# Fell 18 months ago



## hache (Apr 28, 2006)

i fell 30 ft out of a tree 18 mnths, smashed my left wrist up, cracked my right one and broke a rib, very lucky, left wrist is still painful and limited in its movement, everything else is fine now. I was back climbing properly about 4-5 months after, has anyone else had a similar accident, ifso how have you recovered?


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## Jumper (Apr 28, 2006)

Hey buds I fell a few years ago, not out of a tree but a bad parachute landing from a perfectly serviceable airplace, another story, and crushed two lower discs and snapped my left radial arm bone in half and need surgury.....my advice is if you are stiff, keep working at it and if you can, get some physio. If pain is an issue, consider accupuncture, it worked for me. Realistically I do not think this will come back 100%, but keep at it.


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## Log Hogger (Apr 28, 2006)

*Brother fell out of a tree*

He fell out of a tree at about 30', while hunting in a deer blind. He wasn't hunting, he was SLEEPING - got out there before dawn, fell asleep, and then rolled out of the blind. 

When he hit the ground, a short limb that was sticking up somehow penetrated his abdomen. He lost a kidney and broke a few ribs. VERY LUCKY. Would have bled to death if he didn't have his cell phone with him. Even so, it was a balls-out drive at 100 mph to get to a hospital before he bled to death. I knew either he would die at the hospital, or in a car crash, but I kept that engine at full throttle the whole way. He is now 90%, but 1/4 inch the wrong way and he would have been paralyzed. 

Now he hunts with a harness to keep him in the chair.


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## Jumper (Apr 28, 2006)

Wow, he was lucky. You gotta love those 100 mph drives to the hospital-I once got pulled over by the RCMP en route to St Albert, AB hospital with a friend that had a bad landing, you guessed it again, jumping, and aside from the obvious concussion, when he started to bleed out of his ears and nose I got more than a little concerned while I was driving his car to the ER. so stomped it and was pulled over by a female RCMP about 20 minutes from the town doing 156 km/hr in a 90 zone (empty straight road no traffic, I would not try that in town ) She took one look, and told me to follow her as there was not an ambulance to be had due to them being tasked elsewhere. Mike was OK in the end, but he had me worried huge for a while. No ticket, but I did not really give a damn, and pre cell phone era I could not call for help.


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## Chris E. G. (Apr 29, 2006)

*How does one fall out of a tree if you're tied in?*

Hache,

I read your post. I don't understand how you fall out of a tree if you're tied in, unless the branch you're tied into gives way because it's rotted inside? But then, wouldn't you normally tie in at two or three points, just in case at least one of the branches gives way? Help me understand this, because I know that falling out of trees isn't uncommon among climbers.


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## xtremetrees (Apr 29, 2006)

How did ya fall bro>


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## beowulf343 (Apr 29, 2006)

Wow Hache, you are very lucky. I have never had a bad fall, but I know a guy who fell only 10 feet out of a tree and is now paralyzed from the waist down. I am interested in knowing how this happened to you--defective equipment, improper climbing technique, or something else?

TITS!


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## hache (Apr 29, 2006)

Right here we go....
I was climbing up a 70 ft Poplar tree that the company I was working for had sent 5 other climbers up at different times to crown reduce it. They had all done there own thing made abit of a mess of it and then I had to go up to finish it off. All the lower branches had been taken off so I had to get the throw line out. My rope was eventually over a limb about 50 ft up so I proceeded to ascend the tree using rope, prussick loop and harness. About 20 ft up I felt that there was something wrong but couldnt figure it out (stupid) so I carried on ascending up the tree. The next thing I looked at my bowlan knot and in a flash I was falling, my rope had an inner cord which unaware to me had pushed up through the rope thus leaving the outer cord to slowly slip through my bowlan knot, totally my fault as when i cut the rope a few months before I should have sealed the end which would have kept it together, 10 yrs of climbing can turn you into a careless idiot, O got away with it, so please dont make the same mistake i did.


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## hache (Apr 29, 2006)

beowulf343 said:


> Wow Hache, you are very lucky. I have never had a bad fall, but I know a guy who fell only 10 feet out of a tree and is now paralyzed from the waist down. I am interested in knowing how this happened to you--defective equipment, improper climbing technique, or something else?
> 
> TITS!



reply below


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## coydog (Apr 29, 2006)

wow... how did you land?


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## hache (Apr 30, 2006)

I fell 20 ft onto a large limb on my back which flipped me over onto my front to which I fell a further 10 ft and landedon my front breaking my wrists and headbutting the floor, helmet flew off my head.:greenchainsaw:


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## Jumper (Apr 30, 2006)

Sounds like you had a guardian angel with you that day. Seriously track accupuncture in your wrist and see if that helps. I had it mainly in the lower back, but also a couple of times in my hand and arm as the surgury was healing.


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## Arbutus (May 1, 2006)

*Wrist injury*

just under two years ago, I fell down a customer's slope in her back yard. I was giving her an estimate for pruning the trees/shrubs on this very steep slope above her back yard and decided I could climb it okay to have a better look. There was about a six foot tall retaining wall at the base of the slope. I climbed up and get about 8' up the slope and take a step and reach for a small tree to pull up higher and my foot gives way and I go backward sliding down the slope and launch off the retaining wall onto her concrete patio (luckily not her patio table about 4' off to the right) breaking my right wrist. Now the break luckily was not major, however the fall somehow gave me nerve damage and I lost the use of my right thumb and index finger for about a year. It is still not 100%, but getting there. I got some docs who recommended surgery and others who did not and ended up scheduling the surgery about 7 months after the surgery and about a week before the scheduled date I noticed some improvement and called off the surgery...it ended up healing on its own.


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## hache (May 2, 2006)

Arbutus said:


> just under two years ago, I fell down a customer's slope in her back yard. I was giving her an estimate for pruning the trees/shrubs on this very steep slope above her back yard and decided I could climb it okay to have a better look. There was about a six foot tall retaining wall at the base of the slope. I climbed up and get about 8' up the slope and take a step and reach for a small tree to pull up higher and my foot gives way and I go backward sliding down the slope and launch off the retaining wall onto her concrete patio (luckily not her patio table about 4' off to the right) breaking my right wrist. Now the break luckily was not major, however the fall somehow gave me nerve damage and I lost the use of my right thumb and index finger for about a year. It is still not 100%, but getting there. I got some docs who recommended surgery and others who did not and ended up scheduling the surgery about 7 months after the surgery and about a week before the scheduled date I noticed some improvement and called off the surgery...it ended up healing on its own.



Wow, I bet that was abit embarrasing! did you get the job? Glad to hear you have recovered, lucky sods arnt we. Cheers mate.


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## BoesTreeService (May 3, 2006)

I fell twice last year. But since I am always tied in, the falls were about 1-2 feet. I little jerk on my saddle, and then i was back to work once I got situated again.


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## lovetheoutdoors (May 3, 2006)

i am suppose to start climbing this week for the first time..:spam: ..you fellas are making me nervous...no i know its dangerous but i look forward to it


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