California Injury Lawyer Offers Safety Suggestions For Stringing Christmas Lights

California Injury Lawyer Offers Safety Suggestions For Stringing Christmas Lights

For one Sierra Madre man, decorating for the holidays halfway proved deadly. A few weeks before Christmas in 2008, Wayne Wojdack was uncertain lights from a tree appearance his home when he suddenly fell from the ladder on which he was standing, catch his leg in one of the rungs on his way down. The doctor at the emergency room told him he had dislocated his knee and recommended he gawk an orthopedic surgeon. Wojdack, however, suspected the injury was more serious and sought a second judgment. A CT Examine naked a tear in the leg ' s artery. He was moved to Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, where he underwent emergency surgery. His insistence on further testing prevented gangrene from developing, which could have claimed his leg—and maybe uniform his life. Each winter, thousands of Americans suffer companion accidents while decorating their homes, warns a California injury lawyer.
During November and December, around 12, 000 Americans get from medical attention in hospital emergency lodgings for injuries caused by waterfall, cuts, shocks, and burns related to holiday decorating, according to the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ( CPSC ). Cascade from ladders balance for approximately half of these visits, with around 6, 000 people acceptance emergency medical attention, according to the Centers for Indisposition Control and Prevention ( CDC ).
At Huntington Hospital, where Wojdack was rushed for the torn artery in his leg, 62 % of all emergency room injuries treated throughout the holiday season are the corollary of shower, according to the hospital ' s injury prevention coordinator with trauma services. In December 2009, 85 patients were treated in the hospital ' s emergency room for injuries from waterfall of 15 feet or more.
Falls from ladders are the most common type of decorating - related fall, accounting for 43 % of consistent incidents, followed by shower from rooftops, furniture, steps, and decks, according to a ponder by the CDC. Fractures were the most common holiday decorating - related injury, more than half of which were caused by falls from ladders ( 51 % ). The ripen groups injured most frequently were girlish and middle - ripe adults ( 20 - 49 agedness of maturate ). Besides, sexuality suffered fewer injuries than sex.
The CDC has effortless a inventory of safe ladder practices:
Make hard the ladder is on a unfluctuating come monk to climbing onto it.
For every four feet of its meridian, the ladder should be nervous one foot now from the wall.
If you cannot reach something, move the ladder.
Do not stand on the ladder ' s top two rungs.
Keep the area around the top and bottom of the ladder rainless.
A folding ladder should never be used when partially closed, so check that it is locked unfastened monastic to using.
When using ladders to string lights or mate other decorations on the roof, always have someone land the bottom.
When used improperly or without caution, ladders can be completely dangerous. Partly two second childhood after his fall, Wayne Wojdack cannot move his leg back and spread and must trifling a knee brace to predomination his foot when he walks.