how many times have you been hurt?

In leu of all the injuries that have been reported on here lately, I was just wondering how many times people on this site have been injured during the course of their climbing careers. Let's call an injury anything that requires medical attention. So basically, cuts that are fixed with a bandaid or two are not counted, being sore after a long day isn't counted, and neither is poison ivy, or minor scratches.

Anyone want to fess up to the more than 10 times and lucky to be alive vote? Just curious.

-Mike-

Last Wednesday I was sharpening the teeth on my stump grinder, the tooth caught the wheel and twisted, pulling my thumb into the bench grinder. 6 hours and one plastic surgeon later and I'm as good as new.......sort of.

I know how you feel, I was grinding lawn mower blades last fall and the wheel caught a little too much of the blade, bringing my thumb in contact with the wheel. I bled pretty nicely. I was lucky though, it just ground away some of the nail, and ripped open some skin, in a few weeks I was good as new.

Based on your criteria I checked in on "once or twice". I sprained my right elbow very seriously (still have some permanent loss of range of motion) when I caught my heel stepping off of a retaining wall with an armload of brush. I also partially dislocated my right shoulder trying to free a hanger while removing an oak several years ago. Yes I should have repositioned BUT the injury ws directly traceable to a previous non work-related injury that I only thought I had recovered from.

No chainsaw scars...... I am now typing onehanded vwhilepounding myself in the head sinceit is the most readily availabe wood to knock on.

These days I hurt when I get up in the morning.

chainsaw bite

Last year while sharpening a chainsaw (no gloves) slipped and ripped the heal of my right palm. Of course it was before I made the first climb of the day. A tube of crazy glue, paper towel and duct tape with a kevlar glove over it kept it together for the day.
A visit to the doctor was a waste, she said there was nothing more she could do that I hadn't already done. That .325 chain takes out a nice 3/16 wide channel of flesh, and thats on a saw thats not running!! First aid kit was helpful in stopping the bleeding and cleaning the wound. Crazy glued the piece that was hanging off back in place, and coated the wound with it.
Took 3 weeks for that stuff to wear away. Always good to have some handy!

Corey

Corey, I remember reading somewhere that a single cutter tooth will remove as much as 1/4 inch of flesh. In that same document I remember reading that 600 teeth pass a single point on the bar in a second when going at full throttle?

I younger, but with JPS on this one. I have only been injured twice while doing tree work. I hurt almost every morning.

If I was including all of the "Hold my beer, watch this" incidents of my younger years, 10+. Broken jaw (twice), crushed ear canals, broken arm, skin grafts..............

Well I have taken around 100 stitches in non work related things....like barfights....

I've never been in a barfight. The secret lies in staying away from bars.

Bar fights. hehe. Yeah baby! Anyone seen some of my teeth lying around?

John, how the heck are you going to need stitches after a bar fight? You have got a foot on just about everyone else in the room. With that kind of height advantage you should be able to just drop your fist on people's heads like a big club.

Well one of the times I had two guys in half-nelsons, dragging them back, and slipped. Sat down on the heel of my boot and next thing I know I got clocked with a Michalob bottle, the second hit got my attention, and I got a third before I could stad up. With blood running down my bald head, the crowd all bacled up and I copuls not see one guy with a bottle in his hand.

Sounds like an interesting past time... kind of reminds me of when they run bulls through the streets of Spain.

Only posted here once before (157 ft cottonwood) but this one also caught my eye. Voted in the 10+ category. Grandpa died in a ladder fall in 1926 - every male relative on that side has had numerous survivals.

Some of survivals, worst first:

1. Took Fops off dozer to replace clutch, FOPs not yet replaced. Big snowstorm 1974, 6 big alders leaning towards own house we'd just built and not cleared around yet, alders about to break, so pulled over with cable and dozer. First 5 went as planned, too lazy at that moment to drag over a lnger cable. 5th snapped, heard it snap, turned to see so I could jump/dodge, slapped me in side of head an' jammed head into hydraulic piping - trunk hit dozer fender is what saved me that time, still spent 2 week in hospital with 37 skull fractures. Wife says its good that's where I was hit, nothing else as dense.

2. Remember the old chainsaw bars with the EXTERNAL roller? (Late 60's early 70's)
Anyway, was making a horizontal overhead cut when the roller broke due to fatigue. 157 stitches in left hand, broken safety glasses and gash over right eye. Sent bar into mfg with history of usage and personal estimate of fatigue life of that design- was gratified it recalled and have never seen it on the market since.

3, Earliest serious was circa 1955 as teen, doing freehand carving on a table saw no less, 3/4 inch cut out of end of thumb - gave up on that type carving.

4. This one trivial, but worth mentioning due to alcohol factor. Circa 1970.
3&5 YO kids home after Christmas eve church, wife still at church playing organ for later service. Gonna start fire and have a couple of screwdrivers. Nice blaze going, feeling mellow, decieded to chop one log with DB axe ('civie' clothes only on) before wife got home - anyway, blade skipped on knot -1" cut above ankle. Got out the needle and thread an' a pair of needlenose and stitch'er up with kids interested in the whole proceedure. Told DW the next day after we'd had a nice Christmas eve.

Skip to April 2001.

10: Harness on, rope tied thru fork. 2nd to top rung on 26 ft extension ladder taking Bigleaf Maple branch off. Easy cut, clean fall, but branch bounced higher than ever have seen one bounce and butt hit ladder just so that I was literally left hanging. Was able to get to trunk and slide down.

Anyway, personal history is why I looked up this site before I do the most lopsided tree I've ever seen, and need to fell 90 deg to lean (the 157 ft cottonwood post with pix) as DW is apprehensive of that one - PS: The cottonwood is on the lot where I let local arborists/trimmers dump chips, so I have gotten professional advise on felling it from about 20 different sources now. Will likely use 3/4 cable and dozer, side cable to 4 ft old fir stump, plus dutchman cut on felling to twist it as it falls.

Do heart breaks count? I've had my share

How about a broken will? I've given up on things in the past.

I don't count something an injury unless it requires a hospital stay of more than a full day off from work. I've been doing tree work for over thirty years but I've lost track of the total in my career.

Tom

Like Tom I'm in the over-30 yr, forgot em all category but I had to check "over 10". Some of the low points:

2 dislocated shoulders from separate swings into trunk; didn't learn about scarestrap use the first time.

7 stitches on scalp from falling polesaw, now wear hat.

Broken arm falling off ladder when shortening pear tree.

Fractured skull smashed wrists etc. from 35' fall onto driveway when split ash came apart in storm. Was tied into wrong half of it.

Lime disease from tick bites twice; months down each time, hairy-cell leukemia was a result; 3 other hcl ( a very rare form of blood cancer) patients had Lime disease too so that's my theory.

Busted ribs and ruptured spleen from being whacked by trunk under tension and cut loose most stupidly. Helper didn't show so worked alone, got impatient. BP was 50 when I got to hospital, 3 weeks in intensive care.

This last was in 2001 but now since blood is fairly healthy and I'm older and wiser I don't think I'll be that stupid anymore, hahahaha. I plan on climbing another 37 years and not adding to this list, enough already.

So Guy, what was that one Perry Crawford was telling me about back in your days of more hair, and I was still a pup playing with popguns and pogo-ponies?

It seems that the climbers that I know get cut more with a hand saw than with a chainsaw. Handsaws will getcha good!!!