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 did something similar nearly seven years ago, can still see and feel myself going down the stairs, could have broken my neck. I too am grateful.
We are lucky people, it's not our time yet!

I bloody hate stairs, weirdly I know 3 people that have died after falling down them (extra risks involving alcohol, v steep stairs, wearing tights on wooden staircase) and was very glad to be living in a bungalow for most of DDs life.
We stayed in a family members house when she was a teenager and she crashed down a short wooden staircase one night coming down them in socks and slipping, I swear my heart stopped for a split second and there was just this dreadful silence until she started to cry.
I HATE STAIRS!

I misjudged the last few steps a few years ago and ended up with a fractured wrist. In A&E were two other women who had done the same thing on Christmas Eve so we went through as a group before the drunks came in. Three of us with arm/wrist fractures and suddenly another lady appeared with a leg injury leaving a leg in plaster. So that made 4 of us with injuries caused from dashing about on Christmas Eve, doing lots and then falling down the stairs. A&E person said stair accidents are really common but some of the most tragic accidents are when people end up banging their heads against the bannisters.

No alcohol was involved in any of our 4 cases as it was lunchtime. Got through A&E, X-ray and plastering in just over three and a half hours.

I have been a lot more careful about stairs since then.

Christ! Extend that handrail

This thread is scary, my fear is that I will choke and there will be no one around to help me, I’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos so I know what to do if it does happen, just hope I never have to put what I’ve learnt into practice and if it does I hope I can keep calm enough to carry it out.

Stairs + slippers definitely do = danger.

I never use slippers on the stairs but I did on Thursday. I'm now on crutches, with ligament damage and a very bruised and swollen foot. Plus a few other bumps and bruises!

I'm glad you're okay. I remember one of the boys who I was at school with lost his dad when he fell down the stairs. Total freak accident he was only in his 30s.

I am feeling very like this today, but for my teenage daughter. She was out yesterday with her friends in one of their cars. 3 passengers plus a driver coming home from a gig . They aquaplaned coming off the motorway and Tbobed another car side on. According to the app one of them had they went from 58 to 0 in 2.3 seconds. But amazingly, all of them in both cars walked away without serious injury. Cars are written off not thank God nobody had more than minor cuts/bruises/whiplash. I saw that accident in Bolton with the taxi driver and car full of teenagers. Half of the passengers in two cars died. It’s just horrific. Similar time, two cars in a collision. Why them? Things could have been so very different for me and my family and honestly life is feeling incredibly fragile right now after all that anxiety and panic with me not being there with her and her lovely friends. And then all day sat in hospital getting scans and check ups etc

its so hard letting your children grow up, then your heart is walking around outside your body unprotected and there isn’t really anything you can do.
I’m glad you are ok op. Scary stuff realising how fragile the human body is.

Years ago when I was living alone i was walking down a steep flight of stairs with a full bin bag in one hand when the edge of my pyjama bottoms got caught in my toe ring and I couldn't un-flex my foot and put it down on the step properly. It sounds like such a basic silly thing but it was so scary not being able to get my footing and having to hang off the bannister. Since then I've had one near miss wearing slippers when I was pregnant and I haven't worn slippers on the stairs since.

I hasten to add that even though I fell backwards down the stairs, I was totally sober. It was about 9.30am on a Saturday morning and DD2(9) had a lovely day planned and had a train to catch. I decided I had enough time to fill my Stanley coffee cup for the journey. My accident was simply a case of too much haste, less speed.

That's so sad, I'm so sorry poor little girl xxx

Very lucky and yes, a good reminder that stairs are very dangerous. A friend of mine in her 30s fell down a few stairs and fractured her neck. She had a halo brace on for 6 months and 18 months after it was removed she killed herself because she couldn't cope with the ongoing pain.

This is another fear I have. I once had to gesture to a total stranger to wallop me on the back when I was choking when I was eating with my small DC in a park. I had visions of me dying in front of my kids. How do you help yourself when you're choking? I think I need to know this!

Did the stranger help you?

