Common Florida Slip and Fall Injuries
When someone says “slip and fall” most people will think of perhaps a more slapstick image of a person tripping and falling. This idea mostly comes from media, like cartoons. But slip and falls can have real repercussions and cause real injuries for those who suffer them.
For the most part, slipping or tripping and falling typically results in not much more than a couple of bruises and a scrape or two. However, if the situation goes really wrong, it can lead to severe consequences. According to the Center for Disease Control, one out of five falls causes a serious injury, such as broken bones, a head injury or neck and back injuries.
When a person trips and falls, certain circumstances can lead to them not being able to catch or brace themselves to prevent serious injury. These injuries can be extremely debilitating and put people out of work, burden them with expensive medical bills, and sometimes cause permanent damage that follows them for the rest of their lives.
[Read: Timeline of a Personal Injury Claim]
Slip and Fall Injury Claims
Luckily, if someone suffers a severe injury from a slip and fall that was caused by the negligence of a liable party then they may be able to seek compensation for their injury through a slip and fall injury claim. For example, if someone visiting a store suffers a severe head injury when they slip and fall on a power cord that was left across an obvious walkway then they may have a case.
Consider The Eberst Law Firm when you are seeking representation in your slip and fall accident claim. Our lawyers will assist you in handling the many details that come with a case like this and ensure you receive the best possible chance to receive the settlement that you deserve.
Traumatic Brain Injuries From a Slip and Fall Accident
One of the most common injuries that people suffer when they have a bad fall is a head injury. To be more specific, they suffer what is called a traumatic brain injury. A traumatic brain injury is when the brain suffers damage because of a force that acts upon the head. A traumatic brain injury could be anything from a concussion due to falling on your head, whiplash from getting in a car accident, or even having a foreign object pierce your skull and enter your brain.
It’s more of an umbrella term that applies to a variety of more specific injuries. All of these types of traumatic brain injuries are especially serious due to the nature of head injuries often resulting in some permanent damage and other severe health consequences. A traumatic brain injury should never be disregarded and should be examined by a medical professional as soon as possible.
Slip and Fall Accident Hip Fractures
Hip fractures are common in slip and fall injuries that are sustained by older people yet can still be suffered by victims of slip and fall accidents of any age. When Someone breaks their hip, they often will suffer a permanent decrease in abdominal mobility and flexibility. Things like physical therapy can help recover range of motion and strength to a degree but people that break their hips often find their newfound decreased mobility distressing especially when they are elderly.
Elderly victims of a hip fracture will have their bones damaged to a far greater degree on account of their age making them more brittle and susceptible to harm. An elderly person that was able to freely walk one day could find themselves needing the assistance of a wheelchair or scooter.
Slip and Fall Injuries to the Shoulder
Shoulder injuries caused by a falling injury will consist of fractures and dislocations that can be extremely painful. If someone lands on their shoulder the wrong way then they can cause the bones and cartilage that make up the part where the arm meets the torso to pop out. In addition to this, bones can be fractured or broken at the same time and muscles torn. This makes recovery a very painful process where the range of motion of the arm and strength are compromised.
Spinal Cord Slip and Fall Injuries
Any damage to a person’s spinal cord can have very serious consequences. The spinal cord houses an array of nerves responsible for sending signals from various parts of your body to your brain. Should you suffer any direct damage to your spinal cord through a fall injury then you can have these nerves damaged and suffer debilitating symptoms. Some of these symptoms can include, loss of sensation in your legs, incontinence, weakness of limbs, or even paralysis.
What makes spinal cord injuries even more dangerous is how little can be done to treat them. Modern medicine is limited in its understanding of the complexities of nerves and how to repair them. Many spinal cord injuries are permanent with the potential to suffer complications like infections, additional nerve damage, and warping of a spinal structure through scoliosis among other varying conditions. Physical therapy and newer treatments have shed some hope on improving spinal cord injury healing to a degree but for the most part, the only thing that can be done is minimizing damage and managing symptoms as best as possible which can ruin someone’s life.
Broken and Fractured Bones From a Slip and Fall Accident
It goes without saying that many falls result in broken or fractured bones. What many people do not realize is how many of these fall-related fractures occur. The NFSI reported that falls account for 87% of all fractures among people over the age of 65. It is a very serious problem for the elderly who suffer more of these injuries and more from these injuries than any other demographic. Each decade a person adds in their later years increases the chance of a fractured or broken bone and the damage those injuries cause.
Even in younger demographics, breaking or fracturing certain bones can be much more than a simple trip to the doctor for a cast. Bones like the pelvis or the collarbone can be especially painful to break and heal and those aren’t even the top two worst bones to break. Those would be the skull and the spine which unarguably are probably the two most dangerous to break or fracture in a slip and fall accident.
Negligence in a Slip and Fall Case
Slip and fall cases revolve around three main points:
- Who was liable for the slip and fall?
- Was the liable party negligent?
- And, did the injured person contribute to their accident in anyway?
When you break down the basics of a personal injury claim, like a slip and fall, it all comes down to negligence. Negligence is the involves the disregard for the safety of others by failing to act in a reasonable manner (i.e. the way another reasonable would). Would a reasonable person cleanup a spill within a couple of minutes of finding out about it? Would a reasonable person not fix a handrail if they knew it was loose? Basically, would a reasonable individual been able to identify the hazard and did the liable party of ample opportunity to remedy the hazard?
In a slip and fall case, it is the injured victim’s responsibility to prove that the defendant could have prevented their injury but failed to do so. This is proving liability. To prove liability, you must first prove that a party had responsibility for the property. Did they own the property or manage it? Then they must prove that the hazard caused their fall. Did the puddle on the ground in the grocery store directly lead to the incident?
And finally, one must prove that the slip and fall incident lead to the victim’s injuries. Meaning, the herniated disc they suffered was a result of the fall and was not a result of a workplace accident from two days prior. This is a tough task, but a dedicated and experienced slip and fall attorney can easily handle this series of proofs.
The last things to consider is a slip and fall case is that Florida is a comparative negligence state. This means that if the person who fell and was injured was partially at fault for the accident, their compensation can be reduced by whatever percentage they were at-fault. This means that in settlement negotiations, or by a jury in court, it will be determined if the person who fell was at-least partially at fault for the incident and to what degree. For example, if it is determined that a person is 20% responsible for their fall, their compensation amount will be reduced by 20%.
Consider Eberst Law Firm for Your Slip and Fall Accident Claim
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident in the Stuart, Florida or Gainesville, Florida area, contact the experienced personal injury team at The Eberst Law Firm. We are ready to handle your case. Our skilled lawyers will be happy to speak with you about the details of your case and offer some options of what kind of legal action you can take. With representation from Eberst Law, you can be assured that you will have an experienced injury lawyer in your corner fighting to ensure you receive the compensation you need.
You can contact us online or call us at 772-225-4900.
