Slipping and falling is one of the more dangerous things you can do. One minute you’re walking along fine and the next you’re on the ground with a pretty serious injury. If this should happen to you, it’s important that you know what to do to get yourself back to full health. Below are the four steps you should follow if you happen to slip and fall. Hopefully, you will never need them, but if you do, you’ll be glad you know what they are ahead of time.
Call for Help
The first thing you’ll likely need to do is call for help. When you injure yourself in a fall, you may not be able to get up right away and get yourself where you need to be. You will require some assistance, so you should call someone as soon as you are able. Hopefully, you have a phone nearby and you can call either a family member, friend, neighbor, or in exceptionally bad circumstances, an ambulance.
The sooner you make this call, the sooner help will arrive, so try to make it as early as possible. If you’re someone who is prone to falling (for example, if you’re over the age of 60 or have balance issues) it’s a good idea to always carry a cell phone around, or a medical alert button, no matter where you go.
Get Treatment
The next thing you need to do is get treatment for any injuries. If you’re lucky, you’ll escape the fall with only a few minor bruises. But in some cases you may have injuries like a sprained ankle or broken leg, cuts somewhere along your body, or may end up dealing with something like lower back pain. No matter the severity or type of injury, it’s a good idea to get checked out by a doctor. They can give you a thorough examination and make sure there is nothing more serious going on than you thought. They can also recommend the best course of treatment and give you any medications you may need.
Depending on your injuries, treatment could consist of simply taking it easy for a few days, staying on painkillers for a little while, or you may even need surgery. It’s important that you follow whatever directions the doctor gives you so that you can get back to your normal self sooner rather than later. Treatment won’t always be easy or comfortable, but just give it time and you will get through it.
Contact a Lawyer
Of course, in some cases, slipping and falling wasn’t your fault. Some slips and falls happen at home, perhaps because you left some water on your bathroom floor or tripped over a step. But in some cases, the fall happens when you are on someone else’s property and occurred because of their negligence. In situations like this, you will want to contact a lawyer. According to SteinLaw, accident lawyers in Tampa, “Under the body of law known as premises liability law, property owners and their management companies have a duty to safely maintain the premises for their guests.”
By consulting with a good personal injury lawyer, you can discover whether or not you have a case. If you do, they will walk you through the personal injury case timeline and you will hopefully be able to receive some compensation for your injury, which will help to cover the medical costs.
After the injury occurs on someone else’s property, if you are able, you should try to document the circumstances. Use your cell phone to take some pictures of what caused the fall, or describe the event in detail to a third-party. If there are witnesses, make sure you have their contact information so you can talk to them later. All this isn’t always possible immediately after a fall, but if you can gather any information right at the time, it may help your case.
Learn from Your Mistakes
Finally, once you’ve recovered from your injury, it’s a good idea to go back and see if there is anything you could have done differently to prevent the injury. For example, maybe you forgot to put salt down on your sidewalk or didn’t clean up your young children’s toys before going to bed, causing you to trip. Whatever it was, you should make it a point to learn from your mistakes. The last thing you want to do is repeat the incident simply because you didn’t learn from your past.
We hope this guide was able to offer you some guidance should you ever find yourself in a slip and fall situation. Going through it won’t be pleasant, but if you can follow the steps above, you should hopefully be able to make things a little more manageable and reduce some stress from the situation.