Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I fell down the stairs

macduke

macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,495
20,609
A little over a week ago I fell down hard ceramic tile stairs. I landed really hard on my side, tearing up a lot of soft tissue and pulling a bunch of muscles from my ankle to my thigh to my side and lower back to my elbow. Fortunately didn’t break anything. I then continued to tumble down 5-6 steps and landed on the landing between two floors. Now I know why they call it a landing, lol. Anyway, so I’m lying there in extreme pain screaming (it was after hours on the weekend at my work and nobody came for me) expecting my Apple Watch Series 4 to go off. It never did, even though I have fall detection enabled. Fortunately I was able to get a phone call to my wife after I gathered myself and the adrenaline/dopamine kicked in.

Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. I’ve never landed harder in my life. I fell backwards into the hard ceramic stairs and tumbled down them and no alert to call anyone. I’m recovering still and doing much better back at work this week. I’m more resilient than I thought, lol. Turns out the wet conditions combined with ice melt caused very slippery steps, which have no traction strips or rubber edges. Some other people at work complained about it independently. I am disappointed in this technology. My wife has accidentally set hers off while working out, so maybe mine is broken? It has no damage from the fall.
 
You fell wrong. In before everyone else.

It might be worth putting in a bug thing with Apple so that, if they care enough, they can get the movement info from your watch and add it to the list of "this is a fall" triggers. I wonder if it's possible to trigger it manually - as in just slam the watch into the ground?

As you managed to break your fall, I wonder if the software somehow decided it wasn't severe enough to trigger, on the assumption you were up and about and could simply phone someone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: testcard and SDColorado
adrianlondon said:
You fell wrong. In before everyone else.

It might be worth putting in a bug thing with Apple so that, if they care enough, they can get the movement info from your watch and add it to the list of "this is a fall" triggers. I wonder if it's possible to trigger it manually - as in just slam the watch into the ground?

As you managed to break your fall, I wonder if the software somehow decided it wasn't severe enough to trigger, on the assumption you were up and about and could simply phone someone.
Click to expand...

There’s a reason it’s off by default for everyone under the age of 65. If you live a active life you will trigger it by accident. I’ve read other stories of people falling down stairs and it triggered. Even though they were walking around after.

It senses motion from your wrist. Honestly I think it’s crazy apple actually shipped it. It will certainly help though in some cases, but not reliably at all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cjking2007
After the fall it sounds like you were alert and moving around. Fall detection ONLY calls automatically if you are unconscious and NOT moving. If moving you MUST authorize it to call. Read here for an understanding of the way it works. Also why did you need to get to a phone when you had one on your wrist? All you had to do was just say "Hey Siri call 911" or a"call my wife" and your watch would have called for you?

Apple Support said:
...If your Apple Watch detects that you're moving, it waits for you to respond to the alert and won't automatically call emergency services....
Click to expand...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944
 
  • Like
Reactions: hexagenia, Solomani, MEJHarrison and 3 others
Julien said:
After the fall it sounds like you were alert and moving around. Fall detection ONLY calls automatically if you are unconscious and NOT moving. If moving you MUST authorize it to call. Read here for an understanding of the way it works. Also why did you need to get to a phone when you had one on your wrist? All you had to do was just say "Hey Siri call 911" or a"call my wife" and your watch would have called for you?



https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944
Click to expand...

According to OP he didn’t get the trigger at all. I think we can all agree that he should at least get the prompt on his watch to call emergency services
 
  • Like
Reactions: cjking2007 and macduke
ZEEN0j said:
According to OP he didn’t get the trigger at all. I think we can all agree that he should at least get the prompt on his watch to call emergency services
Click to expand...
if in pain the OP could have missed the Apple notification of fall detection. Regardless since the OP was conscious all they had to do was call themself. You only really need fall detection if you are unconscious. In fact saying "Hey Siri call 911" is easer than looking at the Watch and sliding the call 911 switch anyway.

EDIT: The OP can check to see if the fall was detected in the Health app.

Apple Support said:
...Falls are automatically recorded in the Health app, unless you reply that you didn't fall when your Apple Watch asks. To check your fall history, open the Health app on your iPhone, tap the Health Data tab, then tap Results....
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Julien said:
if in pain the OP could have missed the Apple notification of fall detection. Regardless since the OP was conscious all they had to do was call themself. You only really need fall detection if you are unconscious. In fact saying "Hey Siri call 911" is easer than looking at the Watch and sliding the call 911 switch anyway.

EDIT: The OP can check to see if the fall was detected in the Health app.
Click to expand...

This is how fall detection works when triggered. You’ll get a notification on your watch, if you don’t dismiss it the watch will automatically call 911, assuming you are injured. Anything else adds too many variables and would be even less reliable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macduke
ZEEN0j said:
This is how fall detection works when triggered. You’ll get a notification on your watch, if you don’t dismiss it the watch will automatically call 911, assuming you are injured. Anything else adds too many variables and would be even less reliable.
Click to expand...
Did you read what I posted since that is NOT the way Apple says Fall Detection works? Again here is the way Apple says Fall Detection works from the Apple Support pages.

Apple said:
....If your Apple Watch detects that you're moving, it waits for you to respond to the alert and won't automatically call emergency services....To call emergency services, drag the Emergency SOS slider in the alert....
Click to expand...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944
 
Last edited:
Based on what I read about this watch I’m surprised 6 fire trucks, 3 helicopters and 14 ambulances didn’t show up.

