Archive for month: March, 2021

Falling Safely

If you have ever taken a fall, you know that preventing injury can be tricky. Falling safely can be simple, however, if you are able to respond in without panicking. Given that you only have a matter of seconds to react, it is important to understand how falling safely works before you are in the situation.

Tips for Falling Safely

• Don’t panic! Staying calm is one of the simplest and most effective things you can do to promote a safe fall. Panic tends to result in tightening up of the body. Of your body is rigid, the likelihood of orthopaedic trauma is higher. If you can calmly react, falling safely is much more likely.
• Stay loose. This tip goes hand in hand with avoiding panic. If you mindfully fall with bent knees and arms, you are less likely to lock out with rigidity. Our instinct is to reach out to protect ourselves while falling. This however, makes for a more rigid frame that will buckle under the stress of a fall.
• Protect your head. If you are falling backward, the best way to protect your head is tucking your chin to your chest. In a forward facing fall, turn your head to either side.
• Keep falling and roll. One of the biggest issues with falling comes from trying to actually stop the fall after it has started. You can actually decrease the impact of the fall by rolling out of it. The more you allow yourself to fall, the more you can spread the impact out rather than focusing it on one specific body part.

Common Falling Injuries

There are several types of orthopaedic injuries that can result from falling. From life-threatening to minor trauma, a simple fall can easily land you in the office of your orthopaedic surgeon. Here are the most common injuries:

• hip fracture
• wrist fracture
• head injury
• rotator cuff injury
• back injury
• torn meniscus
• wrist sprain

If you have suffered an orthopaedic injury following a fall, be sure to consult an orthopaedic surgeon for an appropriate evaluation.