Is There a Wrong Way to Slip and Fall?

July 17, 2017

It can be argued that there is a wrong way and a right way for just about everything, and falling is no exception.

You may be thinking, “There’s no right way to fall. The right way is to not fall to begin with.” Unfortunately, no one ever intends to fall, but sometimes it still happens. And there is no denying that some falls cause more injuries than other falls.

This is something that experts looked into for years, and they ultimately decided that the extent of injuries from a fall correlates with how a person falls. As a result, there are different things you can try to do in that short and unexpected moment of a fall to protect yourself.

Protect Your Head

This may seem rather self-explanatory, but how do you do it? One important aspect of this is to try not to fall directly forward or backward. Instead, attempt to pivot mid-fall so that you may instead land on your side. This gives more buffer support to your head and lessens the chance that it will hit the ground.

Also, attempt to secure you head the best you can by tucking it into your chest. This simple move can save you a significant amount of trauma.

Don’t Brace Yourself

During a fall, it becomes natural to expand your arms to brace yourself. It is important, however, that you fight this urge and instead try to bend your elbows and tuck your arms in.

What typically happens when someone tries to brace himself with his arms or knees is the force of the impact will be more than the arms or knees can stand, and it can lead to broken or shattered bones.

If you can, you should avoid the instinct to brace yourself and instead let the fleshier parts of your body, such as your thighs or your buttocks, take the impact of the fall.

Don’t Resist It

Another instinct that you must try to fight is the urge to resist the fall. If you focus your attention on the fall and accept that it is happening rather than focusing on resisting it, you can get your mind set on the pointers previously mentioned so that you can pivot and brace yourself in a more effective way.

When you attempt to resist the urge to fall, it will be unlikely that you can catch yourself, but extremely likely that you will fall the wrong way and injure yourself more severely.

Relax

It probably sounds impossible, but if you can wrap your mind around relaxing as you fall, you can save yourself a significant amount of trauma.

You might have heard that in car accidents involving a drunk driver, the drunk driver is less likely to be seriously injured than the sober driver. This is because the drunk driver’s body will typically be looser during impact, whereas the sober driver will typically be more tense. If you can find it in you to exhale and loosen your muslces as you fall, the impact is less likely to cause severe harm.

Practice

As mentioned before, many of these practices seem completely impractical in the intensity of the moment that you fall. However, there are ways to practice this so that if the time comes, they can be efficiently implemented.

We recommend that you make a visit to your physical therapist and let her evaluate you. Then she can give you safe but effective exercises to do daily so that the next time you fall, the consequences may be less severe.

However, if you have had the misfortune to suffer an injury because of a slip and fall, you may be entitled to compensation. Call Hensley Legal Group today or contact us online.