How would you fix this sentence?
The patient resides in a nursing home, which toppled over resulting in a broken hip.
I would remove the comma, assuming the nursing home actually toppled over. Odd nursing home,however, the patient was very lucky not to have been killed.
Now if it was the patient who toppled over and broke his hip, then
the patient, who toppled over and broke his hip, resides in a nursing home.
Or:
"The patient, who resides in a nursing home, toppled over and broke his hip."
The patient resides in a nursing home, which toppled over giving the patient a broken hip.
Note: we both changed "which" to "who". Which refers to an object (as a building or a toaster), who refers to a person.
PsyDAG, the comma is not necessary between "home" and "which". Otherwise, if the nursing home toppled over, that's a better way to put it. :)
To fix the sentence, you can make a few changes:
"The patient, who resides in a nursing home, suffered a broken hip when the nursing home toppled over."
Explanation:
1. Commas are used to provide nonessential information or additional details. In this case, the phrase "who resides in a nursing home" is providing additional information about the patient, so it should be set apart with commas.
2. Instead of using "which," we can use "when" to indicate the timing of events more clearly.
3. Instead of saying "resulting in," we can use a more direct phrase like "suffered a broken hip" to better convey the cause and effect relationship.
Remember, effective sentence structure and clarity are crucial for effective communication.