Our society loves to minimize the risk involved in a slip-and-fall accident. You can often see depictions of these potentially serious events in movies and on television shows. These accidents are often a source of amusement for the people viewing this entertainment. The same is not true about real life slip-and-fall incidents.
People who suddenly fall can experience severe, life-altering consequences as the result of a simple slip. One possible consequence is a traumatic brain injury resulting from a slip-and-fall. While broken bones and soft tissue injuries are commonly associated with falls, fewer people realize the risk to their brains.
Hitting your head as you fall can change your life
There are many potential causes for a slip-and-fall. Sometimes, another customer or visitor at a business spilled something on the floor, and the staff failed to notice and clean it up. Other times, there may be a leak from a pipe or a drip from the ceiling. Even over-waxed floors can create a dangerous situation.
All it takes is a surface slippery enough for your shoes to lose traction. Suddenly, you feel yourself falling and everything is out of your control. You could potentially hit your head on the floor if you cannot brace yourself on the way down. It is also possible to strike your head on furniture, shelves or other fixtures. Even a cart could be a source of a head injury during a fall.
If you recall striking your head or if you lose consciousness even for a brief period of time, you need to seek immediate medical evaluation. Make sure you report the slip and fall to the manager on duty or the owner of the business before you leave the premises.
Timely reporting is critical to later compensation
In many cases, your slip-and-fall accident might result in nothing more than a bump on your head or maybe some bruises. However, given the potential for delayed onset of brain injury symptoms, it is always a good decision to act as though your injuries are potentially severe.
Reporting the incident to the business ensures that they have a record of what happened. Seeking medical care the same day is also an important step to correlating any injuries to the accident at the business. Even if it takes some time for your symptoms to fully develop, when you do need to seek treatment for a brain injury, you will be able to show that those injuries resulted from improper maintenance of a facility.
That will help you in your effort to seek compensation, whether you file a premises liability lawsuit or an insurance claim. Most businesses, after all, have premises liability policies that protect them from the costs associated with injuries that happen on site. Accurate records about the incident will help ensure that insurance claims get properly processed and that you have options up to a lawsuit if those funds don’t cover all of your costs.
