Even though it is possible to order groceries and essentially everything else online, you prefer to visit your favorite brick-and-mortar store. If a store employee does not mop up spilled water or repair damaged flooring, though, you may slip and fall while running errands.
In any slip-and-fall accident, you are vulnerable to a variety of injuries. A torn rotator cuff is a common one.
Your rotator cuff
Your shoulder joints are some of the more important ones in your body. After all, whether at work or play, you use your shoulders thousands of times each day.
Your rotator cuff is a collection of muscles and tendons that surrounds the joints in your shoulders. These soft tissues both facilitate shoulder movement and hold bones in place.
Your rotator cuff tear
A torn rotator cuff may interfere with your ability to use your shoulder normally. If you notice any of the following, you may have a rotator cuff tear:
- A dull or aching pain in your shoulder
- Muscular weakness in your arm
- Loss of muscular control in your arm
Because of your body’s stress response, symptoms may not appear immediately. Therefore, it is imperative to seek a medical evaluation after a slip, trip or fall.
Your slip-and-fall injury risk
There is a seemingly endless number of ways to tear or otherwise injure a rotator cuff. Nevertheless, this type of injury regularly happens in slip-and-fall accidents for a couple reasons.
First, blunt-force trauma, such as the trauma you may experience when landing after a fall, may cause your rotator cuff to tear. Also, hyperextending an arm during a slip, trip or fall may increase your risk of sustaining a rotator cuff injury.
