While accidental falls are often portrayed as comedic on TV and in movies, this type of accident can lead to severe injuries with long-lasting and even life-changing repercussions. Even when the actual distance of your fall was only a few feet, an awkward landing on a hard surface might leave you facing expensive medical bills, lost work income, and a host of other financial and personal losses you were unprepared for and did nothing to deserve.
Fortunately, you may have grounds to hold the property owner liable for the harm their negligent management has caused you through that accident. Here are some of the injuries in Memphis slip and fall cases that our diligent attorneys often see cases built around and that the team at Reaves Law Firm, PLLC, could help you take proactive legal action over.
Most people instinctively throw their arms out while falling to try to rebalance themselves or catch themselves when they hit the ground, and that unfortunately means that fractured bones in the hands, wrist, and lower arms are especially common slip and fall injuries that people sustain in Memphis. Other common sites for fractures that stem from slips or trips and falls include the pelvis, the ankles, the knees, or elbows, and sometimes even the ribs, especially when someone ends up falling forward onto the hard edge of a raised object or platform.
Even when a sudden fall does not result in a bone cracking or breaking, falling on its own can lead to arms and legs being twisted in unnatural directions, causing soft-tissue injuries like ligament sprains, muscle tears, and joint dislocations. Once again, the hands, wrists, and ankles are particularly common places for these sorts of slip and fall injuries to occur, although it is not unheard of in Memphis for dislocations and other injuries to affect the hips, shoulders, or knees.
One of the most dangerous injuries that a person in Memphis can sustain in a slip and fall is a traumatic brain injury (TBI), which can stem from hard—or sometimes seemingly slight—impacts of the head or face against a hard object during a fall. Even relatively minor concussions can take weeks to heal fully and significantly impact an injured person’s life in the meantime. More severe trauma may result in permanent disability or even life-threatening complications.
Almost as severe as a TBI is an injury to any part of the spinal cord, which runs the entire spine length and connects the brain to the rest of the body’s nervous system from its position within the spine’s vertebrae. Unlike most other body parts, the spinal cord cannot heal itself from external trauma. Therefore, any injury that results in the cord being torn or severed is likely to cause irreversible paralysis below the site of the injury.
Any injury severe enough to require some type of professional medical care could be the basis for a civil lawsuit when it stems directly from a property owner’s or manager’s negligence. In practice, taking effective legal action over injuries in Memphis slip and fall cases can be far from simple, even when it seems evident who is to blame for the harm you have sustained.
Assistance from the well-versed lawyers at Reaves Law Firm, PLLC, could improve your chances of obtaining fair financial recovery. Call our firm today to discuss your legal options during a free consultation.
