Illinois accident lawyer and Chicago nursing home lawyer providing FREE information to help those in need. Posted on Oct 25, 2013
A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) looked at hundreds of nursing home falls captured on video by closed circuit cameras. In 37% of nursing home falls, the resident’s head strikes something during the incident. Over half of the time, that something is the floor. Less frequently the resident strikes a piece of furniture or the wall.
As a Chicago nursing home attorney, I frequently meet with nursing home residents and families of residents who have been injured in nursing home falls. It’s not uncommon for families to express confusion regarding head injuries.
In one of the study’s more interesting findings, it was observed that, in many cases, the nursing home resident attempted to arrest his or her fall using one of both hands, but they were unable to. Muscle tone and lack of upper body have often been implicated in the falls. It’s not unusual for families to suspect that their loved ones were restrained at the time of the fall.
This study points towards a simple inability to activate the muscles upon impact. There’s only a fraction of a second when a person has the opportunity to use his or her hands and arms to break the fall. If the muscles don’t react quickly enough, they do nothing to prevent the head from hitting the floor.
As any regular reader of this blog knows, nursing home falls are extremely dangerous because residents can suffer long term damage from injuries sustained in these falls. Nursing homes have an obligation to prevent these nursing home falls from happening.