Working as a paramedic I often attend people who have fallen and, though they are uninjured, are unable to get themselves up. If they have been lying on the floor for an hour or longer they almost all exhibit the same strange symptom. When helped to stand, they lean backwards and would fall over if not supported. Sitting these people upright for a few minutes before standing solves the problem. What causes this and why do they always lean backwards?
鈥� In general people in such a condition are confused and disoriented. Quite apart from our sense of balance most of our bodily control depends on active muscular and sensory feedback, altogether different from the static stability of, say, a tripod.
鈥淏odily control depends on sensory feedback, different from the static stability of, say, a tripod鈥�
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Many instructive tricks are based on such principles. For example, if you stand in a doorway with your hands by your sides and force your wrists sideways against the door jamb for a minute or so, as hard as you can, then when you step out of the doorway and let your arms drop passively, they disconcertingly raise themselves sideways without your volition.
A person lying on the ground is likely to have been conscious of the pressure against their back, probably while trying to force themselves up against that sensation of pressure, and all that under a condition of considerable emotional stress.
Stand the person erect and the tendency continues, overriding the sensory evidence and causing them to lean backwards and fall. By sitting them upright for a while one gives the person a chance to reorient, and the problem goes away.
Jon Richfield, Somerset West, South Africa