# tree man seriously injured



## priest (Jul 18, 2005)

A good friend who runs another tree service here in Stillwater, OK was taken by medivac to the hospital yesterday for emergency surgery. Apparently a tree fell on him and it is very serious. 
He has been in business for 24 years. I'll update you as I receive better information.


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## newb (Jul 18, 2005)

I'll be hoping for a full recovery for him. Let us know what went wrong so we can learn also. Pete


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## priest (Aug 6, 2005)

I just got off the phone with my friend Mike that got hurt. He is back from the hospital after a stay since July 18, his birthday. 
He was removing a fifty foot, 18 inch tree in a field. It fell into another tree. He was cutting it so it would roll out of the other tree. He thought he had an escape path behind him when the tree began to roll. He was standing in tall grass. There was a telephone pole laying in the grass, and when the tree rolled, he tripped over the pole and the entire trunk of the tree fell on top of him at mid-body.
They took him by helicopter to the OU Medical Center for emergency surgery. His small intestines and bladder were ruptured and his pelvis crushed. They removed part of the intestines and repaired his bladder. They put steel pins in his pelvis.
It will be 83 more days until he can attempt to start walking again. 
He had no insurance whatsoever.


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## Chris J. (Aug 6, 2005)

I'm sorry to hear about your friend; please pass along our wishes for a speedy recovery. I have many relatives in Oklahoma, so this hits a little close to home.

God speed.


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## Dadatwins (Aug 6, 2005)

priest said:


> He thought he had



Sad how many accidents in this biz start out with these words, "thought he was tied in' ' thought the tree would go the other way' ' thought area was clear before dropping top' and on and on. 
Best wishes to your friend for a full recovery and another reminder to be careful at all times and plan your work to account for any thing to happen because it will.


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## geofore (Aug 7, 2005)

*He thought!*

Mistakes were made. Tall grass, walk your escape route before you cut, though it is best to clear your path before you start and clear an alternative path in case you have to switch to plan B if things go wrong. It takes a few miniutes to walk/clear the paths. He hung it in another tree, mechanical removal is called for. It doesn't matter how many times you've cut them loose before and gotten away with it. It calls for mechanical removal and he should have gone to get some rope or chain and his truck or tractor and pulled it down. I won't speak to the "no insurance" because he should have had insurance, that is a given. Don't leave home without it! 24 years at this and this one looked so easy. In a field, nothing to hit or break, so it hangs up and it's not like he hasn't cut others loose before. He's still thinking it's easy and never saw the telephone pole laying in the grass waiting to trip him up. It would have taken a miniute to walk the escape route, he didn't. It could have taken 10 miniutes to clear the path with a brush ax, he didn't. It might have taken a half hour to set up and pull the tree down, he didn't do that either. It looked easy, it wasn't. What we do may look easy but I'll tell you it is not. Looks can be decieving, it looked like tall grass and he never saw the telephone pole coming to trip him.


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## TimberMcPherson (Aug 7, 2005)

I was felling a few dozen gum trees in long grass. I stepped away while it dropped not noticing that the long skinny limb between my legs actually snaked its way to the where the tree was falling. Tree dropped on it, it flicked up but mercifully only hit the inside of my leg and knocked me off my feet. Felt like I had broken it for a few moments but I was okay. Yeah its a dangerous world out there if your not careful enough


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## Ekka (Aug 7, 2005)

Yeah those "caught ups" are an unpredictable bugger, not only do you have the weight of the tree but the spring loaded effect of where things will go.

It doesn't take much, a pole, rocks, root, tuft of grass or stick lying in camoflage as you walk backwards ... or even forwards for that matter.

I wish him well, poor bugger, crushed by a log ... ouch. Lucky to tell the tale.


