Since the rise of motion picture entertainment, slip-and-falls have been used as punchlines. Early comedians perfected dramatic pratfalls, which classic cartoons later adapted as a source of humor for children.
Despite how often the media uses someone slipping and falling as a way to elicit laughter, many slip-and-fall incidents have very serious and unpleasant outcomes. Although some people walk away with nothing more than bruises and a deep sense of public humiliation, others could suffer serious injuries, including the three below, that lead to massive expenses and personal inconvenience.
What kinds of serious injuries can occur when someone slips and falls in public?
Head injuries
Perhaps the most severe possible injury when someone slips in a puddle or some spilled soda on the floor is a head injury. If a person falls and strikes their head on either the floor or objects nearby, they might develop a traumatic brain injury.
Falls, including falls at the same height, are among the leading causes of brain injuries. Blunt force trauma to the head might mean medical bills and even a loss of employment due to the symptoms that you develop.
Broken bones
When a person loses their balance and starts to fall, it is normal for them to reach out to catch themselves or to move their arms to try to regain their balance. These frantic motions might contribute to someone breaking a bone when they fall.
Even simple broken bones can mean a couple of months away from work for someone who does manual labor, and severe broken bones, like hip fractures or torsional fractures, may require more expensive medical care and a longer leave of absence from work.
Soft tissue injuries
While you may not break a bone trying to slow your fall, you could easily pull a muscle in your shoulders or your neck when you fall. You may require medical care, including physical therapy and prescription medication, to address the pain and functional limitations that result from a soft tissue injury when you fall. You could also potentially damage the connective tissue in any of your major joints, like your knees, in a slip-and-fall instance.
Any of these injuries could affect someone’s employment and quality of life in addition to requiring expensive medical treatment. Seeing the possible cost of a slip-and-fall incident may motivate you to report your injury right when it occurs at a store.