THIS THING IS SAVING LIVES!!!!!

Paging cult of Mac for another promo..., I mean professional article about the watch.

In all seriousness, the watch and it’s direction are fine, the hype and other bs, not so much.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cjking2007
Julien said:
After the fall it sounds like you were alert and moving around. Fall detection ONLY calls automatically if you are unconscious and NOT moving. If moving you MUST authorize it to call. Read here for an understanding of the way it works. Also why did you need to get to a phone when you had one on your wrist? All you had to do was just say "Hey Siri call 911" or a"call my wife" and your watch would have called for you?



https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944
Click to expand...

My wife gets fall alerts while exercising, as I said above. Meanwhile I actually fell, and was lying fairly motionless but yelling out at the bottom of the stairs for a while before getting up to pull myself together. Also in my post I said nothing about needing to get to a phone, but I did use my iPhone. Though what you said makes me think you've never been seriously injured, or maybe it has been a while and you have forgotten. I hadn't been seriously injured before now and probably would've said something similar. The way it works is you just constantly yell in pain for several minutes and it's completely involuntary. I'm not the type to yell from pain and just hold it in like if I smash my finger or whatever, so thinking back on it, I remember being surprised at how loud I was screaming. Even when I eventually got my wife on the phone I could barely make words. All she heard was pain screams for a bit with "fall" and "stairs" mixed in. By default I reached for my pocket and grabbed my iPhone because I've only had a cellular Watch for a few months and I've had an iPhone since June 29, 2007. It's like your brain boots into safe mode and everything is on a basic track for survival.

Julien said:
if in pain the OP could have missed the Apple notification of fall detection. Regardless since the OP was conscious all they had to do was call themself. You only really need fall detection if you are unconscious. In fact saying "Hey Siri call 911" is easer than looking at the Watch and sliding the call 911 switch anyway.

EDIT: The OP can check to see if the fall was detected in the Health app.
Click to expand...

It says no data in the health app under "Number of Times Fallen." Best I can figure is that I fell on my right side and my watch is on my left side, so maybe that is why it didn't register because that hand didn't slam into the ground. I did a twisting motion as I fell as my foot slipped forward out in front of me. Then I rode the stairs down. Anyway, just surprised it didn't pick that up considering how big of an impact it was compared to my typical daily activities, which are usually aerobic and low-impact exercise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cjking2007 and adrianlondon
This is a little concerning, if you have to fall "a certain way" for the thing to trigger the alert. I hope this is a "one off" thing, and perhaps the OP can do this again to make sure the watch is or is not performing properly?
<make a funny mode=off>
 
  • Like
Reactions: cjking2007
oeagleo said:
This is a little concerning, if you have to fall "a certain way" for the thing to trigger the alert. I hope this is a "one off" thing, and perhaps the OP can do this again to make sure the watch is or is not performing properly?
<make a funny mode=off>
Click to expand...
I'm only about 100ft from those stairs right now. "FOR SCIENCE!"

Oh man. It would have to be a significant amount of money to do that again. Also I doubt I would be double lucky and not hit my head this time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cjking2007 and oeagleo
Technology like this is inherently limited, because it doesn't derive information the same way (or with as much data) as the human actually involved in the fall. You know you fell because you felt the sensation of falling, saw the stairs moving under you, and felt pain. By contrast, the Watch identifies only patterns of movements typically associated with four different types of falls, followed by sudden inactivity at the end of the fall. In addition, it must spot those patterns of movements only as they relate to one of the user's wrists -- not necessarily the part of the body most directly impacted by the fall. Thus, even at its best, there will be false positives and false negatives. Worse, from a technology-building perspective, decreasing the false negatives (your situation) means increasing the false positives. That's because the inputs are limited.

The upshot is that there will be falls that this technology -- no matter how advanced -- miss. Those may even be bad falls, where your wrist simply didn't happen to move in one of the triggering ways. What this can do, though, is catch many falls, and it can save lives by doing that. That, then, is success, even if it doesn't always look that way.

Hopefully you won't fall again, but it could save your life if you do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SDColorado, oeagleo and ZEEN0j
I wonder, in the military, we were taught to "fall and roll" to minimize the effect of a fall (or landing). I wonder if the AW will catch this type of fall. If I fall by turning my ankle, or trip, or something, the first thing I try to do is to twist on the way down, minimizing the effect, and it has worked for me on numerous occasions. Anyone have any input, or supposition on this?
 
OP-I'm really sorry about your fall and I'm sorry the watch didn't detect it. Can I ask what kind of workouts your wife does to trigger it? I work out a lot and have been hesitant to upgrade to the Series 4 for this reason.
 
Julien said:
if in pain the OP could have missed the Apple notification of fall detection. Regardless since the OP was conscious all they had to do was call themself. You only really need fall detection if you are unconscious. In fact saying "Hey Siri call 911" is easer than looking at the Watch and sliding the call 911 switch anyway.

EDIT: The OP can check to see if the fall was detected in the Health app.
Click to expand...

Ahh gotcha. Does the Notification just pop up momentarily for a brief second? If the Watch has a Notification Screen like the iPhone does, then OP can check it if the (brief) fall notification did appear at some point.
 
I triggered my Watch twice for some odd reason, didn't even fall. It was more of a I threw myself on the carpet floor to play with my baby nephew and my Watch asked if I needed assistance. It definitely does work, glitchy, but it works.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back