Saw dog in leg

M

marcdurant

Location
Fort Collins
Short version: I stuck the lower saw dog from my MS261 into the side of my left leg after rappelling with it on my harness.

Long version:
I was trimming some dead wood and low-hanging limbs out of a massive cottonwood. Mostly I used my handsaw, but for the last few big cuts I brought up my 261 using a tag line. When I finished I hung the saw on the caritool on the left side of my harness instead of lowering it, and rappelled to the ground.

As my feet touched down, I bent my knees to feed slack into the system, then stood back up sharply. As I stood, the lowest dog on the saw caught on my pants just behind my knee and stuck into my leg. I was off-balance and my hands were busy on the rope, so it took a few seconds to get a hand free and lift the saw out of my leg.

I ended up with a deep stab wound on the outside of my left knee, starting just under the skin and angling deeper but still in the skin layers as far as I can tell. I was borderline about whether it needed stitches, but decided not so I taped gauze over it and cleaned up the job site.

When I got home I checked my records to make sure my tetanus shot was up to date. Then I irrigated the wound heavily with a can of saline to remove any dirt, rinsed it with Bactine spray, and applied a hydrocolloid gel bandage. It's healing up nicely so far, thankfully. It could have been much much worse if it had hit the tendon or anything else in the area.
 
I think you’re doing almost exactly what they would’ve done at the ER. Clean and dress, is about all there’s to do with soft tissue punctures. Heal up quick and call a doctor if there’s any sign of infection.

Glad it wasn’t worse, and welcome to the Buzz!
 
Our company has a standard operating procedure that if a climber is returning to the ground with anything bigger than a top handled climbing saw, then a groundie needs to come get the saw for the climber before they touch down. This procedure was primarily to take good care of our saws, but now I see it holds even more value. Thanks for sharing @marcdurant
 
You guys are hilarious!

In hindsight I can think of a number of ways to avoid the accident, but I think the best option would have been to lower the saw to the ground before descending as others have pointed out.

A contributing mental factor was that I was so focused on keeping the saw clear of the rope while descending that when I hit the ground I felt like I was home free. Watching the saw probably also distracted me from my device, which could have been the setup for a worse accident if something had been mis-rigged there.

I sometimes have the bad habit of not wanting to "bother" the crew when they're busy, so I try to do things by myself.

Anyways, thanks for the welcome. Longtime lurker, etc, etc.
 
Or you could just muzzle your dogs.

Never had that happen, but I was almost skewred by a dead Eastern Red Cedar repelling out of an Oak one time.
 
If it helps at all, our medical kits always carry a variety of hemostatic granlues - bloodstoppers - from gauze bandages to these - syringe applicators for deep, profusely bleeding puncture wounds: celox syringes
https:// www.celoxmedical.com/cx-product/celox-a-na/
Might take a bit of work to find 'em but Canadian/ UK troops carry these down range - they work for the same type of injury you might get in tree work as well. I used one once on a bleeding stick wound from a small sharp spruce stub that was like a razor - worked better than filling a boot with red runoff and stopped the bleeding pdq. ER docs don't mind 'em in the post excitement fix-up either it seemed.
They also have Celox tabs or strips for nose bleeds that work really well.
Cheers
 
Treezybreez said:
Or you could just muzzle your dogs.

Never had that happen, but I was almost skewred by a dead Eastern Red Cedar repelling out of an Oak one time.
Click to expand...
Dont give Sherrill/Treestuff any ideas breezy... Next thing you know they will be marketing dawg guards that you take on and off between each cut, and somehow they will try and make us feel like we just cant live without it....
 
rico said:
Dont give Sherrill/Treestuff any ideas breezy... Next thing you know they will be marketing dawg guards that you take on and off between each cut, and somehow they will try and make us feel like we just cant live without it....
Click to expand...
Ha ha! Well, it's the saw manufacturer I'm worried about. They'll probably come out with retractable saw dogs that only bite when you pull the trigger and some other lever.
 
Of course saw dogs can be sharp but coming out of a tree like Rambo increases the hazard. Not saying that is what the O.P. did.
 
Anytime I'm using a saw bigger than a climber, I stop 2-3 feet off the ground, unclip it from my belt and lower it to the ground first using the leash. I've honestly never thought about dogging into my leg (but I see how it could happen), I so that just do the tip of the bar doesn't dig into the dirt when I reach the ground.
 
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