A local and popular guy in our community had some sort of gasoline torch explode igniting him and his teenage daughter. He took the time to slam dunk her into a stock tank before attempting to extinguish himself. She lost portions of her ears, nose, fingers, and was badly disfigured. She committed suicide about 5 years later. He survived but spent about 18 months in a burn center (Utah I think). One noticed that his arms and torso were either bandaged or compression wrapped for several years thereafter.
A decade plus later and he will freely talk about the incident. One comment was that with 40 years of life behind him, he thought he knew what a 10 was on the pain scale. His original perceptions now rank as about a 2. Also says it's about 2 years before one can move and not be aware of the locales that experienced skin grafts.
If it weren't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all. About 3 years back a buddy called him needing help to extract an elk from a local hell hole. He managed to flip a 4-wheeler and broke about half the bones in his body. That was another couple years of recovery. That one got him a nice chopper flight to the regional med center.
On that one, he could back up traffic for three blocks just trying to hobble across a 2-lane street. I was once the lead rig in one of those lines and revved the engine as he made about mid-lane. That stopped him and I got the bird with a smile coming from behind it. Truly a great fellow and respected by all in the community.
Last edited by 1minute; 08/17/22.