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## clearance (Aug 7, 2005)

Hope your buddy is getting better, very close to getting his ticket punched. Sh&t happens, hopefully we all live and learn. I have to disagree though, with Geofore, I have cut down way more trees than I have climbed and have some experience in hung up trees. Lots of this experience came from overestimating my ability to fall trees through standing timber (yet another reason why clearcut logging is best, another story) and having them get stopped and hung up by other trees. I have also been in blowdown situations. If there is a bigger tree that you can hammer the other tree down with, do it. On a tree that size, if it was not a huge money log, I would stand on the side of the tree that was being leaned onto and cut the the hung tree into 6' chunks. First a cut on top and then a cut below, the butt will keep dropping and sticking into the ground, eventually doing this the tree will drop or flip over backwards. Sometimes you can recut the tree just above your original cuts, changing the direction, but little trees don't usually have the wieght it takes. If you think this method is wrong, don't understand what I am describing, don't do it. You should have two escape paths at 45 degrees away from the intended fall in all cases. Mechanical removal is safest, of course, but hardly necessary all the time. A strong understanding of what is going to happen and how to make what you want happen is.


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## smcowboy1974 (Aug 7, 2005)

Stuff happens everyday that we have no control over. He could have walked it and knew the telephone pole was there, and STILL got hurt or killed. I really do have sympathy. I guess what I'm saying is when the MAN upstairs picks your day your DONE. You have no control over it. This man is still alive, and I bet VERY happy that he is. He will recover God willing, and continue on with his life. You can plan and plan and even if he used mechanical means, somebody COULD have been hurt. You just NEVER know what's going to happen!


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## geofore (Aug 7, 2005)

*hangers*

I have only been knocked down once cutting hangers loose. It does leave a mark. Laying on the ground after the first two cuts went right and I thought the third one did too gives you time to think. Third cut into the large maple, it rolled the right direction caught in the croutch of another tree and stopped. I walk up to make the next cut, it then swung around and whacked me off my feet, croutch broke in the tree it hung in. Not expecting that to happen, there I laid with bruised ribs and ego thinking "it looked so easy". I got up after a few miniutes (it took that long to get my wind back) and went back to the garage and got the tractor and some chains to pull the maple the rest of the way down. It took the better part of a half hour to get the tractor, chains and get back to the tree. Part of that tree is a bench out there along the walking trail. The is a bench in Ohl, PA. just off the walking trail on the Kraus's farm to mark the spot of the one that almost took me out over 15 years ago. It has nothing to do with how much expeirience you have, treework is dangerous every day. I had clear escape routes and it still caught me off gaurd. If it takes a tree hitting you to wise you up to using mechanical means to take a hanger down lets hope you live to tell about it.


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## turnkey4099 (Aug 8, 2005)

geofore said:


> I have only been knocked down once cutting hangers loose. It does leave a mark. Laying on the ground after the first two cuts went right and I thought the third one did too gives you time to think. Third cut into the large maple, it rolled the right direction caught in the croutch of another tree and stopped. I walk up to make the next cut, it then swung around and whacked me off my feet, croutch broke in the tree it hung in. Not expecting that to happen, there I laid with bruised ribs and ego thinking "it looked so easy". I got up after a few miniutes (it took that long to get my wind back) and went back to the garage and got the tractor and some chains to pull the maple the rest of the way down. It took the better part of a half hour to get the tractor, chains and get back to the tree. Part of that tree is a bench out there along the walking trail. The is a bench in Ohl, PA. just off the walking trail on the Kraus's farm to mark the spot of the one that almost took me out over 15 years ago. It has nothing to do with how much expeirience you have, treework is dangerous every day. I had clear escape routes and it still caught me off gaurd. If it takes a tree hitting you to wise you up to using mechanical means to take a hanger down lets hope you live to tell about it.



My method when a problem arises during a fall is to stop, grab a cup of coffee and relax thinking about it. Sometimes the problem will resolve while I'm sitting and thinking. At worst I at least have a thought about plan vice tackling it on the spur of the moment.

Off all the things involved in making firewood, falling trees is my most dreaded thing.

Harry K


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## Jumper (Aug 8, 2005)

priest said:


> He had no insurance whatsoever.



Sorry to hear about your friend.

Hope he recovers soon , is able pay off those medical bills and is not driven into personal backruptcy in the process. It seems the little guy, the self employed and the poor, those who can least afford health care coverage who are being scr*wed. Sad situation all round, especially in the richest nation on earth!


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## sal b (Aug 14, 2005)

sounds like a bad scene. myself and most of tree guys i know don't have insurance unless they work for city. where out of a job before they cart you away


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## pbtree (Aug 15, 2005)

My wishes for a full and speedy recovery for your friend...


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