I’m a neurosurgeon — here’s one easy way to prevent injuries on vacation

A Georgia-based neurosurgeon is sharing an important step to take when you check into an Airbnb.

“The one thing that you can do to prevent injury to you or a loved one is to go around the house and identify where all the stairs are, especially if you’re taking an older individual with you,” Dr. Betsy Grunch, a spine specialist, said in a TikTok last week with more than 79,000 views.

“It seems like common sense, and it seems a little silly,” Grunch continued. “But as a neurosurgeon on call, I see so many preventable injuries from people that fall down stairs.”

More than 24.7 million people were treated in US emergency departments for a stair-related injury from 1990 through 2012 — about a million people annually, a 2018 study found.

Research from last year identified children under 3, adults over 85 and young women in their 20s as most susceptible to injury on stairs.

Grunch said older people are liable to fall down the stairs when they try to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar place.

“You’re kind of a little bit disoriented, and you’ve got to go to the bathroom,” Grunch explained. “[You] go through an open doorway or open the doorway thinking it’s the bathroom when it’s actually the stairs.”

Grunch pointed out that falls are the leading cause of preventable death in adults 65 and older.

Older adult falls were responsible for nearly 3 million US emergency room visits and over 38,000 deaths in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Grunch recommends installing baby gates in an Airbnb to prevent falls.

“Please send this to someone you care about,” Grunch said. “If you or your family is going on vacation, identify and know where the stairs are and make sure that the older folks that are with you know where the stairs are if they do happen to get up in the middle of the night and have to go to the bathroom.”

She added: “You definitely don’t want to see someone like me when you’re on vacation.”

TikTok viewers thanked her for the advice.

“Happened to my mom, broken hip, leg and multiple surgeries,” one TikToker shared. “This happened at my brother’s home staying over the weekend.”

“Literally, my dad mistook the bathroom when it was the basement and fell all the way down the stairs,” another divulged.

“Yep my great grandfather tragically passed away falling down a short stairway to the bathroom so devastating,” a third revealed.

“Great advice that’s often overlooked!” someone else exclaimed. “We also take a few plug-in nightlights to any unfamiliar vacay homes!”