# bad local news



## treeman82 (Aug 11, 2001)

well- in about 2 months or so, at least 2 descent local tree accidents have happened. 1 guy this past week was up in a tree paper said that the branch came back and hit him (broke both legs) stat flight straight to the hospital. another guy, 1 town over about 2 months ago. guy was 50 feet up give or take. last cut (isnt it always) got knocked up out of his saddle, fell to ground & death. both guys were in their early 30's


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## Sudo Tsuga (Aug 11, 2001)

i have a weaver saddle with suspender very comfortable and gives you the extra feeling of security.


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## John Paul McMillin (Aug 12, 2001)

my regards to the friends and families. Accidents happen and we need always focus on safety when in the trees .I am almost 40 and i dont hotdog around in the trees ( not that they did) I am just saying keep all things in mind when climbing and dont take short cuts to save time . safety comes before $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ john


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## John Paul Sanborn (Aug 13, 2001)

Yup, shortcuts can save you a few dollars but can cost you alot more. I've had a few close ones with last cut syndrome.


Darrin,

I heard a kid cut himself out of a tree up in Evergreen not too long ago. Heard anything about it?


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## monkeypuzzle (Aug 14, 2001)

There was a fellow killed back in April next county over from Leon.He was not a tree man from what I hear.Up about 40' in a large Pecan.He cut a limb that came back on top of him and pinned him in a crotch.Not much word on the cause of death,suffacation or blow to the head my guess.There have been many deaths to tree men here in Tally and surrounding counties over the years.The one that sticks out the most to me is where the Tree Service worker/owner cut a tree that fell and landed on the homeowner while he was watching all the fun.True story.


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## sgreanbeans (Aug 16, 2001)

we had a guy go up on a hook, once he got up high he just reached down and undid his harness. dont ask cause we dont know! he died insantly, pretty sure it was suicide


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## sonny (Aug 16, 2001)

God bless their family. Just dont understand why the lord takes someone away while they are trying to feed their family.


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## sonny (Aug 16, 2001)

I guess its called **** happens


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## Toddppm (Aug 17, 2001)

Have had 2 or 3 different people die doing tree work on my street! When we moved in , the neighbors just couldn't wait to tell me once they found out I did tree work, Thanks alot! 
They weren't professionals though just trying to do their own work.
I ended up taking down a couple trees for the widow of one of these guys , kinda creepy.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Aug 17, 2001)

I mentioned a local landscaper who impaled himself on a fencepost last year. I heard that some of the local riggers went and finnished it gratis.


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## treepete68 (Apr 26, 2014)

treeman82 said:


> well- in about 2 months or so, at least 2 descent local tree accidents have happened. 1 guy this past week was up in a tree paper said that the branch came back and hit him (broke both legs) stat flight straight to the hospital. another guy, 1 town over about 2 months ago. guy was 50 feet up give or take. last cut (isnt it always) got knocked up out of his saddle, fell to ground & death. both guys were in their early 30's


I was the guy who who broke his legs and was flown to the Westchester medical center. I have been searching for a long time for the journal news article regarding the accident. It was august 7, 2001 hot as hell and just after lunch. I had left Sava tree for this small outfit for a buck more an hour. Third day with them and I was doing all of the removals on this estate. by lunch I was shot but didn't say anything because I was so new. I was about 60 feet up in this dead ash and had limbed it up and was going to blow the top out. It had a decent lean so I didn't use a tag line, big mistake! I made my pie and was making my backcut when the saw pinched and I knew I was screwed. The top came down on my flipline and legs breaking both femurs and putting a serious gash in my face. I'm not sure what happened to this day. the wood was rotten but its possible I cut into the hinge. The foreman had to perform an aerial rescue and I was conscious the whole time screaming bloody murder. He was so traumatized he left the industry. I have titanium in both femurs to this day and was back to work with alpine 8 months after the accident. I was 33 at the time and full of piss and vinegar. Now mostly piss.


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## imagineero (Apr 27, 2014)

Thanks for posting! If you don't mind me asking, how has it affected your life in the very long term (13 years now?). Are you still climbing?


