The Danger Of Tree Stands
BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 2 months ago
“I fell backward from 20 feet onto a log. I spoke to God and knew I was injured terribly. I asked for and received the strength to crawl out. I spent a week in (a Green Bay hospital’s) intensive care unit, and nearly a full month in the hospital. A surgeon fused my lower 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 vertebrae.
“They taught me how to walk again. I have seven more months of rehab ahead, and am happy with how things are going. I’m in sales and have three to five years left of full-time work. I hope people understand that what happened to me could happen to anyone. At some point when climbing trees, no matter how careful you might be, you’re vulnerable.”
Read the whole article. For my readers, this is serious business folks. Don’t climb ladders without the proper restraint and safety gear. Especially don’t do it in trees. Check your equipment before using. Replace your equipment periodically. Take the condition of your ropes as seriously as guys who climb and rappel. Most of those guys replace their ropes frequently because grains of sand get in between the fibers and cut them.
Wear fall restraints while climbing, and have redundancy in your platforms and fall restraints. If you don’t want to do all of this, then go on deer drives or stalk deer rather than climb into stands. Your life and health isn’t worth the next hunt. My daughter is involved in trauma care and trauma surgery, and she tells me it’s sad and devastating the injuries she sees during deer hunting season.
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On October 4, 2016 at 2:20 am, Daniel Barger said:
4 decades in health care, 30 of it seeing ER pts. Most falls are ground level and can on occasion cause significant injury such as a broken wrist, hip fracture and on rare occasion skull or spine fractures. But most such falls end up with the patient going home after the ER visit.
Falls from heights…especially 10 feet or more almost ALWAYS cause serious life changing and life threatening injury and about 95% of the time the patient is hospitalized for surgery and extended care. The 5% that aren’t seriously injured are invariably quite young…..kids bounce, adults don’t.
The take away from this is to be very careful working at heights, use all the safety gear you can find and if possible hire the chore to a professional. Gravity is the law…..and it can kill you.