In the latest Our Bodies, Our Lives column by UTMB’s Dr. Tristi Muir: Falls are responsible for 70 percent of accidental deaths in people 75 and older. Only seven percent of woman diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer die of their disease within five years. Yet fully one-quarter of all elderly people who fracture a hip will be dead within six months. Among those who survive a hip fracture, half end up in a nursing home after hospitalization. Of women sent to nursing homes, half remain there for more than a year. With frightening statistics like those, we need to take the dangers of falling very seriously.