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 fell backwards down a full flight of 13 (wooden) stairs last June. A simple slip of my foot. I went into free fall rather than bumpety-bumpety. My DD(9) found me at the bottom of the stairs and dialled 999 before running to two neighbours to get help. I was blue lighted (lit?) to the nearest trauma centre on a stretcher with my head blocked. The paramedics had to recruit two strong men off our street to carry me down our steep stairs (house is a converted mill over several storeys). I’m only a size 10, by the way, but my blood pressure was apparently dropping so much they didn’t want to tilt me. I had a CT scan. My guardian angel must have been watching over me that day as I escaped with a broken wrist on one arm and a nearly severed middle finger on the other. Plus, fractures to a couple of teeth and severe bruising. The moral of my tale is: wear slippers with backs!

Glad to hear you're ok! ..I've fallen down my own steep stairs after losing my footing. Luckily I was cushioned by the ironing board I'd left at the bottom of the stairs. Certainly took the wind out of me & frightened me stiff!

When I was 20 I fell from the very top of wooden stairs to the bottom on my back. My poor mother didn't know what she was going to see. I didn't break anything but my lower back has never been the same again. I've tripped over bottom stair too. Hate stairs always hold on tight to a rail. Thankfully I live in a bungalow!

Worth looking at having the thermostat moved elsewhere where it's easier to reach more safely.

You could consider having a second bannister fitted if you've currently got one only on one side.

I almost fell down mine last week - I manage to stay upright but thumped down a few stairs and jumped the last couple

I was fine but gave myself a fright and felt like crying so can only imagine how you feel - it’s scary

I’ve also in the past gone to fall and threw myself backwards as I decided it was the better option - a sore bum but I was fine

maybe I need a stair lift 🤣

Goodness I feel for you! I did this as a teenager (bounced back then lol) we had a steep staircase and the front door at the bottom - I managed to twist on my heel, lose balance and tumble, twisting mid-air (I’d like to say like my gymnastic training but it was more jackass style than Simone Biles!, got to the bottom and banged my head on the front door 😩
if I did that now I think it would be the end of me 🤕
… hope you feel better soon

Oh my OP what a dreadful scare. And the other reports - my heart is in my mouth, terrifying !
The last apartment I lived in, on the 4th floor, had really tight, narrow circular stairs to fit in the space. Not very well designed. Steep, with sharp turns where the tread was not at all wide enough. And a slim metal balustrade on one side only. I had a feeling of dread that those stairs would do for me, especially as I often had to carry bags of heavy shopping up. Hard, ceramic tiles = very unforgiving to fall / slip on !
As it turned out I did come a cropper on some equally dastardly stairs, but it was in the street and at night. But I was so relieved when I moved out of that apartment last year. There are stairs in this building (no lift unfortunately) but they are proper stairs, wide and sweeping, very solid balustrade.
Am going to be extra vigilant anyway !

I’m glad I have read this thread as I didn’t realise just how many accidents happen on the stairs.

These are my stairs (pic incoming) and the banister only goes halfway up.

Gosh, what a fright! Thank goodness you’re ok. We once had someone at work (older chap) who fell down the stairs and died. He must have tripped, granted it was a concrete floor but it doesn’t bear thinking, I’m so happy you are ok!

I fell and am so, so glad I was able to get my hands/arms in front of my face before I hit the wall a meter or so from the bottom step. Otherwise I’d have hit the edge face first, and possibly not survived. As it was I was wrenched and sore in various places, but my hands and arms cushioned my impact and I got away scot free, bar the shock. I was quite wobbly afterwards. My life flashed before my eyes, but I didn’t even break my glasses!

I was wearing really good slippers, but the sole gripped a bit too well and just trapped my foot to be slower than the rest of me was moving.

I have moved into a house with slightly terrifying wooden stairs. I’m saving up to get them carpeted as they are lethal. They are slippy if you are just in socks so i wear slippers (the kind with a proper sole and your feel fully go into with a back at the heel) and even then I hold on to parts of the banister until I am most of the way down. I have fallen down them once and that was head first although thankfully only the last few steps but I got an impressive bruise on a couple of my toes.

I did fall down the stairs at my old house on my bum a few years ago and bruised (or maybe broke?) my tailbone. It took a good 7 months before I was able to sit down without it hurting.

My next door neighbour died falling down the stairs wearing flip flops. That was about 8 years ago and I now still take my shoes off to go up and down the stairs unless they're tight trainers

I'd say the majority of us have had a near miss. It's just pure luck in avoiding serious injury or death.

Mine was on a bike going down a hill and I didn't use the brakes properly (think I used them too late or not strong enough). Anyway I was still flying forward and was about to go on to a main road. Really I should have jumped off at that point and dived into the hedge on the left, just didn't act quick enough. Instead I stayed on and went straight on to the road, flew across it, and lodged into the hedge on the other side. Had a car been going either way I'd have been toast.

Being in the hedge stayed with me as I knew instantly how lucky I was. It was a busy road and yet for that moment I crossed it it was empty. It's small margins. Falling down the stairs, it only takes a dislocated vertebrae, that's paralysis. OP is rightfully feeling extremely fortunate.

Well there’s another anxiety to add to my list 🥲

More and more messages and each one gives a new perspective on something I'd never ever considered would happen to me, but it did.
Just to clarify I always go up and down with a hand on the rail, but not on Saturday night.
Big mistake.

Yeard ago when we had a storm I went outside to have a cigarette (have since given up), and I felt something brush the back of my head, like someone brushing their hand down my hair, then I heard a load smash. A tile from a house 4 houses down had come off the roof......

it does make you reflect on things! Glad you are okay OP

What. The. Actual. Fuck

Helps to put things in perspective!
Cease the day

My DW slipped down 6 steps on holiday this year, then she had brain surgery, medical evacuation, 6 months in brain rehab in UK. You never know

I used to look on horrified as my dm came down the stairs trailing things behind her. Thankful she had rails on both sides. I once told her off and mentioned a lady who lived in her town who died falling down the stairs. She seemed to heed what I said.

This is me. Everywhere. Never injured more than bruises. I have ridden all my life and perhaps I don't tense up.

The only time I have ever injured myself was falling on ice when I was 20 weeks pregnant. Then I broke my wrist in 5 places protecting my bump.

Not stairs related (although have fallen down a full staircase in a large Victorian terrace, luckily, on my back all the way down), however, I’m hugely anxious at the moment, I’m not concentrating and rushing around, and I swear I narrowly avoided massive internal organ damage and possibly life saving surgery, when I almost walked, like by an inch, into a just above waist height, weights machine in the gym. The two handles were sticking out as they’re meant to but I nearly went into one of them. I honestly can’t stop thinking about it and how I really need to slow the f&&k down and concentrate..

So glad you are ok and survived.
You are not wrong with your glee.
It is one of the biggest killers in the home.
I remember years ago reading some obscene statistic of just how many people die falling on the stairs.

A big one is falling backwards while pissed, men apparently do this more, to catastrophic injuries and death.

When pissed, always better to go up the stairs on all fours.

Also I was warned by my Health visitor to make sure I wore proper fotwear on the stairs with my first baby as she had a patient some years earlier that had a shocking accident.

Surprisingly common.
You may well find you are sore in days to come because of how awkwardly you landed.
Wishing you well.

Awww this must of given you a shock .. how frightening x

@WingBingo I'd get a halfway bannister rail if I were you 💐