Falls are Dangerous: RIP, Ace Frehley and Watch Out, Sen. McConnell
Maybe it's time to senior-proof the Senate
First, RIP to a big part of my childhood:
16 Oct 2025, Rolling Stone: Kiss Guitarist Ace Frehley Dead at 74
Ace Frehley, the wild Spaceman of Kiss who played guitar in the band throughout their Seventies heyday and again during the reunion period in the Nineties, inspiring an entire generation of musicians to pick up the instrument along the way, died on Thursday in Morristown, New Jersey. He was 74.
Lori Lousararian, Frehley’s rep, attributed his death to a “recent fall at his home,” though a specific cause of death was not immediately available.
Death by Falls: How Much Detail Do You Want?
Sorry, author of this piece, you are not a “cause of death” expert, but “fall at his home” is actually a specific enough cause of death, unless you want a breakout like this:
As you can see, many people have UCD (Underlying Cause of Death) recorded simply as “unspecified fall” (W19), though if it was at his home, given the time of year, it would probably be “Other fall on same level” (W18) or “Fall on and from stairs and steps” (W10). Those are the most common.
Ivana Trump died via W10 (slipped on her own stairs and fell) — she was 72 years old when she died. Joe Lieberman died from falling in his home — seemed a W18 (on same level); he was 82.
Falls are a Top Accidental Cause of Death for Seniors
Using the finalized cause of death data from 2023, and 10-year age groups, we can see how the predominant accidental causes of death differ by age:
For ages 75 - 84, 60% of accidental deaths are from falls.
For ages 85+, 78% of accidental deaths are from falls.
It’s worse than you may think. It’s not just that the percentage of accidental deaths is dominated by falls with increasing age.
It’s that the rate gets to be very high.
You may have heard that drug overdose death rates have been pretty bad, and they have.
But did you hear that death rates from falls for seniors have been bad?
It’s been steadily growing for years.
Which is why I’m tired of the elderly politicians not learning to properly deal with their frailties.
Sen. Mitch McConnell Fell in the Senate Basement
16 Oct 2025, Yahoo/Mediaite: Mitch McConnell Falls in Senate Basement as He’s Questioned About ICE Raids
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) dropped to the ground as he was making his way out of the Senate on Thursday, according to a video posted to social media.
In the video, posted Thursday morning, McConnell is seen trying to cling to security as an activist asks him about ICE raids. He then falls to the floor with a grunt.
“Sen. Mitch McConnell fell in the Russell basement, while being questioned my [sic] members of The Sunrise Movement, who took this video,” EWTN Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales said in an X post accompanying the video.
You can click through to look at the video.
But I will note a few details I noticed.
Sen. McConnell was holding onto a security guard as he walked into frame, but when the activist approached/talked to him, McConnell seemed to let go of the guard… which is when it all went wrong.
(I did notice his shoes look like they’re good design for slip prevention, from the details I could see: they looked like they were lace-up and had non-slip bottoms.)
But the problem is, he had support on one arm from the guard, which he lost when he let go, and he lost his balance. Perhaps he inadvertently let go, or perhaps he let go because he didn’t want to look physically weak… but the thing is: he is physically weak. He’s 83 years old.
Maybe he doesn’t need a walker quite yet, but maybe he needs a cane or something else if he’s shaky. Or maybe he does need a walker. I’m not his doctor.
The problem is, people don’t take fall risk seriously.
As I wrote after I took a spill right after my 50th birthday:
Adjust to the risks that exist, not how you’d like it to be
I usually don’t tease out these details, and in this case, I didn’t do fancy graphs or have spreadsheets. I just kept it in the screenshots.
Falls have had a bad trend, as noted at the top, with the increasing death rates for seniors for decades. Some can be a result of seniors not dying from other causes — if you don’t die of heart disease or cancer, say, you live to be older and frailer in a house not necessarily designed to deal with the reality of one’s needs.
People need to take these hazards seriously as they do with baby-proofing homes.
I’ve written about how OLD the Senate has gotten, and if they’re going to stick to this trend, perhaps the Senate needs to be senior-proofed.
It’s a bipartisan issue.
More handrails may be helpful for many people, and maybe not just from an age point of view. If somebody has one too many….
Anyway, let me leave you with an interview with Ace Frehley …great rock memories!
He mentions he didn’t like this, but… I so wanted a KISS lunchbox when I was a little kid:
Prior posts on falls
January 2025: Falls are Dangerous for Seniors: Nancy Pelosi and Pope Francis
April 2024: Revisiting Death by Falls: Characteristics
March 2024: RIP Joe Lieberman -- A Reminder that Falls are Dangerous to Seniors
July 2022: The Death of Ivana Trump: Falls are Dangerous for Seniors
Back in 2000, I saw a withered Senator Strom Thurmond deliver prepared remarks from the Senate floor. He was in his late nineties. The event was unusual because he had an aide at his elbow to assist him. Senate rules forbid aides from being on the floor of the Senate (there's a little fenced area in the rear of the floor where aides can stand, but they cannot go to on to the floor when the Senate is in session). An exception was made for Thurmond. He served out his final term, ending in January 2003. He died in June 2003 at age 100.
Curiously, Joe Biden delivered the eulogy at Thurmond's funeral.