Electrocutions, fires, explosions, overexertion, collisions—these are just a few hazards found in the workplace. On top of these hazards, slips and falls are among the most common types of accidents—second, to be precise. It accounts for over 9 million emergency room visits per year, and in 2019, slips and falls have already caused a total of USD$2.4 million in benefit payment and wasted over 20,000 workdays for the victims’ recovery.
Needless to say, it’s an extremely alarming hazard, yet a lot of people are still unaware of this type of accident. They don’t know how to deal with it, but most importantly, they’re not aware of its potential health risks. If you do want to know what to do after a slip and fall, you can visit the site for more information. But in the meantime, you might want to find out more about these six of the most common slip and fall injuries:
Broken Bones
If the force applied to the bone is greater than it can take, the bone will break. Hence, it’s more likely to suffer from broken bones than any other injuries when slipping or falling. Older people may also suffer from broken bones, even with a slight fall, since their bones are no longer as strong as it was in their youth. On the contrary, if you strengthen your bones with good lifestyle choices, you’re less likely to suffer from broken bones.
Furthermore, broken bones heal within six to eight weeks, but you tend to heal slower when you’re older and faster if your calcium intake is relatively high.
Cuts And Abrasions
Slips and falls usually don’t result in cuts and abrasions, not unless they land on a rough surface or a sharp object. Cuts and abrasions are often found in legs and arms, although they can also occur in the head. These injuries aren’t very serious compared to other common slip and fall injuries. These require minimal treatment like stitches or bandaging. However, if the impact is pretty high, it can possibly result in more severe injuries.
Hip Fractures
Hip fractures, specifically broken hips, are another common injury you can sustain after slipping or falling. In fact, over 95% of hip fracture cases are due to falls. Unfortunately, hip fractures don’t heal themselves. A broken hip calls for hospitalization and, potentially, surgery—preferably one ordered by an orthopedist. Recovery time ranges from four weeks to four months, while older people may have to rest for a month to heal their broken hip completely.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries occur when your muscle tissues are put under extreme pressure. It typically happens when you work for a long time without resting, hence wearing out your muscles. Slipping or falling simply adds to this pressure and exceeds the limits of your muscle tissues, resulting in pain, swelling, and sometimes bruising.
Unfortunately, this kind of injury is hardly visible. It usually takes days or even weeks after the initial fall before you can notice the injury. On the bright side, slips and falls only result in light tissue injuries, such as
- sprains,
- concussions,
- contusions,
- strains,
- tears, and more.
Back And Spinal Injuries
Your spinal cord is connected to many parts of your body. Hence, when suffering from an accident, the part of your body most likely to suffer is your back. Most of the time, you’ll only suffer from mild to moderate back pain due to an injury in your herniated discs, but there are cases where the impact is too high that it can lead to paralysis or sensory disorders.
Either way, you’ll have to undergo treatment; although, thankfully, there have been some advances in technologies that deals with spinal cord patients.
Knee Damage
When you land on your knees after impact, there’s a considerable chance you’ll suffer from knee damage. If you didn’t know, your knees are composed of numerous ligaments and bones. Thus, it’ll take a while to heal when you suffer from a knee injury or damage, despite affecting only a small area. Recovery time can be as fast as two weeks or as long as one year.
There are several ways to speed up the process, but resting usually does the trick. Take note, however, that knee injuries only heal when they’re only mild or moderate. Severe knee damage requires extensive treatment and perhaps surgery.
Conclusion
Slipping or falling can lead to many unfortunate events. You can suffer from injuries that require rehabilitation and hospitalization, which means you’ll have to deal with the medical bills. Moreover, you need to take a leave of absence, so you won’t get paid for a while. You can, however, minimize the damage done by these injuries by simply having a healthy lifestyle. Doing so speeds up your recovery time and might even minimize the injury to an extent.
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