Bone fractures, especially in the hands, wrists, forearms, feet, and legs. Sprains, joint injuries, and connective tissue tears. If you're a parent, you know that it's not uncommon for children to fall. However, not all falls are caused by a child's carelessness.
In many cases, the negligence of the owner or business can cause a child to suffer serious injuries, such as a broken bone, traumatic brain injury, or a spinal injury in a slip and fall accident. How many of these injuries are due to slips, trips and falls instead of falling from heights? As you can imagine, a fall from a height is a more common source of injury among children, accounting for about 66 percent of fatal fall-related injuries reported by the WHO. About 8 percent of children who suffer fatal fall-related injuries slipped and fell at the same level. However, slip and fall accidents can also be debilitating.
While less than 10 percent of all fatal falls in childhood occur at the same level, many more falls at the same level cause serious but not fatal injuries. As the WHO report explains, one of the most important strategies for reducing slip and fall injuries among children is to encourage your child's school or local community to focus on developing and enforcing standards for the design and maintenance of safe play areas, including installing rubber or bark surfaces on the floor. As a parent, it's important for you to understand the impact that a major injury suffered in a slip and fall accident could have on your child and on their future. It's important to understand the risks your children take every time they are involved in a slip and fall accident.
As a parent, it's even more important that you be aware of the dangers that a slip and fall accident could cause in a child and to teach your children how to avoid them so that they can protect themselves at all times. Undoubtedly, falls are currently the twelfth cause of death in children between 5 and 9 years old and in adolescents between 15 and 19 years old. This, combined with the inability of children, especially toddlers and infants, to speak for themselves and explain what hurts them and where, can result in treatment delays that can be fatal. When children fall on rubber or bark, they are less likely to suffer serious injuries than if they fall on concrete.
If your child was injured after slipping and falling, you may be able to file a claim for financial compensation. Parents and caregivers aren't always prepared to accurately assess a child's injuries and need for medical care. Any child who has fallen and has suffered a head or spinal cord injury should only be transported by trained medical professionals and should be examined and treated as soon as possible. While some of these injuries may appear minor, any of them can be fatal depending on the severity of the injury, the type of medical care provided, and the timeliness of that care.
If the person responsible for your child was not monitoring the child's activity and behavior, and the child fell and suffered fatal injuries during that time, the caregiver's negligence may be at fault. Timing is especially important when dealing with any type of head or spinal cord injury, and these injuries may not be evident immediately after the fall. While an article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasizes that older adults are at particularly high risk of suffering a serious injury in the event of a fall, personal injuries caused by slips, trips and falls can affect Americans of all age groups. It's vital that you have an attorney who will defend your child to ensure that they receive fair compensation for their injuries and for ongoing treatment and care.
