What Happens When You Fall Backwards On Ice-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAMbnG0lsT8

I have seen quite a few of those recently and probably a few more to come with the thaw and refreeze cycle of the month of March.

A few important items of what can go wrong-

  • You hit your head: you get a mild concussion sometimes, and you always get a cervical acceleration deceleration sprain. The forces transmitted to your neck when it hits the ice is like getting rear ended at 50 MPH.

  • You don’t hit your head, but you forcefully tuck in your chin into your head to avoid hitting it. In the process, you get a really good cervical flexion sprain. Sometimes just as bad as just hitting your head.

  • Your instinct kicks in fast and you manage to brake your fall partially with your arm. You get a milder neck sprain, but sometimes you completely throw off the alignment from your arm to your shoulder, and I will be treating that along with your neck.

  • You manage to stay upright as you hit the ground and your butt takes the brunt. You could really throw off your low back, but you will have some mysterious neck pain and headaches as well, because there is this thing called “contre-coup”, where the force gets transmitted upwards to the head and neck, the last link in the kinetic chain. I will be adjusting you, as one patient told me, from your a** to your ears.