When my Mum had her hip replaced we were thrilled for her. She said she felt no more pain. Little did we know that it was the start of a long drawn out fight with dementia and parkinson's disease. You see there was something that the health authorities were not telling us......

Just get a load of this advertisment that appeared in November 2007's edition of Maclean magazine:

You're not looking at a hip fracture, you're looking at a death sentence.

Each year one in three Ontarians (that's people from Ontario, Canada, Ed) over the age of 65 will take a serious tumble that may land them in hospital with a broken hip. One in three of those who do break their hip will die within a year. Two thirds will experience dementia-like symptoms. Most will never see home again.

Chances are - especially if you're 65 or over - you find these numbers appalling. We sure did.

So at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, we started to look at how we could improve these odds. We discovered that the combination of compassionate dementia care and rigorous rehabilitation is powerful medicine. So powerful in fact, that 90 per cent of the patients we've treated so far have successfully completed their rehabilitation and returned home.

We're pleased with these results. So are our patients. And happily, for those who will take a spill this year, 34 other hospitals and health care organizations across the GTA have embraced Toronto Rehab's new model of hip fracture care and now offer it to their patients.

With your help we can continue to defy the odds.

Make your donation today.

Telephone 1-877-666-0605

http://www.torontorehab.com/foundation 

For those of you who are contemplating a hip replacement past, present or future this information is critical to your survival or that of your loved one. If only we'd known.