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Feeling freaked out... just saw the outcome of a 6-8 foot fall

Maustypsu

Maustypsu

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Messages
1,139
Dang, guys. Be safe. Let your feet hit first and softly.

Guy just fell off a ladder at work. It was only an 8 foot ladder and we are 90% sure he was standing on a "safe" step (not the top two). Dude is in bad shape.


He couldn't even name his favorite football team a full 5 minutes later. It was humbling to see how disoriented he was. I can't imagine being in the dark woods like that. And if we fall from hunting height... ugh.

Obviously we all knew that and we talk about "at your own risk". But I just had a very real reminder of what that risk is.

I took care of him until the medics arrived. I keep a first aid kit and gloves in my office. So I sent for it while trying to keep him talking. He had a nail gun on the ladder and I saw a bloody, dark circle in his arm. Since he didn't remember being on the ladder or that he was even at work - I thought it was possible he had accidentally put a nail into his arm and then freaked and fell.

So I kept him taking while I cleaned him up and grabbed a clean wrap so I could quickly cover that wound so he wouldn't know it until he could feel it. Turns out it was just dried blood and not an actually hole in his arm.

20 minutes after the fall, he still had very little idea what was going on. The whole time he just wanted to "get going". It seemed like his body's flight reaction was driving him. He wanted to get away but didn't know why or where he would go. I picture far in the woods in the dark. Even if you know where you are when you start, if you wonder off any known trail you could be falling asleep with a concussion without anyone knowing where to look - even if they know your stand site, depending on how far you wondered.
 
Buddy was hunting with his friend. Friend texted him, he shot a buck. little while later the guy who shot the buck is at the house and his wife is texting my friend to come up to the house. Dude didn't even remember shooting the buck or hunting for that matter. He was out of it like your co-worker. My friend went out to his stand and he could tell by the gun jammed in the dirt and marks on the ground that his friend fell out of the stand. He found the buck and drug it up to the house. That guy is lucky to be alive. Im not sure how high up he was, but high enough.
 
justsomedude said:
I know I sound like an old lady....but when I set my tether, I unclip my linesman's belt from one side and wrap it around the tree and clip it to itself as an extra backup.
Click to expand...
That's smart! Why didn't I think of that???
Every thing in rope rescue has multiple backups and redundancy. I should be doing this too. It should have been automatic. Your already hauling the weight of the linemans belt, why not use it for a redundant system? Brilliant.

Thanks for that! Great safeguard.

I'm off to make a rope L belt........
 
2 years ago I fell 15ft out of a stand and landed on my back and my head landed between 2 large boulders that were separated by a foot of ground. I was lucky to say the least but I laid there on the ground for about 1hr- 1 1/2hrs. That moment changed my life now i take very little risk if it can be avoided.
 
One of the worst falls I ever observed was a 4 foot fall. Awkward positioning and no time to adjust feet. Rolled his ankle and fibula busted through his skin several inches
 
Ex Umbra said:
That's smart! Why didn't I think of that???
Every thing in rope rescue has multiple backups and redundancy. I should be doing this too. It should have been automatic. Your already hauling the weight of the linemans belt, why not use it for a redundant system? Brilliant.

Thanks for that! Great safeguard.

I'm off to make a rope L belt........
Click to expand...
Nice to hear it. I preach redundancy on this forum all the time.
 
I am an er nurse, just recently took care of an 8 foot fall. Multiple fractured ribs, pneumothorax (air in chest cavity outside of lung) both sides, fractured clavicle. Not a huge fall, think of what happens at 20-30ft!

I question safety every so often here and this is why!

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
BassBoysLLP said:
One of the worst falls I ever observed was a 4 foot fall. Awkward positioning and no time to adjust feet. Rolled his ankle and fibula busted through his skin several inches
Click to expand...

Amazing. four feet = compound fracture.
 
justsomedude said:
I know I sound like an old lady....but when I set my tether, I unclip my linesman's belt from one side and wrap it around the tree and clip it to itself as an extra backup.
Click to expand...


Good idea.... i was thinking about how i could add a back up in case my bridge ever fails...
 
justsomedude said:
I know I sound like an old lady....but when I set my tether, I unclip my linesman's belt from one side and wrap it around the tree and clip it to itself as an extra backup.
Click to expand...

Trying to picture this. Are you talking about having one carabiner attached to your belt and the rope/webbing of the linemans... and the other end holding you to the three. so if you fall, you would hang from your side?

Or are you just wrapping the rope around the tree and then clipping back into the same loop/ring you took it from? Sorry, I'm very visual.
 
Good idea, Ill be using my lineman as a back up to my tether.
 
I fell 6 ft from a ladder while hanging a dear.
Reached a little too high, knife in one hand, lost balance and down I went. Luckily I fell back against a tree which slowed my fall.
I impacted the ground upside down between my neck and shoulder.
It knocked me right back to summer camp 1984. I spent several minutes going back and forth between the past and the present.
The guys from hunt camp wouldn't let me move for fear of spinal injury.
Eventually my head cleared and I could move and feel all extremities.
Based on how far help was and the lack of a proper back board and lying on the frozen ground, I convinced them to let me try to slowly move.
I headed in and had an X-ray taken. No damage. I got lucky.
I don't like ladders now. I don't feel safe without a safety belt or line.


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Here's a fall for you:

A guy I knew from college got punched in the face and fell backwards onto concrete. 24 hours later he was dead from brain bleeding. And that was a 0 foot fall.
 
Dang, Luke. Maybe a mix of both the punch and fall. But still crazy.

I heard today that he fractured a vertebrate but no concussion.
I'm worried because I know of a few instances where people were released with no concussion but later had serious brain bleeds - one died within a few days of being cleared. The person who found that lady who later died was the second person to find this guy and said it seemed the same to her. Again, hoping the doctors are right and we are wrong. But I still can't stop thinking about that happening when I'm deep in the PA woods...

I'm not a doctor but I would be my non-doctor salary that he had a concussion.
 
You just never know. My grandpa fell off a ladder over 20 feet onto concrete in his potatoe warehouse on his head. Walked over to the house, walked to his house, went to the hospital to get stitched up and for tests and had no other issues.
 
Yah had a friend of mine fall 20' this year broke both ankles
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I fell of of a ladder in 91 while taking Christmas decorations down on the outside of my house. The ladder kicked away from the end of the house and I saw the ladder was just standing in mid air. I knew I was going down so I kicked the ladder to try and land on just my feet but ended up landing on my butt and lower back and apparently put my arm out to my side to break the fall. I jumped up and I am like OK I am alright. But I decided to go check on my son who was four at the time. He was playing on the upper driveway and I had the ladder set up on the lower driveway right next to the upper one. As I was walking around I felt my wrist and thought I broke the band on my wristwatch so I pulled the sleeve of my coat up and that's when I saw my hand about three inches higher than my wrist. I ended up breaking my wrist in four places. I was very lucky I was at home and not out in the woods.
 
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