So glad you are ok. Every so often in year’s to come you’ll probably think about it. About six year’s ago I got a lump of meat stuck in my throat and it wouldn’t dislodge. I was very panicked but kept calm enough to glug a drink by me which dislodged it. I honestly don’t think I will ever get over it, it was traumatising 😩 I’ve been super careful chewing since and always have a drink by me and never eat large mouthfuls.

Glad you’re ok, it’s so scary - I can imagine how traumatic that could have been to you - I had a similar experience, probably about 30 years ago now. Top of 14 stairs, on a landing, standing on top of a chest of drawers, stretching towards the stairs pulling off wallpaper. The wallpaper came off really quickly, more easily than I expected and I jerked forwards into the space over the stairs. To this day, I have no idea how I didn’t go head first down the stairs and the thought still fills me with horror.

Drink a fizzy drink. I credit the can of coke next to me for saving me. Instinct told me to glug it really quickly and it dislodged. It is very scary isn’t it 😩

Very scary. Sometimes things happen and you know you were so close that it makes you feel grateful !

I remember when my son was little - about 5 - he’s autistic , he had never climbed . He couldn’t as far as I knew. Every soft play I would lift him everywhere. We lived in a flat , at the top but it was 3 floors - still high enough for a fall from the top to be catastrophic. It was a hot day and the kitchen window was open. It was a window that opened fully , like a side window- the bottom of the window was on the kitchen counter . It was open a little. I went to the loo and my son was ASLEEP on the sofa . Honestly I was 2 minutes - I just had a wee - I came back in and he was standing on the kitchen side with his hand on the handle of the open window. I almost died of panic ! I grabbed him quick and got him down and to this day I do not know how he got up there - no chair moved , or stool etc . He honestly must have woke up , ran in , grabbed the side and hoisted himself up . To show how short I was , I remember a song being on the TV on a music channel when I left the room and the same song was still playing when I came back.

For months after I just kept thinking - what if . What if I had not came straight back in , what if I had been longer on the toilet. He’s 19 now and I still think about it.

I’m pleased you weren’t more badly hurt, it’s so frightening when you have an accident and realise how close you were to serious injury or worse.

I’ve fallen downstairs a couple of times and it’s terrifying. I’ve not long since had emergency spinal surgery and I’m now having to walk with walking sticks and coming down stairs scares the life out of me. I had a dizzy spell a few weeks ago but I was almost at the top so just fell forwards then panicked I was going to damage my back again. I’m so tempted to get a stair lift in so I never have to use stairs again!

Actually re choking, I was watching a Youtube video where a small child had been choking. Someone brought out something called a Respirex Choking Device, which saved his life. I actually put one in my Amazon basket today. It’s for kids and adults. I don’t know how it works but Youtube will have something.

Yes, he understood my frantic gestures and whacked me a couple of times which did the trick. It was really scary, I did think I was going to die.

People do often underestimate how dangerous stairs can be. It actually infuriates me when I see modern stairs that have no handrail, large gaps and are made of material that’s easy to slip on. Especially if they have young children. I can’t understand why people are so casual about this aspect of safety and prioritise looks and quirkiness when falls on stairs are so common.

Thank you for starting this thread, OP. I hope that your bruises heal soon.

I fell forward down the stairs a few weeks before Christmas. Fortunately it was only a few steps and so the worst for me was head butting the kitchen door and landing on my knees/hands/wrists a bit awkwardly so was just a bit sore for a few hours. Ive had many, many accidents over the years, some pretty bad that I just bobbed on with but falling those few steps shook me right up. It really surprised me. Glad you are okay OP, just keep taking the pain killers ribs are notorious for taking their time to heal. I should know, done mine enough times.

I fell downstairs head first and broke my neck in five places as well as some other bones. I'm exceptionally lucky I made a full recovery and was not paralysed. My DH was at home and came immediately to my rescue and called an ambulance.

I have a pair of slippers on each floor and go up (and down) barefoot. We have open tread stairs and they are scary.

Had a fall before Christmas trying to get elderly parent up after they fell. It's shocking isn't it? It really knocked the stuffing out of me. I was lucky to get away with a badly bruised back and bum, but if I'd hit my head on the bricks instead ... doesn't bear thinking about.

Now doing plyometric exercises as recommended by my PT to help reaction times should it happen again.