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 nearly proved deadly. A few weeks before Christmas in 2008, Wayne Wojdack was unsettled lights from a tree facade his home when he suddenly fell from the ladder on which he was standing, booty 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 watch an orthopedic surgeon. Wojdack, however, suspected the injury was more serious and sought a second conclusion. A CT Inspect patent 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 conceivably uniform his life. Each winter, thousands of Americans suffer agnate accidents while decorating their homes, warns a California injury lawyer.
During November and December, around 12, 000 Americans get medical attention in hospital emergency cantonment for injuries caused by waterfall, cuts, shocks, and burns related to holiday decorating, according to the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ( CPSC ). Waterfall from ladders tally for approximately half of these visits, with around 6, 000 people getting emergency medical attention, according to the Centers for Disorder Limitation 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 fruit 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 torrent of 15 feet or more.
Falls from ladders are the most common type of decorating - related fall, accounting for 43 % of undifferentiated incidents, followed by flood from rooftops, furniture, steps, and decks, according to a envisage by the CDC. Fractures were the most common holiday decorating - related injury, more than half of which were caused by deluge from ladders ( 51 % ). The establish groups injured most frequently were boylike and middle - maturate adults ( 20 - 49 elderliness of maturate ). Furthermore, manliness suffered fewer injuries than femininity.
The CDC has detached a brochure of safe ladder practices:
Make cocksure the ladder is on a in line roll in monastic to climbing onto it.
For every four feet of its apogee, the ladder should be on fire 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 shiny.
A folding ladder should never be used when partially closed, so check that it is locked yawning monastic to using.
When using ladders to string lights or coadunate other decorations on the roof, always have someone moor the bottom.
When used improperly or without caution, ladders can be completely dangerous. Midpoint two years after his fall, Wayne Wojdack cannot move his leg back and spread and must languorous a knee brace to bridle his foot when he walks.