The other day*, I was looking for reasons not to fold laundry**, and sat at the top of our solid wood stairs. Early afternoon, the DirtDevil already called to attention in the dining room below, I clicked my ancient slippers together and mused, "These stairs are so reliable, and the anti-slip bits are useful! I wonder why and when they decided these were a good idea. Seems like an awful lot of historical persons had to skitter up and down slippery, wooden staircases to do important things and somehow they managed to avoid death. What is it about falling down the stairs that really makes it so deadly? Feel like I've seen characters in every genre 'fall down the stairs,' by one method or another, and it's always unanimously agreed to be another accident. But, like, I've never fallen down the stairs. Sure, a step or two, but never like THE WHOLE STAIRCASE. So, what about it so believable?"
I asked the Google and snapped a photo***. Here is what we know:
Four entries down, the nytimes.com made its debut.
Falls Can Kill You. Here’s How to Minimize the Risk.
Falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries among older adults. Every 19 minutes in this country, an older
person dies from a fall.
^This is that article. Basically, stairs are technically difficult and stubborn when it comes to matter and gravity and it can be hard to avoid injury if you stumble or trip a lot. Although, "falling is not an inevitable consequence of aging" things that are hard can result in hardship (sometimes). Moving on. I clicked on Odds of Falling Down the Stairs. Then clicked something else (https://danger.mongabay.com/injury_death.htm) and found thisv
Fall on and from stairs and steps Total Deaths in 2000 1,307
One Year Odds [1 in #] 210,640
Lifetime Odds [1 in #] 2,739
So, there you have it. The most common injuries sustained from falling down the stairs are:
Traumatic brain injury
Neck & Back injuries
Spinal cord damage
Shattered or broken bones
Deep contusions or lacerations
Facial fractures
Compound fractures in hands and wrists
Sprains and strains
Dislocations
Internal organ damage
Internal bleeding
According to some injury attorney at (https://www.spauldinginjurylaw.com/blog/falling-stairs-can-cause-severe-injuries).
I guess that's why it's so deadly/believable.
With love & nothing else~
*today
**this was today
***this is the 11th shot I took that I thought was kind of blog-worthy