DETROIT – Winter weather poses risks of slip and fall injuries on ice affecting people of all ages.
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It doesn’t matter if you’re old or young, ice doesn’t discriminate. While older people might have more fragile bones, younger people are often moving faster when they go down and that creates more dramatic injuries.
“It doesn’t matter what age, everyone’s slipping on the ice, everyone falls and people aren’t used to moving that that direction all the time,” said Henry Ford Health orthopedic surgeon Dr. Vincent Lizzio. “And when they come in and see me, the amount of people I’ve seen in the past few weeks that say ‘I slipped on the ice, my leg went the wrong way my leg went too straight, my leg went too far back,’ I see it all the time.”
Falls don’t always lead to broken bones. It can also cause hamstring or calf injuries, knee sprains and more.
To reduce your chances of falling on the ice there are some simple things to keep in mind. Be aware of the ice and assume all wet surfaces are icy. When we’re in a hurry, we might not think about it, and that’s when you get caught off guard. It’s important to wear ice-friendly boots or shoes -- the more traction, the better.
When on ice, walk slowly, kind of like a penguin. With your center of gravity over your feet, walk with short deliberate, flat-footed marching steps where your knees are slightly bent, and keep your hands out of your pockets so you can balance yourself more easily.
Even with your best efforts sometimes a fall is just going to happen and when it does you should know how to fall. Tuck your chin to protect your head and try to avoid landing with all of your weight on your wrist, knees, or spine. If you can, basically make yourself into a ball and try to fall on a fleshy part of your body, like your buttocks.
One lucky thing in the winter is that we are generally wearing thicker clothes because of the temperature and that provides a degree of padding. Unfortunately, our wrists are almost never padded and some of the worst fractures come from falls where the person tried to catch themselves with their outstretched arm.