Tree trimmer dies after chainsaw injury

A safety model that I formed years ago when I was leading winter wilderness camping trips has worked very well. Since there is a chain of command/power in almost any group there needs to be a safe place to go around that chain.

What I came up with is called 'Vote/Veto' It's an anagram that shows how closely related they are. The group agrees that when a safety issue is at hand everyone has the obligation to veto the task with their vote. A first day hire should be able to safely call the owner of the company on a safety issue without fear of retaliation. How many times haves sales/management come onto a jobsite and not put on the same PPE as the company requires of their production staff?

The climber in this story would have agreed to 'Vote/Veto' and would likely be alive it someone else vetoed his idea to keep working.

Appying Kubler-Ross to an accident is good! Thanks!
 
The one and only time that I have cut myself with a chainsaw I was in a tree in the rain holding the saw with one hand ( I know ,bad idea) and gaffed out losing my balance and tapping my wrist. I came down immediately. Man was I ticked off at myself. I wanted to throw a bandage on the cut and finish the job but I had three other guys there thinking clearer than I was and I went to the ER to get 5 stitches. In the end the climber is responsible for his own safety but when in a situation and you are not thinking rationally having good guys around you to help you see straight is invaluable!
 
Shock affects everyone differently. Sounds like this guy bled out pretty quickly so must have hit an artery or something. It is important for groundsmen to be aware of what's happening in the tree, too often there is no one spotting the climber. Seeing that much bleeding should have been noticed by those on the ground and action should have been taken.
 
Cutting a Femoral Artery can result in death in just minutes. Even with breaking a femor, your bone or a sliver of it can slice the artery. That is why they have to put you in traction "pulls the break away so it cant move, and straped tightly" When this happens, you can die before you ever get loaded up, and you would never no it was cut.

I no this because when I fell, I broke my femor. I didn't no anything about the artery untill after the fact.

I haven't posted this yet, but I plan on doing so in the future.
 
Many years ago I had an experienced groundie/truckdriver that let a 44 magnum get away from him and cut his femoral leg artery, and go into shock in a puddle of blood.

He was a big 240 lb bruiser, and rather than call 911, I fashioned a tourniquet from a speedline loop and biner off my saddle, twisted it tight till he complained loudly, got the other groundies to help me stuff him into the passenger side of my tooltruck, and hauled azz to the nearest emergency hospital in La Jolla.

He recovered, quit the tree biz, and got a job flippin pizzas.

I instinctively knew that dude would have bled to death waiting around for an ambulance. When a man cuts himself that badly you have to act quickly to stop the bleeding and get him to a hospital emergency room or else, just calling 911 can sometimes be futile in terms of saving a life.

jomoco
 
You would be surpised how fast you can bleed out! I carry my own personnal medic jump bag on job sites just in case(my insurance loves me! lol) and ill be the first one to tell you...If I cut my leg bad or someone else did, tourniquet and haul azz in the pick up!!! I can start IV's enroute! There is such a huge time delay between dispatch and people actually arriving on scene... Ill take my pick up first Maybe call to meet a rig on my way to the ER or hopfully so up on there doorstep when there pulling out.
 
first off awsome posts everyone. my personal opinion if u cut urself while in a tree GET TO THE GROUND ASAP check urself out and go from there. i'd rather finish a tree tomorrow than die tryin to finish it today!
 
I cut myself once on the knee and stayed in the tree to finish it.Honestly I didnt think it ws a big deal so I continued working.I got down and looked at it wasnt to bad put some butterfly stiches on it and kept working.Im sure this guy didnt think it was a big deal either,i bet if new the final outcome im sure he would of came down heck he might of changed careers.I actually feel sorry for the dude,but i wont make that mistake again either or let anyone around.I read the these threads to try to learn from others mistakes its pretty obvious what should have been done after the fact.
 
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