Feel lucky to be alive after falling forward down my stairs.

[Tolkienista]

I'm writing this just to say that you never know what is round the corner and for me I'm still in shock that I had the luckiest escape ever.
Saturday night I was on my own & stupidly descended a few steps of my staircase & leaned over the bannister to turn down the thermostat. I felt my foot pretty much disengage from the tread I was standing on and I was in free fall heading head first down the stairs.

It was probably only a milli second but I literally thought, I'm going to die as I was going forward and I knew the point of impact probably eight steps down would be my head. Miraculously I somehow managed to grab the rail on my right side and slammed into it with my body. It stopped me falling further and I disentangled myself and realised I'm alive.

Yes I've got bruised ribs, but nothing paracetamol can't deal with.

But I'm here to tell my tale and realise that at worst I could have died and at best I'd have sustained a head injury but to what degree I don't know.
Cue a massive sigh of relief , a massive reflection on my life and all that I've done to safeguard myself & then I throw it all away by endangering my life turning down a thermostat over the bannister.
If you've read this far, thank you for your time ........I just needed to get my story out there and say I'm safe, I'm fine, I'm really thankful and most importantly I'M ALIVE.

That sounds so so scary. I know of a few people locally, all young and not elderly, who have died after falling down stairs.
Glad you're recovering OP and take it easy. 💖

Honestly, you've no idea how walking round since Saturday night feels. I just keep saying I'm alive, knowing full well what might have been the consequence of falling forward.

God, I'm always terrified of something like this. Such an easy accident. I've also known three friends who have massively injured themselves this way (one dead, one paralysed and unable to speak, one in ITU for weeks). Stairs are LETHAL and we are so casual about them!

Glad you are still here to tell the tale OP! These narrow escapes really make you appreciate how quickly things can turn.

I’ve fallen down the stairs, it’s extremely scary! It took my longer to recover from the shock than the bruises. 💐

Three points of contact at all times these days, and I no longer wear slippers.

I wish you a speedy recovery? I am assuming you are ok and don't need to be checked over? It must have been a big shock.

Omg the injuries you've outlined are so scary and literally life changing.
I'm normally so careful going downstairs, but as I've said I bitterly regret what I did as it potentially could have ended my life.

Yes I agree, the psychological impact has been enormous. My body thankfully is fine, but it's my mind that needs to recover.

My physical body is fine, I've driven my car yesterday and today, walked quite a distance too. Took paracetamol yesterday morning and in the evening for my sore ribs and I've taken paracetamol this morning too. However it's definitely the shock of it which is playing on my mind.
I've gone up and down those stairs thousands of times without a problem since moving in to this house 6 yrs ago. I have to hang on to that statistic moving forward.

I'm so sorry to hear what happened. It's a terrifying thing to go through.

On the 10th of September 2024, aged 58, I was at a friend's house. She lives not on the ground floor but the next one up and has 2 flights of stairs. The first flight up, then a door on the left, then another flight. She's disabled and uses a 4-wheeled seated walker, so she leaves it on the ground floor on the right, against a wall, as there's no way she can drag it up and down, even when folded. Even able-bodied people would have a lot of difficulty.

I'd left her for that day about 7 pm, and was going down the 2nd flight, and whoosh, I went crashing down! I landed with the left side of my face banging onto the right handlebar, and ended up half under the walker! I couldn't get up as there's only a gap of about 5ft from the walker to the door. I'm 6'2 so was well squahed in!

Friend came down and somehow got the door open, and the walker moved out into the yard, then helped me up by getting behind me and putting her arms under my armpits like a forklift and standing me up. She's only 5'1 and crippled with rheumatoid and osteoarthritis!

The left side of my face immediately swelled up and was black within minutes, the tooth in the top was knocked down my throat, my right shoulder hit the front right wheel, as did my right hand/wrist.

Both feet, both ankles, both knees, left elbow, back, right hip, guts and ribs and chest, neck and a thumper where my forehead hit the wall!

She helped me upstairs, she knew I'd probably go into some sort of shock, so she was cracking jokes to make me laugh, saying ''get your arse up these stairs, you farty old cow!'' She made me a hot water bottle, passed me some Paracetamols and ordered me to bed, where I stayed until the following morning, only getting up for the loo and drinks. We just shared the bed that night.

