Sen. John Thune speaks, says Sen. McConnell 'fine' after suffering fall during GOP lunch.

When my family moved to New Hampshire going into my freshman year of high school, Dr. C. Everett Koop, President Ronald Reagan’s surgeon general, became my neighbor. 

As an aspiring doctor, I took every moment I could to seek him out and soak up his wisdom. While he shared many lessons, I never forgot one takeaway he always stressed: if you want to live a long, healthy life to the fullest, don’t fall – especially as you get older. 

At the time, I found his frequent comments on not falling to be a bit odd, but as an orthopedic surgeon amid my final years of training, I now fully appreciate Dr. Koop’s point. In fact, I see it every day in our hospital emergency department – an elderly person falls and her life, as well as the lives of her loved ones, is changed forever. It is shockingly common, and recently we have witnessed two older members of Congress, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Mitch McConnell, fall, with the former Speaker reportedly sustaining a hip fracture.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell takes a question from a reporter during a news conference following the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 19, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Each year, one out of every four Americans 65 years of age and older falls, leading to millions of emergency room visits and 1 million fall-related hospitalizations. Among the elderly, falls lead to hundreds of thousands of hip fractures every year and are the most common cause of traumatic brain injury. Most striking is that falls are the number one cause of injury-related death in this population. And the price tag on the health care system for falls among older adults? $50 billion.

SEN. MCCONNELL REPORTEDLY FINE AFTER........

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