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.

On tomorrow's to do list is to move the full length mirror I have at the bottom of my stairs... interesting thread thanks for sharing op.

Ah yes, here it is.

LifeVac

You can hiemlich yourself - I once had to when I took a bite of apple and it got stuck, went straight in under the ribs and popped that sucker right out. Scary though!

Jesus!

I fell down some very steep stairs that went round a corner on a 90 degree angle when heavily pregnant. I was rushing as I could smell the pot of water burning in the kitchen and had just put my son to bed for a nap. I managed to grab hold of the banister somehow and ended up with a huge bruise on my thich/hip area. It haunts me as to what could have happened.

Glad you’re ok op 💛

Please tell us the self hemilich manoeuvre things

David niven (actor) his wife died opening a door and falling down stairs

Can you have a stair lift put in?
You might be able to get help with costs from local authority if unaffordable

I didn’t fall down the stairs but I got half out of the bath after applying a hair masque and I think the bath got slippy? Anyway left foot slides out from underneath me as my right foot hits the floor, ankle rolled and I fell clean out of the bath onto the bathroom floor onto my dogs metal water bowl. I also smacked my head on the toilet. The bruise below is my hip and the line down the middle is the edge of his bowl!!

Very good point. I've just looked it up. From what I can see having a quick look I think it may have become mandatory shortly after I bought my house. It was a new build in 2009.

I'm glad you are better now, OP.

Weirdly, the stairs in my house has banisters on both sides, for which I'm glad, though I only "noticed" it properly after DH died and I became more conscious of living on my own.
Like others on this thread I always kick off any slip-on style shoes or slippers before going upstairs and have not bought a long dressing gown in decades so as to avoid the hem-tripping malarkey.
Not smug though. A second's inattention or feeling lightheaded could result in a fall.

Here's a self-Heimlich vid:

Omg op that was awful so glad to hear you're ok but what a fright
I've slipped down the stairs a few times once carrying a basket of washing down, twice where I've slipped on the step because of my slippers..very painful and very frightening
I stopped wearing my slippers up the stairs a few years ago ..
I know of four people who have fallen down the stairs hit their head and died..the most recent one was a young woman in her thirties about two years ago now.. she worked in a local shop and after going home at lunchtime she'd slipped down the stairs apparently with stuff in her hands and sadly her teenage daughter found her at the bottom of the stairs when she came home from school..that's when I stopped wearing slippers up and down the stairs

Nah the owl did it

And then there will be a whole other thread about "bungalow legs" and how you will die early from not getting enough exercise 😂...

Similar happened to my young neighbour, she fell a couple of steps and the damage dhe did took 6 months to heal, shoulderdamage is dreadful.
With 4 children it was a dose.

omg you must feel terribly rattledi think these things are a blessing in disguise, as in they are sent to recalibrate us and make us realise how fragile life is and that we shouldn't waste it. a family friend done the same thing years ago although she tripped over her cat, she broke her tailbone but she was obsessive about the cats and the stairs long after it healed.

i have had this experience twice, the first time
i was young and stupid, in a car with my cousin who was equally young as stupid, and this girl who we had a feud with challenged us to a race so my cousin said "i'd love to see the look on that bitch's face when her banger can't go as fast as me. so the race went ahead with the girl in front of us, she drove past a petrol station with a roundabout directly in front which my cousin zoomed round, leading to the car skidding right next to the petrol pump. we got such a fright when it skidded then, as you say, the split second thought of "what if we hit the petrol pump?", however being young, stupid and reckless the shock left very quickly and we were happy as pigs in shit when we won the race and went to mcdonalds for a mcflurry *i just want to make it clear i would never participate in a car race now i know better and if it happened now i think i would have to be sedated.

the other time was slipping coming out of the bath because i didn't exercise at the time i wouldn't say i was horrified but i remember thinking "if i bump my head i'll drown." it convinced me to not let my chronic pain win.

Very glad you’re ok OP! You’ve made me realise that over the years I’ve fallen so may times I might actually have a problem or just be really blase about stairs. Also my 2 houses I’ve lived in as an adult have had really steep stairs. We actually moved from the first as I kept slipping on the stairs - the last time was forward too!

I have also fallen on a slippery rock on a mountain. Wearing glasses I don’t think that helps. DH caught me. I haven’t been up any mountains since not in the rain at least.

Fallen down a river bank into a shallow river. The bank gave way. That was a freak accident.

Fallen down the bottom third of these stairs with a newborn. Some maternal thing took over. I completely cradled him. Every muscle in my body ached from me bouncing down the steps.

I think mainly it’s been slippy or socks or catching the bottom of pyjamas somehow.

Ive Just had a small op under general anaesthetic today so I’m going to be really careful from now on and hold onto the bloody rail!! And see if there is room for another rail!

Glad your okay OP.

2019 I fell down the stairs head first at work. It was a Georgian building with stone stairs and a tiled floor at the bottom. I split my leg open down to the muscle (for the second time. First time was not stair related) catching my leg on the edge of one of the steps and landed on the tiled floor on my back. Along with the leg injury I badly bruised my back and couldn’t fully extend my right arm for a couple of months. I did somehow though manage to stop my head hitting the floor. I could have quite easily died that day. Alcohol was not involved in either incident that resulted in me splitting my leg open.

This is my recurrent nightmare. I’m glad you are ok.

Yes, we could, however one of our neighbours fell out of hers and never recovered. It has put me off a bit. We’d just rather be somewhere smaller, with more security. We are also thinking of when one of us dies, it would be far better for whoever is left to already be in a supported flat. Our DC don’t live locally, we want to retain independence. Hopefully there are some housing associations that might accept us.

They have seat belts now and won't work unless the belt is fastened, so a bit safer.

My ex threw me down the stairs, backwards. I had enough time, which was probably less than a second, to think, 'That's it, I am a goner' as I was heading headfirst toward the wall which was concrete and not protected by anything even as we were in the middle of decorating. Some miracle had my shoulder take most of the impact.
I am still in pain most days. I have a stupid sense of humour and I note that due to the shoulder pain, I think of my ex every time I wipe my arse.
But it was so, so frightening and it made me realise how lucky I had been.

I think I fell better, because I was drunk. I mean, I wasn't hammered! But squiffy as we'd been out for a meal/drinks that night. I think it made my body relax more and I fell with less tension.
I am glad you are okay OP. It is so, so frightening.

the father of a classmate of dd2 died when he fell down the stairs and broke his neck.It's so easily done and happens so quickly, I've done it and broke coccyx.

Just logged onto Mumsnet for the first time since last night and
If I were to sum up how I now feel, this is what I'd say.

Am I afraid of stairs and escalators? NO
Am I afraid of my stairs? WARY of them.
Am I physically healed? YES, well a lot better, still a bit sore, but nothing untoward.
Am I mentally healed? ABSOLUTELY NOT, that's going to take a hell of a lot longer, still re-living the moment and the terror that this was it, I was going to die.
Am I glad I told my story yesterday? 100% YES. I feel it's been very cathartic.

Thank you all again, your posts and support has been so so helpful.