm and shoulder from his fall in December 2006. He died one month later.

She and Frank had been married for about 30 years. "He was 75 and a young man by comparison in this day and time," she said.

She joined the Pinellas Fall Prevention Coalition. She wondered why Pasco County didn't have any such group, so she was inspired to start one in February.

In many instances, victims simply shuffle their feet instead of walking properly, raising their risk of falling, Sovonick said. Medications have side effects that make people unsteady.

Women especially need calcium to keep bones from becoming brittle and breaking in a fall.

Most in-home falls happen in bathrooms or kitchens. People who often are alone need to subscribe to an emergency beeper alert service or just plan ahead to have a phone within reach to call for help.

The Don't Fall Health Fair will include free health screenings. The event will feature bone density screening, medication consultation, oxygen screening, safety monitoring equipment, physical therapy for fall prevention, tips for in-home assistance, fall-proofing homes, hearing tests, blood pressure and glucose screenings, information about feet from a podiatrist and more.

No registration is required. For information, call (727) 819-5130.

Insurers are paying more attention to the problem, Sovonick said, because they can reduce costs by preventing falls, Sovonick said.

"If we had had all this training then ... perhaps Frank would have known ways to help himself," Sovonick said.

"All those things seem so simple" to prevent falls, but such knowledge came too late to spare her husband from becoming a victim, Sovonick said.

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