Whether you shop daily or once per week, your neighborhood grocery store keeps you and your family fed. To keep produce fresh and appealing to customers, your grocer probably uses an automatic misting system. Overspray from water jets and drips from vegetables may cause the produce section to become a slip-and-fall hazard.
While it is possible to suffer a skull fracture or virtually any other type of injury in a slip, trip or fall, your back is particularly vulnerable. Here are four back injuries you may suffer in a slip and fall at the grocery store.
1. A bruised tailbone
If you land on your backside, you may bruise your tailbone. While a tailbone injury is not usually serious, it may be extraordinarily painful. Recovering from a bruised tailbone may also take weeks or even months.
2. Muscle sprains, strains and tears
You have 40 muscles in your back that facilitate movement and provide support to the rest of your body. Unfortunately, a slip and fall may cause you to strain, sprain or tear any of these muscles. While a minor sprain may heal on its own, a serious muscular tear is likely to require surgery.
3. Vertebrae fractures
The vertebrae in your back protect your spinal cord from damage. If a fall in the grocery store breaks one of these bones, you may be at risk of either temporary or permanent paralysis.
4. Herniated discs
The cartilage discs that cushion your spine are susceptible to compression injuries during a slip-and-fall accident. Herniation, where discs bulge or shift, may cause pain to surge through your legs or arms.
Because you may not realize you have a herniated disc or any other back injury immediately, you should always seek a medical evaluation after any slip-and-fall accident.
