Lumberjack
Banned
This is coppied from the TH, not an original post, my father didnt care if I shared it publicly.
Today my father was grinding a stump at a local city school when he hit a steel cable (old guy wire for telephone pole it looks like, 3/8" and 7 strands or so). The cable was still anchored under the asphault and he was trying to grind the top off 1 stump to be able to remove the cable when the wheel caught it.
From here the details are what I put together, he was knocked out. Apparently the cable came back around and made a loop around his feet and when the wheel caught it it pulled the line tight very fast (sweeping the loop at his ankles like a closeline). The wheel is 24" in diameter and when spinning full speed its going around 1100 rpm's, it sucked up the wire fast. It hit him above his ankles and toopk his feet out from under him. He is a big fellow, around 310 pounds, 6'3", and he hit the operator pannel hard enough to bend the 3/8"-1/2" steel rod that holds the door in its open or closed position. It took 10 minutes to get it up far enough to close the door. He also broke a mount on the fiberglass pannel on the control pannel, which is an easy fix. He broke his tibia on his left leg and broke his ankle in his left leg in 2 places. He is having surgury in the morning at 9 to put a rod in his tibia. On his right leg it pulled the ACL off the bone and perhaps another ligiment, the name escapes me right now. We are waiting for the MRI results about the right knee.
I am spending the night with him tonight, he should get out of the hospital monday.
I will update tomorrow, stay safe!
Next post from me:
Thanks to all for the thoughts and wishes, I appreciate it. I am going to go down the posts and answer the questions as they come up.
Rex- We really arent sure, he remembers grinding the stump and then EMT's talking to him. He was found by two workers of the school, but I have no way to know, we are trying to find out who those men are.
Thor- I will have to grind the stumps, but its not that big a deal, I started grinding 7 years ago. I already bid most of the tree and stump jobs, but now I will also do all the work as well, nothing too major. I am taking 9 hours of online classes and working 6 days a week as it is, but I can handle it.
Spidy- Assuming the wheel was spinning full speed (1100-1300 RPM's) the wheel sucked up at least 100 feet of cable per second, but there was only 10' of cable at the most.
Butch- UPDATE
The doc was trained by my uncle, which is a good thing, and he has worked on my dad before. He said that recovery would be at least 2 months. He broke the Tibia and the Fibia in his left leg, and tore the ACL in his right knee. There was also soft tissu damage to the left knee, but I dont have details on that. He should get out of the hospital Tuesday, he had surgery to install the rod in his left shin this morning and is doing decently now, I had to come home to turn in some homework for a class. He basically cant move anything but his head and arms, moving the torso puts too much pressure on the legs (it hurts). He is getting up tomorrow the PT guy said (I also know him and called him yesterday morning to line up some tree work for him). We have done work for several of the nurses as well as the doctors. The ER doctor used to live out in the country about a half mile or so from us, he was also on call 11 years ago when I went to the ER for an eye injury. The first doctor said my eye was fine, go home and sleep it off. The Dr. we know ran out to catch another Dr (specialist) to come look at my eye, if I would have went home I would have been perminatly blind in the morning due to blood pooling behind my eye. It was a comfort to know several people everywhere we went in the hospital. Also Daniels mother works in the lab, so her ID let us get through some doors that would have been problematic. We will have to get a hospital bed for the house, as well as a wheelchair and some other items. Oh, and when I left he was running a slight fever (99.8*) so they slipped in some antibiotics into his IV to help with any infection that may try to set up.
So far for pain med he is on a Demoral pca pump, he can get up too 10ml every 15 minutes. He can also take loratab and a coupla other drugs but he has declined them. Right after surgery they gave him 4mg of Morphine. When he broke his bicept tendons on his left arm he didnt take any pain meds, he has used 150ml of demoral since yesterday at 7. The doctors say he is tougher than the average bear.
Thats all I can think of at the moment, I will update as it comes to me.
Thanks for the "family" atmosphere!
Last post from 20 min ago:
He is quite possibly the toughest man I know, I have an immense respect for him.
I am not sure what we will do about father's day, normally we go to the movies as a family (the 3 of us), but this year we where thinking about kickin it up at the house and watching a movie here. He starts something tomorrow in the form if Physical Theropy (spelling?), not sure of a fitting suprise that he will appreiciate, he will be in the hospital for another 3 days and 2 nights.
I am done with my classwork, time to get a shower and head back, I will check in here before I head out. Internet Access would be awesome at the hospital.
