Trying to hurry through the office supplies store, Marsha was loading up her shopping cart with needed items to restock her home office. Because it was the middle of December, the store was crowded with many people who wanted to take advantage of budgeted monies set aside for office items that they wanted to spend before the end of the year. Marsha was thinking about the holiday shopping she wanted to accomplish at the mall located across the street from the office supply store. As she filled the shopping cart with extra envelopes, ball point pens, address labels, and a toner cartridge she also made a mental note that she needed to take care of ordering printer ink refill supplies. She had found this to be a savings during the last year and she felt good about doing her part to reuse and recycle in a small way.

Sadly, as she was walking to her car, she slipped and fell on a patch of ice that she did not see and literally landed almost completely on her right side. As a passerby helped her to her feet, she felt a tremendously sharp pain in her arm and her right leg was hurting also. The person who had stopped to help her stayed with her as she tried to determine whether or not she was really hurt. She and the kind lady decided that Marsha should contact her husband who worked nearby and he was there very shortly to drive her to receive medical attention. It was quickly confirmed through x-rays that Marsha had broken her wrist and she was given some medicine for pain and sent home to rest until she could be seen by a surgeon and surgery could be scheduled for her to repair her wrist.

This story illustrates just how quickly a person can fall without any warning whatsoever. Each year people suffer from falls like this one that was due to ice outside and a number of them happen in the home for a variety of reasons. Sometimes these reasons are preventable with just a little forethought and particularly senior citizens should be aware of some ways to protect themselves from falling in the home.

• Throw rugs should be done away with due to the fact that they are a danger that can be responsible for causing a fall particularly if they have no rubberized backing on them. It was stylish several years to have many of these around the house, especially in the bathroom, but they are not worth the risk of causing a fall.

• Shoes that do not fit right or are not meant for the nasty weather upon going outside can also cause a fall. Shoes that have a tread on the bottom can help a person gain an advantage by providing traction when walking on the ice or snow.

• Steps that have no hand railings also set the scene for the probability of a needless accident. It is important especially for older people to have something very sturdy to grip when attempting to maneuver a flight of steps.