Welcome back to the ThreeSpires Physiotherapy blog. In this blog I thought we could return to looking at some case studies of how our physiotherapy service has helped our patients. This time we are going to have a look at how physiotherapy helped a 90 year old female patient return home after a fall had broken her arm, left her unable to mobilise and needing help to look after herself.

In this case our patient was (and still is) a 90 year old female who had been previously living independently near Burntwood. She had always been able to look after herself, was proudly independent and desperately wanted to get home and be able to walk properly again. Unfortunately she had fallen over about 6 weeks earlier and had fractured her elbow which meant that she was unable to walk using her zimmer frame and was now being looked after in a care home and being transferred using a hoist. On assessment our physiotherapist found that she still had good strength in her legs and that with help was able to stand and transfer using a stand aid. Our physiotherapist discussed a management plan with her son and in conjunction with the care home adjusted her care plan to allow transfers using the stand aid rather than the full hoist, this allowed the patient to stand on a daily basis and strengthen her legs. Over the next several weeks our physiotherapist visited the patient in the care home and worked with her to strengthen her legs, improve range of motion in her elbow once the cast came off and also strengthen her arm. After about 6 weeks the patient had returned to mobilising independently about the care home and her strength had markedly improved in her left arm. At this point she was able to return home and our physiotherapist arranged a follow up visit to assess her mobility and create an exercise programme that she would be able to follow at home.

This was a fantastic result for the patient who at one point was very worried that her days of being independent were over and that she would need to stay in the care home. It really does show that age is no barrier and that with hard work and access to good physiotherapy patients can make enormous improvements.

I hope you have found this blog useful, if you are worried about someone’s mobility or think physiotherapy might help someone whose mobility has decreased please get in touch. We are a home visit physiotherapy service in Lichfield and we serve areas around such as Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Walsall and Rugeley.