Today my father was grinding a stump at a local city school when he hit a steel cable (old guy wire for telephone pole it looks like, 3/8" and 7 strands or so). The cable was still anchored under the asphault and he was trying to grind the top off 1 stump to be able to remove the cable when the wheel caught it.
From here the details are what I put together, he was knocked out. Apparently the cable came back around and made a loop around his feet and when the wheel caught it it pulled the line tight very fast (sweeping the loop at his ankles like a closeline). The wheel is 24" in diameter and when spinning full speed its going around 1100 rpm's, it sucked up the wire fast. It hit him above his ankles and toopk his feet out from under him. He is a big fellow, around 310 pounds, 6'3", and he hit the operator pannel hard enough to bend the 3/8"-1/2" steel rod that holds the door in its open or closed position. It took 10 minutes to get it up far enough to close the door. He also broke a mount on the fiberglass pannel on the control pannel, which is an easy fix. He broke his tibia on his left leg and broke his ankle in his left leg in 2 places. He is having surgury in the morning at 9 to put a rod in his tibia. On his right leg it pulled the ACL off the bone and perhaps another ligiment, the name escapes me right now. We are waiting for the MRI results about the right knee.
I am spending the night with him tonight, he should get out of the hospital monday.
I will update tomorrow, stay safe!
Next post from me:
Thanks to all for the thoughts and wishes, I appreciate it. I am going to go down the posts and answer the questions as they come up.
Rex- We really arent sure, he remembers grinding the stump and then EMT's talking to him. He was found by two workers of the school, but I have no way to know, we are trying to find out who those men are.
Thor- I will have to grind the stumps, but its not that big a deal, I started grinding 7 years ago. I already bid most of the tree and stump jobs, but now I will also do all the work as well, nothing too major. I am taking 9 hours of online classes and working 6 days a week as it is, but I can handle it.
Spidy- Assuming the wheel was spinning full speed (1100-1300 RPM's) the wheel sucked up at least 100 feet of cable per second, but there was only 10' of cable at the most.
Butch- UPDATE
The doc was trained by my uncle, which is a good thing, and he has worked on my dad before. He said that recovery would be at least 2 months. He broke the Tibia and the Fibia in his left leg, and tore the ACL in his right knee. There was also soft tissu damage to the left knee, but I dont have details on that. He should get out of the hospital Tuesday, he had surgery to install the rod in his left shin this morning and is doing decently now, I had to come home to turn in some homework for a class. He basically cant move anything but his head and arms, moving the torso puts too much pressure on the legs (it hurts). He is getting up tomorrow the PT guy said (I also know him and called him yesterday morning to line up some tree work for him). We have done work for several of the nurses as well as the doctors. The ER doctor used to live out in the country about a half mile or so from us, he was also on call 11 years ago when I went to the ER for an eye injury. The first doctor said my eye was fine, go home and sleep it off. The Dr. we know ran out to catch another Dr (specialist) to come look at my eye, if I would have went home I would have been perminatly blind in the morning due to blood pooling behind my eye. It was a comfort to know several people everywhere we went in the hospital. Also Daniels mother works in the lab, so her ID let us get through some doors that would have been problematic. We will have to get a hospital bed for the house, as well as a wheelchair and some other items. Oh, and when I left he was running a slight fever (99.8*) so they slipped in some antibiotics into his IV to help with any infection that may try to set up.
So far for pain med he is on a Demoral pca pump, he can get up too 10ml every 15 minutes. He can also take loratab and a coupla other drugs but he has declined them. Right after surgery they gave him 4mg of Morphine. When he broke his bicept tendons on his left arm he didnt take any pain meds, he has used 150ml of demoral since yesterday at 7. The doctors say he is tougher than the average bear.
Thats all I can think of at the moment, I will update as it comes to me.
Thanks for the "family" atmosphere!
Last post from 20 min ago:
He is quite possibly the toughest man I know, I have an immense respect for him.
I am not sure what we will do about father's day, normally we go to the movies as a family (the 3 of us), but this year we where thinking about kickin it up at the house and watching a movie here. He starts something tomorrow in the form if Physical Theropy (spelling?), not sure of a fitting suprise that he will appreiciate, he will be in the hospital for another 3 days and 2 nights.
I am done with my classwork, time to get a shower and head back, I will check in here before I head out. Internet Access would be awesome at the hospital.
