Premises & Property
Slip, Trip & Fall / Premises Liability Doctors in Houston
Evaluation and ongoing treatment after a fall on someone else's property, from board-certified physicians across the Houston area.
A fall transfers the body's own weight through whatever part lands first, so the injury pattern follows the landing rather than the surface. Wrists, hips, shoulders, the tailbone and the head are the usual sites. Remix Medical evaluates and treats fall injuries across the Houston area, with imaging when the exam calls for it.
Key takeaways
- How you landed predicts the injury better than what you slipped on.
- Falls onto an outstretched hand injure the wrist and the shoulder behind it, often both.
- Landing on the tailbone loads the lumbar spine and SI joints, and that pain often starts the next day.
- Imaging of an older spine or hip usually shows pre-existing wear; the exam and the timeline are what separate new injury from old.
- Any head strike deserves attention even if you got straight back up.
What happens to the body in slip & fall
Why the injury pattern is what it is, and what that changes about care.
A fall is the one common injury mechanism where nothing is moving except the person. All of the energy comes from body weight and the height of the drop, and it goes into whichever part of the body reaches the ground first.
That makes the landing more predictive than the hazard. Someone who puts a hand out lands on the wrist and loads the shoulder behind it. Someone who goes down sideways lands on the hip. Someone whose feet slide forward on a wet floor lands on the tailbone and drives force straight up the lumbar spine and into the sacroiliac joints. Backward falls are the ones most likely to involve the head, and they are also the ones people are least able to brace for.
Two things complicate fall injuries in a way that does not happen in a collision. The first is that many people who fall are older, and imaging of an older spine or hip almost always shows degenerative change that was there before. Sorting what is new from what was already present is the clinical work, and it depends on examination findings and the timeline rather than on the images alone. The second is that a head strike during a fall is easy to dismiss when someone got up, felt embarrassed, and walked out. Symptoms that develop over the next two days matter more than how the person felt in the first ten minutes.
Injuries we treat after slip & fall
Each links to the condition page written and reviewed by the physicians who treat it.
Treatments we use, in the order care usually moves
Conservative care first. Anything further is indicated by what the response to it shows.
What to do first
The steps that matter most while the picture is still changing.
- Get evaluated, especially if you landed on your hip, your head, or an outstretched hand. Wrist and hip fractures are common in falls and are not always obvious to stand on or move.
- Photograph the place you fell, that day if you can, along with your shoes and what you were carrying. Conditions get cleaned up quickly.
- Report the fall to whoever runs the property and ask for a copy of the incident report. Many businesses complete one whether or not you request it.
- Write down what hurts each day. Pain that arrives on day two is common after a fall and is easy to forget by the time of an appointment.
- Do not test the injury by repeating the movement that hurts. If you are limping or cannot bear weight, that is a reason to be seen now rather than in a week.
When to go to an emergency room instead
Go to an emergency room or call 911 rather than waiting for an outpatient appointment if you have any of the following: you cannot bear weight on a leg, or the hip or thigh is visibly shortened or rotated; worsening headache, repeated vomiting, confusion, slurred speech, or difficulty staying awake after any head strike; new weakness, numbness, or tingling in an arm or leg; loss of bladder or bowel control, or numbness around the groin; severe midline neck or back pain; an obviously deformed wrist, arm, or ankle; chest pain or shortness of breath; or you take a blood thinner and struck your head, which warrants evaluation even if you feel well.
Where you can be seen in the Houston area
Send yourself to whichever is closest — the chart is the same at every one.
Questions after slip & fall
Anything else, ask when you call — you will speak to a person.
I fell at a store and got up embarrassed. Should I still be seen?
My MRI shows arthritis. Does that mean the fall did not injure me?
What should I do in the first day after a slip and fall?
Why does my back hurt after landing on my tailbone?
I hit my head when I fell but did not black out. Does that matter?
This section is general background, not legal advice. Questions about who controlled the premises, or about preserving incident reports and surveillance video, should go to a licensed Texas attorney.