I just fell 10 feet on to concrete today. Can't believe this killed Sammy Wanjiru.

You are very fortunate. For those of us who have practiced emergency medicine, death from a 10 foot fall onto concrete is not unusual at all.

Get back to us when you win olympic gold.

…or fall on your head.

But did you fall on the crown of your head? What about your C1 vertebrae? It depends where you impact the ground.

I knew a kid who jumped up to catch a football, fell backwards, and landed on the pavement so "wrong" that was paralyzed*. He literally fell from the height he could jump and it almost killed him.

* He got better.

Why would you post this?

We will see how you feel tomorrow. I am concerned that you fell in the first place.

Because there was doubt surrounding the death at the time (expressed by his mother, among others). And after I experienced this today, it seemed even more suspicious than it did at the time.

Do I believe it's possible to die from a 10-foot fall? Of course. But it can't be common. I'm guessing fewer than 1 in a hundred falls from this height are deadly. Emergency room doctors, please correct me if I'm way off base. But I can think of very few stories of people dying from a fall like this, and none were world class athletes in their primes.

assuming young or middle aged... you would need to hit your head to die. anywhere else, you might sprain or break something at worst. you can die from a single punch if you are hit the right (wrong) way.

My mom told me a family friend died from a head injury caused by a fall in bathtub a few months ago, so there's that. Bike helmets are tested and designed to protect the head from 1.5m (4.9ft) falls.

At 10 feet, it depends on how you land. Sounds like you had a bit of luck that backwards fall that you didn't hit your head. There are parkour people that jump more than 10 feet intentionally (watch Storror on Youtube), but they are in control of the jumps rather than randomly falling.

That's why I wear a motorcycle helmet in the shower....and it's kind of kinky.

There's a ton of videos on Twitter and Reddit where people take a punch, fall down, hit their head on concrete, and die. Alternatively it's possible to fall from a plane with no parachute and live. Don't take life for granted.

The OP emailed and asked why this thread was deleted. I don't know. I think one of our volunteer moderators thought it was insensitive. The OP is serious and pointed out that it's still a question in Kenya as to what killed him:

pd.co.ke

Lead investigator tells court cause of Samuel Wanjiru’s death remains unknown 11 years later

Nancy Gitonga

Lead investigator tells court cause of Samuel Wanjiru's death remains unknown 11 years later %

Open link

The big drawback with statistical thinking is that if 1 out of 100 was the true statistic, so what? Somebody has to be the 1 who is different from 99 others, why couldn’t it be Wanjiru? Bad luck on his part is an acceptable analysis of the question without more to go on suggesting foul play. There could be evidence that he was murdered but “most people survive a thing that a few people don’t survive, and this guy was one of the few instead of the most” isn’t really evidence.