# Father Injured Grinding Stumps



## Lumberjack (Jun 18, 2005)

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.


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## MasterBlaster (Jun 18, 2005)

We can all learn something from this, I'm sure.

Major Mojo to your Pops, bro.


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## kf_tree (Jun 18, 2005)

wow ....sorry to hear it..

but pain management is an important part of the healing process......a nieghbor of my sister's had a kidney stone problem and was going back and forth to the hospital.....but they never gave him pain killers.....well because of the pain he was in, he went into cardiac arrest and died....

your body will heal alot slower if it has to deal with the pain.....if he still refuse's to take the pain killers i'll pm you my address  

good luck


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## Lumberjack (Jun 18, 2005)

Thanks KF, actually his heart rate rarely got above 90 bpm in the room. When he got done settling in his BPM was down to around the mid 60's with his BP being as low as 114/67. 

When he busted his arm he never took any pain meds, but I got a call from my mom a little bit ago saying amongst other things he took a loratab (spelling) for the pain. He probably has used around 200ml of demoral now in the last 24 hours.


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## Dadatwins (Jun 19, 2005)

Best wishes for a fast and full recovery, be prepared for lots of physical therapy in the days ahead. A positive outlook and lots of patience will help with the recovery. Good luck. :angel:


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## John Paul Sanborn (Jun 19, 2005)

Sounds like he has a good support group in the family and the community. That goes a long way to recovery.

Make sure he has a lot of things to do while laying around, maybe suscribe to NetFlix so he allways has a movie to watch, books, games...


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## Lumberjack (Jun 19, 2005)

At the house we have TIVO, plenty of stuff to watch on it that he likes. He will also help the secretary for the company and I will set him up with some books on tree biology so he can put together some flyers, brochures and paphlets and or work on ones I already have drawn up, but not colored in.

Undoubtably he will spend time lurking here like he always does as well.

I think the vaction will be good for him. On a positive note he does have 5 weeks vacation (paid) from his day job, I am not sure if he plans on using any of that or using the disability insurance or a combo.


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## MasterBlaster (Jun 19, 2005)

Good for him! Get well quick, Mr. Lumberjack senior!


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## John Paul Sanborn (Jun 21, 2005)

Maybe he'll start posting now that he's got time on his hands


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## Lumberjack (Jun 23, 2005)

I dont know, he may start posting, it would be my luck that he would get a SN and then we would be banned for 2 handles off the same ISP haha.

He is home and doing ok, nothing really to do but lay there, really sucks for him.


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## rb_in_va (Jun 23, 2005)

Lumberjack said:


> I dont know, he may start posting, it would be my luck that he would get a SN and then we would be banned for 2 handles off the same ISP haha.



Or he could become a member here and then never get anything done again!  Prayers on the way for your dad.


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## juststumps (Jun 23, 2005)

L J, sorry to hear about your pop... hope he's doing well, JS


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## MasterBlaster (Jun 23, 2005)

He's pretty much laid back.

http://***************/treehouse/files/dad_854.jpg


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## Lumberjack (Jun 23, 2005)

Laid back, actually sleeping now! First time in a while, he needs it.


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## MasterBlaster (Jun 23, 2005)

His foot is bigger than his head!


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## Lumberjack (Jun 23, 2005)

Na, just the camera angle, he has a huge mellon like me, he wears 13 in shoes, I am a 14.


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