'Skipping a Step on the Stairs' is a Fatal Mistake...

Yesterday I thought I had all sorts of important things to tell people, but last night I learned the hard way that I only have one thing to inform everyone of today.

"Skipping a Step on the Stairs" is a Fatal Mistake.

I am 33 as of last week, and I've walked countless stairs in my life, and I wrongly considered myself skilled due to experience. When I was a kid I remember jumping and skipping as many steps as possible to reach the large flat areas faster. Never had anything go wrong...till last night right before I was going to bed.

All I did was "Skip a Step" because I'm tall and thought I could get away with it, and I got really lucky because it was "the last step", but the problem was I miscounted and it was actually the "second to last step", so that hidden "last step" tripped me and I fell forward with all of my weight. I had "Let go of the Rail" thinking it was the "last step", so now my hands were free and I naturally put them forward to catch the wall, but instead of a wall we have a open kitchen counter, and my hands went right through the opening...but my forehead hit the top section that goes into the ceiling - right on the corner!

Basically I got TKO'd and I have a nasty cut on my head, and my skull feels all messed up now. It probably isn't broken though (or cracked I hope). My neck hurts and my spine hurts, but I can stretch fully in all directions and am mobile now. I was laid out for at least 15-20m just in a daze, I may have suffered a concussion. So I stayed up awhile to 'laugh/cry/whatever it is' about how dumb I am for this most silly mistake.

This morning my wife informed me of a person she once knew, whom I had actually gone to the funeral of maybe 7 years ago. He was a tall guy and always "Skipped Steps", and would go 2 at a time. Well one day he did what I did, missed one, but he was higher up a flight of stairs and so broke his neck!

Why ? Because even if you can count steps perfectly 99.9% of the time, there is ALWAYS gonna be that ONE STEP that you MISS! It is so OBVIOUS to me now how this works!

Please everyone, this is a valid danger that exists for us all. Do Not Skip Steps Anymore. Tell other people, teach the kids that it's ultra-dangerous because IT IS! I am So Lucky it was a TKO instead of a KO or a Fatality. I don't think anything's broken. If it hurts in a few days still I'll go to the Doc but for now all they would do anyway is give pain killers. I'll treat the cut myself but anyone out there should seriously consider a Doc if they aren't knowledgeable about cuts. Cuts are simple it's the bones you need an X-ray for.

Most of you know I totally don't condone the overuse of X-ray technology but in this instance, after a fall from the stairs and a TKO on the corner of a wall section, it's sounding really good if you know what I mean? Just to check cuz I'm messed up and curious what it looks like inside. I'm hoping I can recover from this within a month or two...and I usually never tell people in public about my injuries...I just recovered from a few other serious ones (ribs, arm, feet, etc).

It's ok you can laugh at me. LOL! I am thankfully alive to still laugh and cry simultaneously about it. I know I'm a clutz, a lucky one though. Very lucky.

To make the thread informative I will also link this info about Concussions. There has been a lot of talk in sports circles about concussions lately and I think this applies to everyone because I may/may not have suffered one last night just attempting to go to bed. It's difficult to diagnose and will take time to determine properly.

I personally only meet a few of the criteria (dizziness) but as the article points out, it's not that easy to determine. My behavior and thinking over the next year or two will be really important to observe and reflect back on this event in order to see if something did or did not change significantly. I took a major blow to my skull from the front section, right above my eyebrows and then went out flat and am still dizzy the next day. I don't even know if this is a headache but I think it probably is. My emotional state is normal though, I'm usually melodramatic.

Just because of the circumstance, I will probably be going in for a check up here in the next few days to check my bones, because this may be the most severe head and neck/back trauma I have ever had. I'm comparing this to a moderate impact car wreck without an airbag.

One Step on the Stairs can Change Everyone's Lives Forever....
Please Constantly Warn Each Other to Not Skip Any Steps.

I guess that's it, but if anyone want's to share their stair falling horror stories, feel free.
I am interested and will read them.

Oh, and it's also probably Best to Always Hold the Rails (or put a hand on the Wall if there are no Rails), until you are safely at the very bottom or top. I know it's common sense but I messed up by letting go of the rail AS I was taking that "last step", and so had lost all security it would have offered.