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## treepete68 (Apr 27, 2014)

Not A problem. I went on and continued climbing but eventually my interests shifted to PHC. I worked for A great Company called Westchester Tree Life out of Chappaqua, Ny, until 2010 when I Ironically lost my left leg to a blood clot! Of all things, a blood clot! Anyway, that was the end of my career but I've maintained my ISA certification just in case, you know?


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## imagineero (Apr 28, 2014)

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your leg, I imagine other members will be along shortly to chime in. Some of the original posters in this thread are no longer around, not every day we get a post on a thread that was started 13 years ago. If you don't mind me asking, fave you been able to fine employment after the loss of your leg? Did you lose the whole leg, or only part? Were they able to sort you out with a prosthetic?

I came from a rescue background before tree climbing and had seen some pretty rough stuff, pulled out a few dead bodies but the worst thing was retrieving the still alive ones form caves and mountains. Saw some pretty gruesome things but found it didn't affect me that much. The worst experience I ever had which shook me was being in an incident where we needed rescuing. I went off for a vertical caving weekend with two other very experienced cavers in south korea who were surveying a cave as contractors for the government. I'm not an experienced caver but had many years rock climbing and industrial access under my belt. It wasn't my cup of tea but I toughed it out. Fixed ropes and descended many pits, then through crawlspaces, some so narrow you had to worm through them, caves, more pits, crawlspaces, more fixed ropes untill we reached a chockstone floor. By that time we'd been going about 8 hours and had descended somewhere over 1000 vertical feet. Two of us were still on rope and the last guy had unclipped to inspect the floor when the keystone shifted and he went with the floor, falling so far he screamed twice. We couldn't see him, and he wasn't responding so we had to make a decision. The other guy had no rescue experience and was seriously freaking out. I told him I'd go down under the still unstable floor and see if the other guy was still alive, and that under no circumstances should he come down. If anything happened he was to return to the surface and get a rescue going, seeing as he was the more experienced caver and likely to be much faster at ascending.

Got down there expecting the worst but found the guys body and he was still alive. Brought him round and checked him over, a fridge sized boulder had turned one of his legs to soup, there were no identifiable bones between the thigh and the lower calf. Talked with the other guy and told him he'd have to go up and get help while I stayed. Gave him a real good talking to that he had to go slow and be careful, not take any stupid risks. 

I was in that cave With the injured guy for almost two days. Most of that time was spent in the dark to conserve batteries and we didn't have a lot of food. It's real cold and wet in a cave. I gave him most of my clothes, we had no sleeping bags or anything, just thermals and clothes under waterproof overalls. That's a real long time to sit and wonder if anyone is coming back. It was the longest couple days in my life, trying to keep the other guys moral up and not lose it myself. I'm not ashamed to say I actually cried when the rescue team showed up. I was just so emotionally exhausted.

It wasn't great news though. There is no cave rescue team in south korea. The guy had made it up double quick and assembled a team of crack cavers, 15-20 guys, a tonne of gear, rescue stretcher, and one of the cavers happened to be a doctor. No EMT's or government rescue workers will enter a cave there. The momentary joy was very quickly sobered when the doctor assessed the situation. He spoke pretty quietly and frankly, and said to the guy "the good news is I've brought morphine. The bad news is there's only so much I can give you. It's going to take a few days for us to drag you out of here. I'll let you decide when you want the morphine."

The only really vivid memory I have of the next couple days was the first half hour. The rescue stretcher was complex and came with all kinds of straps, foam blocks, attachment points etc. 5 or 6 guys slowly strapped him into it, getting familiar with it. Once he was fully strapped in he needed to piss so we tipped the board and I unzipped him. Then they started the first of many hauls. The rest of it is just a blur of darkness and screams for me. They had to unstrap him at the top of each pit, drag/push him through the crawlspaces often with ropes. He had to drag himself also while if there was space someone would try to push his leg. Then strapped to the board again. 

They got him on a chopper straight away. They thought they'd save the leg, but after many operations and many months he lost it. He was a young guy in his 20's and also ended up losing his (promising) job and his fiance. Some stories just don't have a happy ending. Needless to say I've not ever entered a cave since, that was about 15 years ago.


