♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
(clapping)
- Hi folks. I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- How to get up from the floor after falling, safely.
This is a huge problem, Brad.
This is, I would say, Brad and I would work
with a lot of skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes.
I, I mean, I'd be estimating off the top of my head,
but I would say about 25% of the people come in had fallen,
and some of 'em laid there for hours.
- Or days.
- Yep. It's a, it's a big problem.
- Yeah, and, and that's why, you know,
we're gonna talk about the lifeline,
and we're gonna really encourage people to have one.
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- Yes.
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- Right? Some people just like them that sit
at a desk at a computer station all day long.
- [Bob] So if you go to facebook.com, it's, or
www.facebook.com/BobandBrad,
it's always pinned to the top of the page.
If you go to bobandbrad.com,
it's always under giveaways.
All right, Brad, take it away.
- Okay, so typically we're talking about, you know,
the older crowd- 50 and over,
but maybe not, it depends on your situation,
but falling, and this, in particularly,
is probably at home, where there's nobody else around
to help, and you find yourself,
for whatever reason, tripping.
I've had people trip over their dog.
I've had people trip over the rug,
or just an inadvertent fall without any apparent reason.
- Right? Exactly.
- Or tripping.
So if you end up on the floor, boom,
and you didn't lose your conscious, you know,
you're awake and you're alert,
the first thing to do is do not panic.
Lay there and take a deep breath and relax,
and, you know, you're there,
and everything is, is okay,
but then, after that, you need to assess that you're okay,
'cause you may have cut yourself.
You may have broken a bone possibly
and not be aware of it, with the trauma and, and the-
- [Bob] Well, also, you may have hurt your neck or back, and
- Right.
- [Bob] And so you really wanna make sure that you're fine
in that regard, too.
- Right. So, the first thing, if you're down, you know,
make sure your neck is okay.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- 'Cause that's very important.
If you did have a neck injury, you don't wanna be
moving that if it creates problem
with your spinal cord or nerves.
You know, give a visual check.
See if there's any blood or anything of that nature.
And then, -
- [Bob] Does any joint look disjointed?
Like the hip, does it look-
- Right. I've had people say they looked at their leg
and the, the leg, the ankle was turned the other direction.
- [Bob] Right.
- And they didn't realize it until they've looked at it.
So if everything is looking good, nothing way outta place,
then, check your range of motion
and pain associated with it.
So, you know, start out with your neck, like I said,
back and forth, and then one arm. Check your fingers.
Other arm. Check your fingers. Shoulders.
If everything is working okay
without pain or very little pain, then work to your hips
and see if you can slide those knees up and down.
Wiggle your ankles.
- Yeah. If you broke, if you broke your hip or dislocated,
you're not gonna be able to move it up and down.
- Right. Get it up to here,
and also, you can do side, back and forth,
for a little more detail. Make sure everything is okay,
and at that point, you need to call for some help,
if possible. If you have a lifeline,
Bob mentioned that in our intro.
A lifeline is what we call it here.
There may be other names for it,
but it's the little band that goes on your wrist
or around your neck.
- Band or around your neck.
- And what you do is you push the button,
and that's a whole system set up.
It usually costs $30 to $50 a month.
It's a service. Sometimes it's paid for.
- [Bob] So we have it.
I have it, both for my mother and my mother-in-law.
- Sure.
- And we always have to tell my mom:
first off, don't ever take it off.
- Right.
- Even in the shower, these are waterproof.
- Sure.
- And that's where, often, you fall, so don't,
and the same with Linda's mom.
In fact, we, we'd call her every so often. Test her.
Do you have it on?
No, I left it over on the, you know, it's just like,
it's gonna happen when you don't expect it.
- Right.
- So, you gotta have it on all the time.
- Yeah. So, wear and know how to use it.
They're very simple.
So make sure, you know, if you have a loved one,
or a friend or whatever that may need one,
encourage them to get one
because it eliminates what we're gonna get through.
