Lisa Cooper, MD,*†‡§ Philipp Lirk, MD,§ Angela Bader, MD,§∥ and Houman Javedan, MD*
GLOSSARY COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019

As the number of geriatric patients having surgical procedures continues to increase, we need to recognize the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration as well as the recognition that previous trauma may impact their care experience. Although hospitals often focus on getting patients expeditiously through the surgical process, older adults require that we step back and become sensitive to outside factors and effects of aging that could alter their responses. This shared story begins in the emergency room, where Ms B, a 97-year-old woman, who consented to the publication of this story, was assessed after a fall and found to have a hip fracture. Before the fall, she lived with her daughter and was ambulatory around her apartment with a cane. Recently, she had recurrent falls, and this one resulted in a fracture that required surgery. At first, she refused surgery when speaking to the overnight orthopedic team. In the morning, we came to see her as the geriatricians on service as part of our routine comanagement practice and found her alone, lying in bed behind a curtain in the busy emergency department. It did not take long to realize she had severe hearing impairment, as well as poor vision, so we asked permission to sit next to her. She slowly revealed her lifelong story, at first just talking about her current health and living

 

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