According to Consumer Product Safety Commission accident estimates, tens of thousands of stepladder accidents requiring emergency room treatment occurred annually in the United States. Approximately 85-90% of these accidents involve the user falling from the ladder and 8-9% of these injuries are serious enough to require that the victim be admitted to a hospital. In addition to posing a severe health concern, these accidents have significant loss-of-wages and high medical expense implications.This Saturday, my uncle was one of those statistics. He was changing light bulbs in his house, with the assistance of his son who was holding the ladder. After they were finished, he decided to take a nap, only to walk into his bathroom and realize that he forgot to change one more bulb. So he decided to just do it himself, not calling his son in to hold the ladder. Big mistake...one that so many people make. We all think that falling off of a ladder is something that won't happen to us. Well, you probably know what happened....he fell off and fell into the bathtub. He was rushed by ambulance to our local trauma hospital since it was a head injury. At first sight, he was bad, confused, bleeding, .moaning in pain, disoriented....and so on. The good news is he was very very lucky. There were no injuries to the spine or brain, however, he had multiply facial fractures, including his eye socket and jaw. Luckily, he only spent one night in the hospital, and now has some healing to do.
This has taught all of our family a big lesson, especially Eddie, my husband. He is the worse about doing everything himself....including climbing high on ladders and doing jobs without any assistance. This scared him. Good, I'm glad. He has now vowed to hire a handyman!
