How to get up from the floor after a fall – MacGyver Style!
Help! I can’t get Up.
What if you find yourself on the floor — unable to get up?
This is a scary and dangerous predicament to find yourself in, especially if you live alone. Each passing hour spent on the floor, more and more problems begin to accrue caused by an inability to access water, food, and the toilet. The sooner you can find a way to get yourself up or get help — the better!
What to Do Next?!
The video featured above titled “How to get up from the floor – MacGyver style!” demonstrates 10 different fall recovery techniques in under 10 minutes.
It starts with instructions for how to perform the standard fall recovery technique, which is the option most people try first. This technique entails getting yourself up onto your hands and knees and crawling over to a stable surface that is then used for support to push yourself upright. If you are not able to perform the standard fall recovery technique, then it is going to be necessary for you to turn on your MacGyver-style thinking.
What is MacGyver-style thinking? MacGyver was a character in a 1980’s action adventure TV series. He was notorious for being able to use common everyday items in clever ways to get himself out of seemingly unsolvable situations. 
In the video you’ll also see creative ways common household items can be turned into useful tools to assist you in getting up from the floor.
Oh No! I Wouldn’t Be Able To Do Anything Shown in the Video!
After watching the MacGyver Fall Recovery video, hopefully you will come away with a new mindset and great ideas for ways you can put your household items to use as self-rescue aids, but it is also possible you may have had the thought: “I wouldn’t be able to do any of those techniques!”
Each person’s reason for being unable to get up from the floor will be different. If you feel certain that given your own physical circumstances, you wouldn’t be able to perform the standard fall recovery technique or to use any of your household items as self-rescue aids, then investing in a medical alert system would be a good consideration. We all experience unexpected falls periodically, no matter how safe we try to be. When you do, if you cannot get yourself up, it would be useful to have a way to alert others you need help.
Tactics to keep yourself healthy while awaiting someone to come help, can be found in our article: “I’ve Fallen!” Tips for Rescuing Yourself After a Fall.
Turn Your MacGyver-Style Thinking On!
We hope the ideas shown in the video will inspire you to see the world around you with a new set of eyes and that you’ll be able to identify your own clever, MacGyver-style way to get yourself up if you ever do find yourself stuck on the floor, looking up at the ceiling, scratching your head and wondering — Uh Oh! Now what?!
The knowledge that household items have the potential to be turned into self-rescue aids should ideally be tucked away into your brain beside your knowledge of what to do if there is a fire, earthquake, or tornado. We all hope we NEVER have a reason to need any of this knowledge! But, it is useful to be prepared with a plan for what to do — just in case.
Safety Enhancing Products on Amazon.com
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How big is the Falls Epidemic / Issue?
One out of three older adults (those aged 65 or older) falls each year but less than half talk to their healthcare providers about it.
Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries.
In 2012, 2.4 million nonfatal falls among older adults were treated in emergency departments and more than 722,000 of these patients were hospitalized.
In 2012, the direct medical costs of falls, adjusted for inflation, were $30 billion.
Regards
Rhonda-Thanks for the very helpful video on how to get up from a fall. Watching you go through each movement showed the 2 steps that I skipped when I tried several times to get up from the floor. I will remember them next time I fall and hopefully I’ll be able to get up by myself.