Two broken ribs, a punctured lung ... Car crash? Nope | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Patricia Leslie knows just how dangerous the home can be and is urging people to seek help to carry out household tasks after spending three months recuperating from a fall from a ladder.

ACC says Northland's homes are the most dangerous in the country, with 41 people dying from accidents in homes across the region last year and 31,412 injured.

Patricia's ordeal started one Saturday morning in March when she was removing some rotten barge boards from her garage.

While up the ladder, she came across a section which was not as rotten as expected and as she leaned back to yank the board free, it came loose and she flew backwards off the ladder, landing on concrete and a pile of timber.

The fall broke two ribs, punctured a lung and damaged her wrist - all on the right side of her body - and left her eye badly injured. She then spent three months recuperating and had to rely on others to help. Her recovery was hampered by getting an anaphylactic shock from the drugs she was given.

It was a painful three months this fiercely independent caregiver will never get back and she blames her own silliness for her predicament.

"I was levering the board off with a hammer and it just came away and I just fell on the ground. My first thoughts were, 'Oh you've done it now'. I'm still not sure if I blacked out or not," she said.

"The phone, which I'd brought out with me, was on the ground. I couldn't get my breath, but managed to call a friend."

She has only recently returned to work at Seaview Rest Home and said the worst thing about the whole ordeal was losing her independence and having to rely on others.

"Being very independent, it was hard not being able to do the things I normally did. It throws your whole life into turmoil," Ms Leslie said.

"In hindsight, there are some jobs that need two people - two heads are better than one, even if one of them is a cabbage head and the other is a pig-headed woman."

More than 5000 people injure themselves falling off ladders each year in New Zealand.