I was back at work the next morning with one hell of a migraine, but was very very lucky that nothing was broken, cracked, dislocated, or fractured, other than the tooth! I could barely walk!

It's the very first time in my life I've fallen down stairs, and hopefully it'll be the last!

It's scary how things can happen so suddenly. A lad I went to school with tripped and fell down a flight of stairs and was dead by the time he reached the bottom.

@Squirrel60 omg that is some read.....as you said "it is a terrifying thing to go through" and you came out of it far worse than me .
I'm sharing my experience because I feel like I've got to .
It was a life changing incident and I still can't believe I'm here.
Thank you for sharing a truly horrific event in your life

Yes that's it.........so suddenly. No premonition, no warning, just a few seconds of my life that could have wiped away my being.

I did this a couple of years ago. Literally tumbled over and over forwards down a whole flight of stairs. Don't know to this day how I wasn't killed or badly injured. Only ended up with bruises down one side of my body.
I can only think that some kind of self preservation instinct kicked in instantly, making me cover my head with my arms and go into a ball.
Didn't have a will at that point but made an appointment with a solicitor the following day and did the actual will with him the following week.
One of the scariest things that has ever happened to me.

My sons ex girlfriend, fell downstairs and was killed last September. Utterly tragic.

I went to hoover the stairs at work six flights up and a cordless hoover. Went dizzy at the top and it was the hoover or me going down the stairs. Hoover went with hell of thump and landed outside the nurses station Gave her a hell of a shock. Hoover did survive, I would hate to think of what would have happened if I hadn’t pitched forwards and landed on the top landing. Stairs are Lino covered with metal edges strips. Needless to say I didn’t hoover them again for a few weeks and always with a hand on the rail now.

op, lucky escape.

These tales are terrifying. I'm paranoid about falling downstairs as I have always had a terrible habit of carrying too much stuff up and down them, like piles of ironing or two coffee cups, one in each hand. I'm trying very consciously not to do that and to hold onto the rail since a friend's Mum who was active, healthy and agile in her mid 60s, slipped on the top stair in her own house, fell and broke her neck. It has really scared me just how close to death we all are and how mundane, everyday things can be treacherous.

Occupational Therapy people put an extra stair rail in for my husband and when he went into care asked if I wanted it taken off the wall.
I am so glad I said no as a couple of times I have been so glad it is there as it is so much easier to come down slowly holding 2 rails. I was only holding 1 when my leg went from under me and if the other one hadn't been there for me to catch I would have gone from top to bottom.
I now have a folding rubber bucket which I hook over my arm to carry things upstairs.

Stairs + slippers = danger.

ive fallen down the stairs and like you managed to catch myself half way. i broke 2 ribs and fractured my coccyx. Was terrifying, and painful. I also had a concussion and fainted immediately after the fall at the bottom of the stairs so my (now ex) H found me and thought i had died! There but for the grace of god and all that.

I managed to go head first down the stairs a week ago. Not for the first time. We all have to take more care.

When my eldest was a baby we had one of those pressure fitted baby gates - I had just got her up from a nap and she was in a baby sleeping bag.

I had her in one arm and opened the gate with the other. As I did, it came away from the wall with the momentum pulling me forward. I naturally stepped forward to try and regain balance and started to go head first down the stairs, almost dropping DD.

God know how, but I somehow managed to grab the bannister, twist and catch her by the straps on her sleeping bag. It was the luckiest escape ever - my heart rate still elevates now thinking about it and it was over 18 years ago!

Needless to say, I made DH go out that night and buy a gate that had to be screwed in!

My cousin died from falling down the stairs (she was holding a crayon and it went into her eye, she was very young)

Two other family members have cracked their heads open falling down stairs (one a child, one more elderly), both were ok

Stairs are lethal!

i had a tumble just down the last four steps on my stairs and sprained my ankle, I got off very lightly. Like another poster I had a dizzy spell while lugging the hoover downstairs so I flung it down the rest of the stairs and then sat down till I felt ok. It really shook me up

Oh my goodness, that is horrendous.
Sincere condolences to all who loved her and held her dear, so sorry for your loss.

In my case it was stairs and sturdy boots, but I totally agree about slippers. I only use the stairs with slippers you can put your foot right into.