- Right?
- If you don't have a li, a lifeline
and you cannot get any help.
- Can't get to the phone.
- Right.
- If you can crawl to the phone,
I've had a number of people do that.
- Yes.
- Check everything out,
and, and then, you know,
if you can get to this position,
and you can butt scoot, that works fine.
If you can roll over to your stomach,
and get on your hands and knees,
if that's an option that you know, you, you could do.
The biggest thing I have with people is rolling
from their back to their stomach.
Their arm gets in the way, right,
and it's like, oh, they can't get over that arm
or it's here and it's stuck.
So, if you tuck that arm underneath your body,
as far as you can,
and then get over the bump, using the opposite leg,
and once you get over it life gets much better,
And then work your arms up to here,
and then if you can get to that quadrature.
Usually, one person has a stronger leg,
and they usually know it.
The stronger leg comes up first,
and then you push yourself over that knee, like this,
and up through that quad, quadrupedal,
hands and knees position.
So, as a matter of fact, now that I'm in this position,
if you're at, at this position and you feel pretty good,
like you can get up by yourself,
go use a piece of furniture
and get yourself to a piece of furniture
and use that for like a stairway
to help get your body up, as up to the armrest,
and that strong leg again is gonna go up first.
And then you're gonna use your arms and your leg to get up.
Now, this is assuming you feel pretty confident
that you can get up.
Make sure once you're up, you're holding on to here.
You will do some weight bearing and check out those hips.
Is there any pain?
If there's any pain in your hips or your legs at all,
go right to the seated position.
- Right, yeah.
- Don't try and walk because you may have a fractured hip,
and it, the pain may not be that much,
and you may start to walk,
and the, the hip fractures all the way
and then down you go again.
- Right. It might bee a partial fracture
and then you could get a complete fracture.
- Exactly. So, this may be the, the best way to go,
and then, get your bearings even a little bit more.
Then, if you can get to a phone
or maybe someone's gonna be coming over,
whatever the situation is.
The other thing that works really nice,
If you're to this position,
and often time furniture has a cushion that you can remove,
put that down and then you don't have so high
to get to this chair to sit down on it,
'cause you know you're not gonna get up and walk.
If that's a situation, this is a really good option.
Then, this gives you a little bit higher.
The chair gets a little bit lower.
It makes for this transfer,
gonna use those armrests.
If it's a couch, you won't have one, of course.
- [Bob] Look at, you're barely even,
you're not even really having to lift at all.
- Yeah. So-
- [Bob] I mean, it's right there.
- My, my bottom side is already there.
I'm just twisting and turning and you slide yourself.
- It's nice if you're on a couch
and you got the full length of the couch,
you can take the two cushions off even.
- Yep.
- And then you don't have to worry
about the armrest getting in the way.
You can used the one armrest to help get you up.
- Right
- But the other, you can just kind of slide over onto it.
- Exactly.
- So the couch is always, always a good option
for trying to get up.
Yeah. Again, I can't emphasize enough, though,
prevention is a lot better than, than
trying to have to deal with this afterwards,
and, and really having a system in place
where somebody's checking up on you.
- Exactly.
- Every day we had a, a friend,
that, they would have a light system,
where if they didn't turn the light off at night,
that the neighbor knew something was wrong.
- Oh sure, right.
- Saw the outside light.
- Yeah. Knowing your neighbors at, at that age
or if you're in that situation could be, really,
a lifesaver. Literally.
- Yeah, exactly, but again,
the lifeline is is well worth the money spent
and keep it on all the time.
- Right, exactly. Once again, keep care of
your friends and your family. Help 'em out.
We're gonna have another video
on how to help someone get up from the floor.
If you're able-bodied, in your,
in your, would like to do that,
the safe way to do it to keep everyone safe.
What are you doing, Bob?
- I'm trying to help you up.
Why Bob? Why?
- Thanks for watching.