The Importance of Seeking Medical Assistance After a Fall
What Should You Do Legally if You Slip and Fall in a Retail Store?
You’re out in public, you’re at a store. Could be a grocery store, could be a Target, it could be any kind of store you can possibly imagine. What’s one of the most embarrassing things that happens to people in places like that, large retail establishments? They slip and they fall.
My name’s Mike Ashworth, I’m the head of the Personal Injury Division for Wirth Law Office, which has offices throughout Oklahoma. I’ve been doing law for almost 40 years, including at one time insurance defense for some of the major retailers in Oklahoma, defending them in slip and fall cases. So I have a pretty good idea of how these things go.
Immediate Steps to Take if You Slip and Fall
What happens is somebody may have spilled a drink, it may have been someone’s kid with a sippy. It may have been the fact they mopped the floor and they didn’t put up the mandatory OSHA signs, the yellow ones that are in Spanish and English, saying be careful. And you slip and fall, and you’re embarrassed like anybody is.
Now I’m on a walker, and I’m a fall risk, so I get it, because at my age and my size, if I fall, I’m not gonna be able to reverse gravity, so people are gonna have to help me. I’m gonna be sitting there for a bit. If you fall, just sit there. Make sure you’re okay, stay calm. If somebody comes by, passersby or whatever, tell them that you fell and you need assistance. It doesn’t have to be a store employee, just tell the first person you see, the second person you see, the third person you see. And then wait.
What to Expect from the Store Staff
When the manager and the helpers, the other employees come, have them assist you. They will, more likely than not, take you into their office, ask you if you’re okay, and they may ask you to file an incident report. Do that. Whatever you do, do that. You may think to yourself, oh, I mean, it was just embarrassing, I’m okay, I don’t really hurt much or anything. How many times have you been in an automobile accident, and you say the same thing?
Oh, I don’t really hurt that much, it’s not a big deal. Let’s just exchange information and work it out. The next day, two days later, three days later, you think you’re mummified. You cannot move, you are in pain. Because of the fact that when things happen like that, we get a little adrenaline rush to get us through it, and we don’t know what really happened till the next day. So if someone says after that, at the store, do you need medical assistance? The answer I tell people all the time is, I don’t know.
The Importance of Seeking Medical Assistance
Because you may not feel hurt yet, but you may be hurt. For example, on a fall case of common injuries to what’s known as the tailbone, also called the cossacks. And if you fall in a certain way on that cossacks, it can fracture and do a lot of damage to you.
So get checked out, and if you hit your head on anything, I don’t care what it is, it could be a paper airplane. Anytime you hit your head in any circumstance, automobile crash, premises liability, store, whatever, you always get checked out. Always, every single time.
Contact Us for a Free Consultation
I had a case recently with a young lady, and she was complaining of some things that caused me concern for possible closed head injury. And I had her immediately go to the doctor again, even though she thought she was finished. She’s now undergoing neurological evaluations for possible surgery. So please get checked out.
Again, my name’s Mike Ashworth. Find me at TulsaPersonalInjuryLawyer.pro. Our phone number’s 918-924-5528. And even if your question’s not about personal injury, it’s about anything to do with the law or the court system, give us a call. It doesn’t cost you anything, and it may save you some time, and may save you some money, or get you money you deserve for something that happened.
