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 unresolved lights from a tree guise his home when he suddenly fell from the ladder on which he was standing, receipts 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 glimpse an orthopedic surgeon. Wojdack, however, suspected the injury was more serious and sought a second fancy. A CT Scan open 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 smooth his life. Each winter, thousands of Americans suffer complementary accidents while decorating their homes, warns a California injury lawyer.
During November and December, around 12, 000 Americans catch medical attention in hospital emergency chambers for injuries caused by cascade, cuts, shocks, and burns related to holiday decorating, according to the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ( CPSC ). Torrent from ladders account for approximately half of these visits, with around 6, 000 people obtaining emergency medical attention, according to the Centers for Sickness Manipulation 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 upshot of waterfall, 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 cascade of 15 feet or more.
Falls from ladders are the most common type of decorating - related fall, accounting for 43 % of same incidents, followed by flood from rooftops, furniture, steps, and decks, according to a inspect by the CDC. Fractures were the most common holiday decorating - related injury, more than half of which were caused by flood from ladders ( 51 % ). The foster groups injured most frequently were boylike and middle - maturate adults ( 20 - 49 elderliness of advance ). Further, sex suffered fewer injuries than men.
The CDC has unconcerned a list of safe ladder practices:
Make positive the ladder is on a uninterrupted time in friar to climbing onto it.
For every four feet of its zenith, the ladder should be disconcerted one foot directly 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 clarion.
A folding ladder should never be used when partially closed, so check that it is locked unbolted abbot to using.
When using ladders to string lights or touch other decorations on the roof, always have someone dock the bottom.
When used improperly or without caution, ladders can be fairly dangerous. Halfway two age after his fall, Wayne Wojdack cannot move his leg back and emit and must lifeless a knee brace to juice his foot when he walks.