Good Morning,

 

 

Growing up, our parents carted off to family members’ funerals. It usually was some great aunt or uncle that we didn’t remember meeting. Our parents took us because it was hard to find a baby sitter for four kids under the age of 7 or 8. So we went.

 

Eventually, one of us would ask how did he or she die? The universal answer was, “they died of old age.” When we went to view them, they looked old and had little or no color; they certainly looked old to us.

 

Today approximately 2.1 million people live in nursing homes (NH). Their average age is 79, with about half being over 85. The reason for being admitted is these patients can’t take care of themselves and must rely on others for their daily living needs. Usually, they have more than three underlying health issues, including Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Below are some points:

 

 

In short, these patients are old, frail, and infirmed, and their average stay is about 2.3 years. 

 

We tried to discover how does the medical community list a cause of death, especially with multiple maladies and, in particular, in NH. Here is our non-medical interpretation, “it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” The last disease, illness, incident et cetera, that contributed to the fatality. 

 

How does this relate to COVID 19? A recent study by FREOPP.org reported that 42% of all COVID 19 deaths happened in an NH or assisted living facility (ALF).  As of yesterday, that means almost 48,000 of the 113,000 COVID fatalities fit this profile. The research also studied the rate in each state, finding the New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Minnesota had more than 80% of their respective deaths occur in NH or ALF.  Ohio’s rate is over 70%.

 

My parents would probably have said, “they died of old age.”