Do Be Careful!

If we only had the foresight to consider the extent to which our lives would be altered from having had a fall, we would be more careful. The thought came recently because of instances in which several of our friends were injured. Their futures were seriously jeopardized.

Take Ray for instance. He has been in the hospital for several months and I have visited him there. A retired minister, Ray would frequently meet with a few of us from our church for coffee on a Tuesday morning to “shoot the breeze.” For many years, he preached in a small church in Southern Saskatchewan. His mind is clear, but he used a walker when he was downtown. One day he encountered a pebble on the sidewalk and it caused him to fall. His collarbone was broken and would not heal. He lay asleep when I went in a few days ago, and I awoke him after a while and we visited. However, he didn’t display the same happiness nor have much energy. I wonder if he will ever recover. He will not regain normal action in his shoulder because it will be “frozen;” but he will have action from his elbow to his fingers. Ray’s life will be greatly affected and shortened as a result of this accident.

I am fortunate not to have broken my own collarbone in Florida a couple of years ago. My sandal caught on a rough place and I stumbled when I ran across a busy highway. While falling, I realized I’d be projected chin or nose first, into the asphalt, so I rotated myself in the air, to land on my right shoulderblade. I was bruised and bleeding and my side was black and blue for weeks. No bones were broken however, and I was fortunate not to have gotten run over.

I could have suffered a worse injury, and I should not have undertaken to go alone or to run across the road. When my wife returned to find me bleeding at the shopping mall, where she had left me to read, she explained that if I had been taken to the hospital she would not have known where I was.

I also think of Audrey. She was our neighbor, a lovely elderly person who regularly took her little dog for a walk in the community. One day she stopped on the sidewalk to visit some friends. Her dog, having nothing better to do, ran around her, entangling her legs in its rope. She took a step and fell, breaking her leg. In the hospital the wound wouldn’t heal. She could not endure the suffering and consequently died within two weeks. Up until then, she had been enjoying life.

My brother’s friend was high up on the ladder, which was against his house. It slipped sideways. He crashed to his driveway, breaking his wrist. Recovery was long and arduous.

An elderly neighbor lady from our church was staying at a hotel in the States while attending a wedding. A door wouldn’t budge for her so she gave the handle an extra pull causing the door to swing abruptly toward her. She was knocked over and landed on her back, which broke two vertebrae, causing her intense pain. It was an unusual accident, but most are.

A lady recently told me that she hadn’t been to church for a few weeks because she tripped on the sidewalk because of a slightly uneven surface. She cut her face and it required stitches. She reminded me of one of my patients, who years ago, tripped over a parking lot abutment and nose-dived into the pavement. Her glasses were broken. The lenses were safety lenses, hardened to protect her eyes. (That was before plastic lenses were introduced.) The pavement was covered with tiny “stars.” The lenses saved her eyesight. Everyone’s glasses should have safety lenses.

I received a video with the title, “Why men don’t live as long as women.” The pictures were of the dangerous positions into which men will put themselves when painting and cleaning windows. Individuals were seen high up, standing on windowsills, without safety belts or scaffolding, either painting or washing windows. They were experienced, but one slip and they’d be flying, no falling to their death. The scenery from up there would be breathtaking but it is only imaginative that they could sprout wings on the way down. One fellow was painting while standing on some boards placed across a corner, supported by the windowsill on either wall. A slight wobble in a board could upset his balance and over he’d go. A painter painting a stairwell while using a stepladder ignored his precarious position, with the legs of his ladder braced against the banister’s lower railing.

Ingenious methods of raising their cars to enable work to be done underneath, were examples of how those contrivances could give way and crush them to death. We had a friend named Matt, who raised his car up high enough so he could crawl under it to make a repair. The jack failed and he was compressed between the car and the ground until his car was raised sufficiently for his son to extricate him. Meanwhile, it had taken effort for him to breathe because his chest was compressed by the transmission.

Hanging Christmas lights on the gable of a house is always challenging. I hung them on the high gable when we lived in Winnipeg. In BC our house is just one story, but nevertheless, over-reaching from a stepladder is as dangerous as trying to over-reach from an extension ladder. I’m not very tall, so last Christmas, I hired a tall fellow to help, and will do the same again.

One of the best buys we ever made was a small stepladder, one with two steps and a bar right where it should be, and this week we were using it while painting the laundry room. It was handy too, when having to step over the washer and drier. In such compact quarters, being careful was a necessity. Accidents happen, but they’ll be less likely when we’re careful, and we will not be jeopardizing ourselves from having a happy future. One of the safest precautions is not to be looking around when walking, but to keep our minds on where we’re going. We will be less likely to trip and fall. Do be careful.