Had I been still holding the Rail, I would have been fine and not have fallen anywhere near this badly.
99%+ Chance.

Just a friendly reminder...

You can do terrible damage walking down a step or kerb as well if you sneeze at the same time. It can pull a disc out. I know several people this has happened to and a search online shows it to be fairly common.

Hope you have an uneventful recovery.

Earthblaze

Good advice on the stairs .. hope that you have a speedy recovery and recommend you go get a check up from a doc to be on the safe side due the nature of the injury..

Sorry wont do any online diagnosis as without being able to properly examine and evaluate a patient in person theres no way to make an accurate diagnosis and recommend course of treatment ..

a reply to: muzzleflash

Sorry to hear of your mishap muzzleflash it sounds like it could have been worse , I will bear it in mind next time I'm in a rush going down stairs.


I would recommend getting your head checked though , better to be safe than sorry.

I constantly skip stairs on the way up, I think of it as extra exercise.

Never on the way down.

a reply to: muzzleflash

So, in all actuality the point is...

Not learning to count can be a fatal mistake.

At least for some.

Thanks for the heads up, but I will continue to skip steps. One can miss a step even when taking them one at a time. I was going down steps one at a time and hit some ice... Second stair from the top. I cracked three ribs and had a sore ass.
You just never know what can happen.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Well that applies to everything in life. You can't skip steps and you can't skip over the hard work in your journey from point a to point b, stairs or not. Stairs are a more literal application to the philosophical analogies scattered throughout the metaphysical universe.

There were a few times I almost fell while going down the steps because I mistakenly thought I'd gotten to the last one. Haha.

Im a rebel.. Im going to continue to live dangerously. BUT.. hope youre okay and happy belated birthday, Muzz

I never skip going down unless I'm working out.

I always skip going up.

One of the perks of being long legged.

I never knew until now that I was actually living on the edge by doing so. Literally.

originally posted by: Lynk3
a reply to: muzzleflash

Well that applies to everything in life. You can't skip steps and you can't skip over the hard work in your journey from point a to point b, stairs or not. Stairs are a more literal application to the philosophical analogies scattered throughout the metaphysical universe.

It does apply to everything in life and death.

Great post there thanks.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

I constantly skip stairs on the way up, I think of it as extra exercise.

Never on the way down.

I went down and out.
That Shadow got the drop on me.

originally posted by: applesthateatpeople
a reply to: muzzleflash

So, in all actuality the point is...

Not learning to count can be a fatal mistake.

At least for some.

I lol'd.
@your piranha apple too.

originally posted by: butcherguy
Thanks for the heads up, but I will continue to skip steps. One can miss a step even when taking them one at a time. I was going down steps one at a time and hit some ice... Second stair from the top. I cracked three ribs and had a sore ass.
You just never know what can happen.

Yes always check for ice - good tip.

I saw my wife slip from a top step on a 3rd story once, and she slipped/bumped on her rear around 5 steps down. Lucky she only had bruises and no broken bones, but she was really sore for a few days from it. It could have been way worse.

If there is ice and no other way down, gotta go super slow and use the rails. I'd say even break the ice if necessary.

originally posted by: trollz
There were a few times I almost fell while going down the steps because I mistakenly thought I'd gotten to the last one. Haha.

trollz: 142 IQ, Come at me bro!

stairs: Challenge accepted.

trollz pwnd by stairs.

(See trollz sig for context)

Time to ban stairs. Think of the children.

A new study found that from 1999 through 2008, more than 93,000 children younger than five years of age were treated in US emergency departments for stair-related injuries. On average, this equates to a child younger than five years of age being rushed to an emergency department for a stair-related injury every six minutes in the US.

www.sciencedaily.com...

a reply to: muzzleflash

Ouch.

I could actually feel that from the explanation. I have experience at getting hurt.

a reply to: muzzleflash

When I was young and agile, I used to skip stairs going up but never down. I used to jump 13 steps down to the landing in my parents house, while my sisters watched and yelled saying I was going to break my neck. lol I think of it now and realize it was a stupid thing to do. I was in gymnastics so I did a lot of daring things at that age. If I skipped stairs now, I would probably pull a groin muscle. lol