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.

I walk down the stairs like an 80 year old

Glad you are ok.my husbands school friend many years ago fell down the stairs and died,so young as well.

Bless you. I carry so much down the stairs at times. The washing. Drinking glasses. I always think “if I lose my footing I’m just going to chuck it all and grab onto the rail”. That’s dependent on if there’s enough time in that split second. I won’t wear slippers on the stairs. Glad you’re ok. What a nasty shock xx

Such terrible stories! I fell down the stairs and hurt my back,was alone in the house. I'm 76 and stupidly stoic, carried on as normal e ven going into work as a cleaner. Days later was experiencing delayed shock and eventually had an X Ray, I'd damaged a vertebra.

I fell down the stairs in the middle of the night a few months ago. Rushing downstairs to tell the dog to stop barking at 3am. Half asleep I think I must have thought I was at the bottom and just stepped forward into thin air. Like you I grabbed the bannister and was swung round so I landed looking back up the stairs. Ended up with a broken collarbone but it could have been so much worse.

My DF fell head first down the stairs a few years ago when he was on his own in the house. He was reaching up to an overstairs cupboard, lost his balance and crashed face first down the full staircase. He dislocated his shoulder very badly (and the NHS said at almost 70 he was too old to make it worth repairing 😲😲) but how he didnt do anything worse I dont know. Thankfully his neighbour heard him shouting for help and is a retired paramedic so came to help/call and ambulance. This was end of 2020 though, right before the second wave of covid hit 😱 My DM was obliviously walking the dog and came back to complete chaos!
I hope you make a full and quick recovery OP!

Glad you’re ok OP. I quite agree that the psychological effects can be long term when you’re an adult.

Years ago I once fell flat on my face up a kerb when my feet became entangled in a piece of plastic packing tape; it went around both of my ankles and I fell with full force, narrowly missing hitting my head on the kerbstone. At the time I was just so embarrassed but afterwards I kept thinking about what could have happened.

I skill think about it, especially when I watch a drama on the tv where someone falls and cracks their head.

If you’re still having pain in your ribs OP, it may be worth getting yourself checked.

Sorry to read of all the tragic accidents here. Makes one thankful and aware of how fleeting life can be as well as how easily simple, but devastating, accidents can occur.

I've got an enclosed staircase and I've been avoiding bothering with a bannister. But this thread has made me rethink.

I remember an episode of '999' or one of those similar programmes, where a guy of about 40 had slipped on the stairs and he had hit his head on tile at the bottom. He was rushed to hospital, they scanned his brain and immediately asked his wife if she wanted to consider organ donation. She was standing in shock saying "but he's 42" etc... they said yes, but from the moment of impact, there was no more brain activity. Really sobering and upsetting.

I’m in a semi detached bungalow now. I let my cat out the back just now, and could smell smoke, so I popped out the front to see if my neighbour’s chimney was OK. It was so I turned back to my front door and fell flat, what a shock. Sore ankle, elbow and knee. Slippers in the bin!

Thank you for taking the time to share. I’m so glad you’re ok. I’ll try and get my head into gear and appreciate being alive!

I was ill with cancer two years ago and pre diagnosis had a hot water permanently clamped to my stomach for the terrible pain. I went to the toilet and dropped the bottle at the top of stairs. I came out of the toilet, forget about it and stepped on the water bottle. I literally slid from top to bottom banging off every step. The next day I was black with bruising from waist to knee.

Is this professional advice, please?

I suspect starfishing is our instinctive reaction – our monkey brains know it works well when you're falling through branches. But starfishing is exactly the reaction that got me more injured in my first big staircase fall.

In my experience starfishing your legs in a stair-fall is bad, as it thrusts you off the fall-step and launches you out over the void at greater speed and maybe even to greater height.

It's hard to override that natural reaction, and I'm not a professional. But my experience is that bending your knees and getting your weight down as low as possible as quickly as possible gives you a smaller initial fall. It makes the first hit as close as possible to the fall-step, where the staircase has not yet dropped away too far.

Then you bump, slither or roll down step by step. But you've avoided that big crash-landing from a great height that occurs when your first hit is further down the staircase.

You accept that you ARE going to hit the steps – and just embrace doing that sooner rather than later!

Again, I'm not a professional and I'd love a stunt person's take on this. But that's been my experience.

I hope you will recover mentally & physically soon. It must have been terrifying. Get well soon. 🌹

That sounds absolutely frightening and I’m glad you’re ok.
i had an accident recently- I blacked out and face planted the pavement and smashed up my face - broken nose and other facial fractures. I’ve recovered really well physically but I’m def still traumatised esp as the cause wasn’t found.
I think after an accident or episode like that it takes a while to recover mentally even when the wounds have healed.

I once fell down a spiral staircase which was wooden but my exdh who was ocd has decided to Polish them, I was 30 weeks pregnant at the time thankfully baby who is 22 now was okay. Never forgave him

If I knew I was definitely going and couldn't catch the bannister, my instinct would be "brace,brace,brace" like on a plane and try to protect the neck and head as the two bits most likely to kill me.

A few comments on getting your body into a certain position to try and counteract the expected brutality of when you impact the floor/wall. For me as I was facing forward about eight steps up with nothing ahead of me, I honestly didn't have time to think and instinctively I just reached out for the rail on the right side and made contact with it from underneath, it literally stopped me falling....I just looked at my wrist and hand hanging on & thought I'm alive.

I've had falls on pavements where I'm falling forward and instinctively you put your hands out to save your face smacking into the pavement, but sadly this was literally a milli second where all I could see was me free falling through fresh air and possibly being dead when I hit the ground.

Thank heavens you did.

Yes, it's a rare luxury to get any thinking time at all, never mind time to act on thoughts.

I personally know/knew 4 people who died from falling down stairs. None of them elderly. I suspect this is an unusually high number but it weighs heavy on my mind every day as someone who lives in a house with three flights of stairs plus stairs down to the cellar.

@Tolkienista the fear and fright I feel when just missing a step, either going up or down, is enough, but to actually fall down them just doesn't bear thinking about.
As you have hit your head I wonder if having a check over might be a good idea, just to make sure everything is ok

That's horrific, poor person and poor those that found them

My friend’s nephew was mugged last month in a multi-storey car park. He handed over his car keys and then they pushed him down the stairs. He landed at the bottom and broke his neck, died instantly.

The two criminals haven’t been caught as the CCTV was out that night. He was 26.

We are all still in shock.

Oh god, I am so very sorry