I thought I would give a strong and solid advice to retired and senior citizens. But, first my story, from which the advice will follow, otherwise it will not have the impact.
On 20 March in the afternoon, I started repairing my water filter, which was fitted on the wall on the side of wash basin. I took plastic stool, and put right foot on it, and my left foot on the counter. I did repair the filter, in three iterations, meaning I climbed up and down three times on the stool. In the last moment, I found that water was leaking slightly, so I climbed fourth time, and tried to stop the leakage, but couldn't, then thought to quit the work, because by this time I had spent nearly 45 minutes, and was feeling tired. So, this final time, I was just putting back my left foot on the stool, it just slipped off from under my feet, due to an imbalance of the load on the stool, also the plastic stool was flimsy. I fell down on the floor on my right side, and my calf-muscle bone and right elbo were broken.
Next, day I was operated for five hours in Manipal, and a few titanium plates, and small structures/screws were put.
During last four months, I have gone through lot of mental agony, and difficult situation. My son, my wife, and two home care boys took immense care of me. There are other aspects which I am avoiding for brevity.
My solid and strict advice to elderly people:
1. Don't do any work at a height.
2. Don't use flimsy, and plastic stools to stand on them, use strong stool or a bathala ladder.
3. If you are BP/DB or virtigo patient, don't take any such job.
4. For such works you can call service providers, they are available for all kinds of repair works.
5. In case you are doing some other repair work, see that somebody is always there to help you, and supervise you.
Analysis: I had known that the stool was flimsy, still I used it. The stool being very light, a small imbalance of weight on it caused it to bend and slip away from under my feet.
Psychologically, I was not fully prepared, and I also had got tired soon in half an hour, but continued to complete the work (in 45 minutes).
Being an engineer and scientist, I should have been doubly careful in choosing the support system, which I did not. My son, while going out in that afternoon had told me not to do that repairing. But, I had ignored his suggestion.
Ultimately, I became the victim of the mishap, that got created by my own wrong decisions.
The mishap could have been avoided by proper planning, and choosing right tools, gadgets, and keeping good mental balance.
Safety is First and Last Always.
The elderly persons should be extremely careful to do any kind of mechanical works.