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## treepete68 (Apr 28, 2014)

Thank You. It's been a difficult transition. Only recently I have been able to get around without the constant use of a crutch or cane. The problem was that my stump kept shrinking so constant adjustments had to be made. Oh, and it's below the knee on my left leg. If your gonna have an amputation, that's the best one to have. I was diagnosed with Lupus Anticoagulant syndrome. Basically it's my immune system attacking my blood. I have often wondered if the titanium in my femurs had something to do with me developing this disease. The femurs are the biggest manufacturers of red blood cells in the body. All speculation of course. I can't stand for very long or walk very far so that severely limits my employment prospects. It's hard going from a very fit, active guy to a virtual couch potato overnight. But it can always be worse, so for that ,I'm grateful. That was a very intense description of what you went through. My hats of to you. You probably don't like hearing this but, you my friend are a hero! I can't imagine two hours with a shattered leg, let alone two days. I had to endure about two hours a then came the Morphine, I was lucky. I'm sorry he lost his leg and for the work and personal problems the accident created. I had a great girl at the time of the accident. Our relationship became a casualty as well. She felt neglected and there really wasn't anything I could do at the time. Resentments grew in both of us and eventually it was too much. I wonder if that is a common occurence for couples who experience trauma? That really is one hell of a story though. You should write about it.


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## OLD OAK (May 25, 2014)

imagineero said:


> I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your leg, I imagine other members will be along shortly to chime in. Some of the original posters in this thread are no longer around, not every day we get a post on a thread that was started 13 years ago. If you don't mind me asking, fave you been able to fine employment after the loss of your leg? Did you lose the whole leg, or only part? Were they able to sort you out with a prosthetic?
> 
> I came from a rescue background before tree climbing and had seen some pretty rough stuff, pulled out a few dead bodies but the worst thing was retrieving the still alive ones form caves and mountains. Saw some pretty gruesome things but found it didn't affect me that much. The worst experience I ever had which shook me was being in an incident where we needed rescuing. I went off for a vertical caving weekend with two other very experienced cavers in south korea who were surveying a cave as contractors for the government. I'm not an experienced caver but had many years rock climbing and industrial access under my belt. It wasn't my cup of tea but I toughed it out. Fixed ropes and descended many pits, then through crawlspaces, some so narrow you had to worm through them, caves, more pits, crawlspaces, more fixed ropes untill we reached a chockstone floor. By that time we'd been going about 8 hours and had descended somewhere over 1000 vertical feet. Two of us were still on rope and the last guy had unclipped to inspect the floor when the keystone shifted and he went with the floor, falling so far he screamed twice. We couldn't see him, and he wasn't responding so we had to make a decision. The other guy had no rescue experience and was seriously freaking out. I told him I'd go down under the still unstable floor and see if the other guy was still alive, and that under no circumstances should he come down. If anything happened he was to return to the surface and get a rescue going, seeing as he was the more experienced caver and likely to be much faster at ascending.
> 
> ...


 My God man you are a hero. I would never get over that guy screams in the dark.


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## imagineero (May 26, 2014)

There was nothing heroic about what I did


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## SkySkrape (May 29, 2014)

Wow I stumbled across this thread...and I am very glad I did. Sitting here reading it before bed hooping I never have to experience anything like either of you two. Very brave you both are. Wow. I'm just in awe.


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## OLD OAK (May 29, 2014)

imagineero said:


> There was nothing heroic about what I did


A real Hero will never admit to being one. You risked your life as far as i can tell by going through the hole he fell through to help him, not knowing if he was alive or dead. Rocks could have fallen on you from floor he fell through and killed you. You could have chosen to go with the other man to get help or sent the other man to find the man who fell. But you chose to go after the man who fell to help him and you helped him for 2 days while waiting for the rescue party. I like to think i would have done the same thing but i hope i never get the chance to find out. I do thing you are a hero.


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## treesmith (Jun 14, 2014)

Bloody hell mate, I'd like to buy you a beer one day Shaun


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## derwoodii (Jun 15, 2014)

imaginaio my top end fears hosts lost in a cave of darkness & water  that bloke was so lucky he had you on side not the likes of me


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