Landscaper badly injured while hanging decorations has safety message for community

Thousands end up in the ER after falling from ladders, roofs every year

SAN ANTONIO

Brilliant lights beaming from house to house signal San Antonio is ready for the holidays. However, landscaper and decorator Sue Norton is getting ready for Christmas this year in very a different way. 

Suture removals, bandages, and X-rays are the painful result of a mistake she made while decorating last month.

"I was going up the ladder, and I got about six steps up and it went 'Boom. Boom. Boom.' You know that sound when it comes down. And I knew at that point I was in trouble. And I wasn't even that high, seven steps, seven feet. But when I hit, I hit really hard on the concrete and I hit my elbow," Norton said.

Norton ended up with an open fracture and a large tendon tear.

"Those are holes in the bone that we drilled and the sutures we put in the tendon we weaved through the bone," said Norton's orthopedist, Dr. Christian Balldin, as he pointed to her X-rays.

As a landscaper, Norton uses a ladder safely all the time, but just this once she didn't pay enough attention.

"I always look. Always. Always. And I didn't. And I remember not looking after I fell," she said.

The main ladder safety rules include always keeping a three-point contact on the ladder when climbing — either two hands and a foot or two feet and a hand. Also, people should always have someone there as a spotter just in case.

"You have to have a spotter and you have to focus. If you don't focus, it just takes a second," Norton said.

"It can be quite devastating injuries," Balldin said.

Balldin said every holiday season, the number of patients coming in for falls off roofs and ladders spikes. He said after a lot of rehab, Norton will make a full recovery.

"You got lucky," Balldin told her. "It could have been a lot worse."

Balldin said many patients with these types of falls end up with permanent damage.

"Sometimes you have significant injuries that involve the lower extremities, the spine, etc. That can take much much longer to recover from, and you may never be the same," he said.

Both Balldin and Norton encourage the community to be extra careful when hanging lights and decorations this year, ensuring a holiday season full of joy instead of pain.

 


About the Author:

Courtney Friedman anchors KSAT’s weekend evening shows and reports during the week. Her ongoing Loving in Fear series confronts Bexar County’s domestic violence epidemic. She joined KSAT in 2014 and is proud to call the SA and South Texas community home. She came to San Antonio from KYTX CBS 19 in Tyler, where she also anchored & reported.