Common Slip-and-Fall Injuries

Sudden falls may seem like nothing more than an embarrassing accident for some people. In these situations, people often want to recover quickly, jump up and continue their day or activities as normal. However, these incidents can result in several injuries, ranging in severity from mild to intense.

In the heat of the moment, your adrenaline might mask an injury, creating a false sense of security. However, symptoms can develop over time, and it’s essential to address injuries promptly. Learn more about slip-and-fall injuries and symptoms, including what to look for and when to seek medical attention.

What Is a Slip-And-Fall Injury?

A slip-and-fall incident is any situation that results in an injury from slipping and falling down. Typically, this term refers to personal incidents at the fault of another person or entity, such as a business, but you can also experience a slip and fall at your own home and other locations.

Common causes of slip-and-fall accidents are uneven and wet surfaces, poor weather conditions, employee neglect within nursing homes, footwear and improper training in the workplace. Falling is the second leading cause of death due to unintentional injuries, making it essential to know what to do after a fall to ensure your health and safety.

Common Slip-and-Fall Injuries

Injuries from slipping and falling vary from person to person. Your experience may differ from someone else’s based on your environment, the cause of the accident and personal factors like weight, preexisting medical conditions, bone mass and age. An injury from falling could include:

• Fractured collarbone
• Knee injuries
• Shoulder, neck or lower back pain
• Broken joints
• Fractured hip
• Fractured tailbone
• Spinal cord injuries
• Physical head injury
• Concussion
• Soft tissue damage

Symptoms to Look for After a Fall

Sometimes, it can be challenging to determine a problem after a slip-and-fall incident. You may feel relatively fine overall but experience symptoms that are cause for concern. Even worse, you might not see visible signs of an accident right after it happens but experience symptoms a few days or even weeks later. Watch out for these symptoms:

• Sprains: When your ligaments stretch or tear, you experience a sprain. Sprains can be painful and prevent you from moving around like normal. A sprained ankle can impact your walk, and wrist sprains can make it challenging to pick up, hold, throw, type or otherwise utilize your hand. 
• Cuts: Many people find cuts after falling. Sharp objects can slice the skin, but hitting anything hard enough can result in skin penetration. Minor cuts may not be concerning, but deep cuts or punctures demand immediate medical attention. 
• Bruises: Bruises are very common after a fall. When you make impact with the ground or another hard object, you often walk away with bruising. While bruises can be unsightly at best, they can also point to more severe problems, including broken bones. 
• Chronic pain: Chronic pain can result from a variety of slip-and-fall injuries and can severely impact your daily life, work and activities. In some cases, chronic pain can permanently alter your body and mobility level, affecting how you complete certain tasks for the rest of your life. Chronic pain is a long-standing issue and persists beyond the typical recovery period for slip-and-fall injuries and symptoms. You can often identify this condition if the pain lasts three months or longer. Chronic pain is one of the most significant symptoms of an injury, and reaching out to a medical professional is best.
• Dizziness or fogginess: If you notice ringing in your ears, feel dizzy or foggy, experience nausea, have various types of headaches or feel confused, you may have a concussion. If your head made contact with an object or the ground or you experienced violent shaking, you could experience these symptoms. 
• Swelling: Injured body parts may swell up. You’ll often experience tenderness, warmth and redness alongside swelling. 
• Stiffness: People who experience neck and back injuries from falling often feel stiff afterward. This sensation can make it challenging to perform activities or even move in some cases. 
• Tingling or numbness: Numbness or tingling in your legs or arms could indicate nerve damage. 

Ultimately, you know what your body needs and when something feels wrong. If you recently experienced a slip-and-fall accident and feel that something isn’t right, you may have an injury.

Why Are You Sore After Falling?

Feeling sore after a fall is often due to soft tissue damage. These injuries are impossible to identify without equipment because they occur under the skin. Soft tissue injuries can be very serious and painful, so it’s essential to seek medical attention for proper treatment. These injuries can occur on internal organs and other non-bone parts of the body, including ligaments, tendons and muscles.

Delayed Pain After Falling

When you experience an injury, your body often goes into a shock-like state due to increased stress. This stress prompts your body to release adrenaline, helping you focus on the situation and remove yourself from danger. Adrenaline protects you when you feel heightened emotions, shielding your body from harm. However, this can make it challenging or even impossible to determine the extent of your injuries or if you have any at all. 

Over time, your adrenaline levels will decrease, and your brain will start picking up on pain signals. At this point, your injuries become more noticeable, either by feeling them or seeing them on your body. Delayed symptoms can take days or weeks to appear after a slip-and-fall accident. This highlights the importance of seeking medical attention immediately after an accident, even if you don’t see anything wrong upon first inspection. 

What to Do After a Fall

Accidents can happen anywhere, anytime. Regardless of the accident’s cause or your situation, you should take several actions if you experience a slip-and-fall incident. Follow these steps:

1. Inspect the Area or Address the Problem

Whether your accident occurs at home or in a public location, you should take time to inspect the area and address any problems that could have contributed to your accident. In some cases, this may mean picking up objects around your home or addressing a hardly noticeable spill. In other cases, problems may need more significant attention.

For example, a foundation may have cracks, a stair may be broken or a hole may be hard to see. Addressing the cause can prevent you and others from falling in the future.

2. Seek Medical Attention

Many slip-and-fall symptoms can take a while to appear, so you may not know for sure whether you’ve sustained an injury unless you seek medical attention. When you’re certain it’s safe to move around, it’s important to get medical help.

If you feel like you can’t move or get help on your own, ask for assistance from those around you or use a mobile device to make an emergency call. Either way, take things slow and only perform the bare minimum actions until you can receive a professional evaluation. 

3. Document and Report the Incident

If your fall occurs in a public space or at a business, you should take the proper steps to document the accident and report the cause to the necessary people. Notifying workers or those responsible for the area’s care can help reduce the chances that someone else slips and falls from the same hazard. Additionally, if you decide to take legal action for the incident, your documentation can support your case. 

Schedule a Thorough Injury Evaluation With Complete Care

At Complete Care, we use a multidisciplinary approach to give patients access to health care providers who focus on evaluating, treating and managing injuries. If you need pain or injury relief from a slip and fall, we encourage you to connect with our team.

We know it can be challenging to find the right care after an accident, but our team helps patients navigate recovery with confidence and quality treatment. Find your nearest location for pain relief in Florida.