Will add to your ouch stories my own.
Five years back I was set to prep some management in several acre mixed stand, first real forestry care from since WW2. Snags, too dense parts, wildly overgrown trees (given the stand), thick underbrush decimating otherways healty, emerging undergrowth. Underbrush had to be removed before any falling took place, because there is no point having to pull anything and everything from 15ft high, where the elderberries were finaly less than 1ft thick... Helluva mess in some places, a 120x70 ft plot yielded 5 tons of chips in removed underbrush-and still was some left.
Well, I was supposed to walk around there with spray and be on comand of a crew with brushcutters, when a pretty mean hailstorm roared over there. Almost no leaves on the trees, lots of damage, no matter if to mature stand, ondergrowth or to underbrush. At places, knee high layer of leaves and anything up to about an inch. So since leaving the undergrowth in the best possible shape was an imperative there, it was me personaly who was running around with saw blade on a brushcuter, identifying by bark and remaining buds what to leave and what to cut. I was pretty aware about widowmakers, but sometimes a half broken limb still holds its shape. And in one of the thicker parts, I just managed to lean into the brush as far as I could by all the force I had, to avoid a dead center hit. By luck, the crak was loud enought and my ears are good enought to catch it through earmuffs and over the brushcutter noise. The helmet was OK, earmuffs also, but I must had my head all in right armpit upon impact. I managed to continue for about 4 hours, but then called it a day and went home since I needed to drink, lay down legs up and rest for five minutes three times a hour.
Aftermath? Dislocated neck, top 8 vertebrates dislocated some 1/4" every direction, turned left and right by up to 20° (spinous salients were all over the place in the back of my neck and upper chest), pinched nerves for whole right hand and right side of chest-swollen as much as it was visible on CT screen set to show "bones only". There were places on my hand where I could cut to bone and feel exactly nothing. 10 days in hospital where I lost all mimics for several days, 4 months with collar 24/7, another 3/4 year until somehow complete recovery. Still my right hand has way much worse blood supply and having some troubles with it at times.
But 7 months after, still with the collar, I was falling my firewood and learning my right hand the skill all over again-I couldn´t join the facecuts at first.
SliverPicker-that is a nasty one. Killed in the woods by failed Windows...