<p>The child of a family friend fell out of a bunk bed at a big name East Coast University. He was not drunk, but his roomate thought he was, and left him on the floor for the night when he found him lying there. He had hit his head on the desk in his fall and was bleeding into his brain. He almost died, missed an entire year of school, and after intensive therapy still has some significant related health issues. I know this is a “freak” accident, but the consequences were horrific. At least make sure there are no desks or other furniture with sharp corners next to the bed.</p>
<p>I heard last week that a girl at Liberty had fallen out of a loft bed and died as a result of her injuries. I have not seen any news about it but the mom that told me has a D there.</p>
<p>Just figured I’d follow up on this. Our son came home last week safe and sound after his year in the top bunk, sans guardrails. Zero falls, but he seemed pretty glad to see the back of it.</p>
<p>My DS is in a top bunkbed this summer at local Flagship tech school. He has survived the first week in the upper bunk, but his laptop did not :(</p>
<p>If you don’t fall out of a regular bed, you probably won’t fall out of a bunk bed. There is really no difference between a standard twin and a lofted twin space-wise on the bed itself, so it’s really only an issue if you normally toss around, have limbs hanging over the bed, etc. </p>
<p>The only time I’ve ever seen people become injured is when they start leaning and reaching for objects near the bed. The only injury we had at my former school was when a girl tried to grab something on top of her desk (near the bunk bed), lost her balance, and hit her head on the desktop on the way down (she just had a concussion and is fine).</p>
<p>Also, as a UNC student, what actually happened with the UNC story mentioned earlier was that the mother was on various medications (sleep aids or depression meds and the like, I can’t remember what they were exactly) so her balance/coordination was somewhat diminished. What happened was that she actually tripped on her daughter’s walker and hit her head on the dresser. The bunk bed railing (or lackthereof) had nothing to do with her death.</p>
<p>Falling out of a bunk bed has the same chances as falling out of a regular bed. For someone who has never fallen out of bed, that isn’t the problem. The problem with bunk beds is climbing up and down them, or leaning out of them. </p>
<p>I don’t like them. We have them at our house with all the kids we have and no one likes the top bunk. My kids preferred to unbunk them and lose the extra space, and we have tall ceilings. In my day, I do remember the top bunk was preferred but no more.</p>
<p>OP: glad he survived. </p>
<p>My D2 currently has bunk beds in her home bedroom. It used to be a single on the top and double on the bottom. When that frame wore out and needed replacing after 17 years of sleepovers and fun (it got a little wobbly), she chose a single on the top and futon on the bottom.</p>
<p>When we moved her into her own apartment last week after finishing up a very successful freshman year in the dorms, i visited her roommate’s bedroom, and there was a NEARLY IDENTICAL frame: single on the top, futon on the bottom!!!
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