The elderly loved ones in your life have lived through events you can’t even imagine. Unfortunately, age comes for the best of us. This can mean that a loved one you once knew as the most athletic or mentally sound person in your life may find themselves in need of additional assistance over the coming years.
Specifically, it gets more likely that even the most coordinated of people will suffer slip-and-fall accidents as they age. A slip-and-fall accident and its related injuries can prove debilitating to an elderly individual. Let’s break down the dangers of elderly slip-and-fall accidents and discuss how you can help a victim get back on their feet again.
Why Does Our Coordination Worsen as We Age?
Youth, they say, is wasted on the young. Whether or not that’s the case is up for debate, but there’s no argument that managing everyday life gets harder as you age. No matter how healthy you are, age can take a toll on your eyesight, nerves, and bone density. Your muscles may even lose some of their function over time, regardless of how much you exercise.
Because it’s so much harder to stay in top physical shape as you age, it becomes more likely that you may fall victim to a slip-and-fall accident. Unfortunately, these accidents can have an increasingly detrimental effect on your health as you age.
Young bodies tend to bounce back from accidents faster than older ones, thanks to their immune systems. Your immune system and recovery efforts slow as you age, meaning that a slip-and-fall accident may put you out of commission for months instead of days or weeks.
What Causes Slip-And-Fall Accidents?
Most slip-and-fall accidents stem from someone else’s negligence. For example, say you’re walking down the street and find yourself dealing with an uneven sidewalk. It’s the city’s responsibility to maintain that sidewalk. If you slip and fall because the sidewalk is dangerously damaged, the city may bear the blame for your losses due to its negligence.
Likewise, landowners have an obligation to keep their land as safe as possible for guests and licensees. Elderly visitors deserve particular care and can sue if a landowner’s negligence causes them to fall.
Fortunately, you can hold landowners, private individuals, and even the government legally accountable for the negligence that led to your recent slip-and-fall accident. You have the right to bring a personal injury claim to civil court, in which you can demand damages based on your losses. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you file your claim before time runs out.
Why Are Slip-And-Fall Accidents More Severe for Elderly Loved Ones?
As mentioned, your immune system tends to get weaker as you get older. This means that an accident that may only have bruised you when you were young can fracture or break your bones as you age. You may then have to take months to recover from your injuries before you can get back to your everyday life.
The cost of an elderly slip-and-fall accident extends beyond the finances of recovering. Slip-and-fall accident victims lose time and deserve to be compensated for the time they can’t spend at work, with family, or doing the activities that they enjoy.
If you’re in the process of recovering from a recent slip-and-fall accident, you can connect with an attorney who can help you appropriately value your losses. We can then move a personal injury claim forward in civil court on your behalf so you can recover the support you need to get back on your feet.
How Can You Help an Elderly Loved One Recover From a Slip-And-Fall Accident?
You can’t always prevent a dangerous slip-and-fall accident. There are steps elderly parties can take, though, to maintain their situational awareness as well as their physical health. If you want to help a loved one get ahead of the risk of a slip-and-fall accident, you can encourage them to:
- Participate in physical therapy
- Create a workable and reasonable exercise routine
- Stay on top of vitamin consumption
Moreover, you can remind someone you love that they have legal options available to them after a slip-and-fall accident. The Law Office of Cohen & Jaffe, LLP can work with your family to make sure your loved one receives the slip-and-fall compensation they deserve.
Taking Legal Action After a Slip-And-Fall Accident
The older people in your life are unfortunately more likely to suffer a life-changing slip-and-fall accident than people of younger generations. While you can take preventative steps to ensure that your loved ones remain as safe as possible, there are some situations you can’t plan for.
Should you see an elderly loved one fall, you can help them brainstorm their legal recovery while facilitating their medical care. The slip-and-fall accident attorneys with our Law Firm can help you break down a loved one’s right to a civil case. We can go on to represent your loved one in conversations about the settlements they need to recover.
Call (516) 358-6900 or reach out to our team online for more information.
