This is the short version of what happened...

Dec. 2, 2013 I decided to go deer hunting, up in the bottom, getting there by pirogue, at a place I have killed several good bucks in the past.

I decided move to a different tree, one that I had never climbed. I adjusted my climbing stand and up the tree I went. When I got to the height I wanted, I discovered that the seat needed adjusting. So, as I have done a thousand times, I stood up, turned around to adjust the seat. But this time I lost my balance and fell out of the stand, 18-20 feet to the ground.


Now I dont tell anyone where my best stands are, so no one knew exactly where I was. Luckly my cell phone worked, so I called for help.

It took them 4 hours to find me and another hour to get me out and fly me to the hospital.

My injuries were:
1) broke ball off right leg at hip (required 2 surgeries 3 weeks apart)
2) broke right wrist (in cast for almost 10 weeks)
3) broke left shoulder blade
4) fractured 5-6 ribs (docs couldnt decide)
5) fractured 3 vertebrae
6) blowed out right lung
7) lacerated left lung

I just got the cast off the wrist last Thursday and it is sore and stiff, but I'm steadily working to get it back in shape. And, I've still got 4 more weeks before I can put weight on my right leg. I'm using a walker to get around, so things arent too bad. All the rest of the injuries are healed or at least they dont bother me any.

The other none bodily losses were:
1) Broke the stock on my favorite gun- 30-30 Marlin
2) They cut off a perfectly good pair of camo pants and shirt
3) Lost 8 weeks of deer hunting

I got home yesterday and I was very lucky. I will walk and hunt again!

Please, wear your safety harness! If I hadnt have been so stupid, I wouldnt have spent the last 70 days in the hospital.

Again, Please wear your safety harness!

(Its good to be back on the fire)

Glad to have you back. Hope you make a full recovery!

Ed

If you don't mine me asking , how old are you ? Falling from a tree stand isn't fun, except for the deer . I'm glad you lived and not totally paralyzed.

Glad you're healing up. You are one lucky guy. That's a heck of a long time to be laid up in the hospital.

Do you mean 2013? If you fell in 2012 you had your cast on for over a year.

At any rate that is good advice we all need to be reminded of. I used to help each hunter safety classes. Falling is by far the most common way for injuries to happen.

Been there myself, sorta. Was putting a ladder stand up, when it fell backwards. Thank God I was able jump free, and was not injured.
I know several folks though, that were injured much like you we were.
Hope you have a rapid and full recovery.

Dang glad you are on the mend pard! I wondered what happened to you.

Glad you are ok bro. (read as "alive". Your list of injuries is far from OK)

How bad is the gun stock?

If it's repairable, give me a pm. It wouldn't be the first 336 I've had to "adjust" Won't look as new, but it'll have "character"

Damn it Randy, You knew better!

Glad your alright buddy, welcome back.

You weren't answering my pm's so I figured something was amiss, you sure racked yourself up good this time huh?

Fast and steady healing my friend.

Best wishes for a full recovery w/o complications. Look at it this way, you're going to be more careful and will be able to teach other people so some good can come of it yet. You may very well save lives!

Glad you made it through too.


Trees are for squirrels.

"""broke ball off, right leg at hip""" dammm I've got goose bumps!

I don't hunt tree stands, only 4 legged platforms with a nice swivel seat. I building one this year with a roof and sliding winders.

Glad you're ok now. Does give me pause. While I don't hunt from a stand, my cell phone doesn't work anywhere near where I hunt. If I fell off a roxk or down a hill, I'd be screwed.

Glad that you're on the mend. We all do stupid things; the lucky ones get away with our lives; the really lucky ones of us are spared injury. I've spent a good amount of time hanging around in trees and have yet to get really comfortable with being there.

Holy cow!

I hope you realize how lucky you truly are! I'm glad you made it. Many others don't.

Glad your getting better and survived. That's a scary situation. I wish more people would listen and wear their harness. I am hooked up from the moment I leave the ground in my climber. With a ladder I am hooked in as soon as I hit the platform. I haven't tried a life line on the ladder stands yet. I'm not sure how that would work but they make great sense on a hand on stand.

Get better...

Glad you'll get to hunt another day.

Glad it wasn't worse and that your are back.

Other than that,...how was your hunting trip..?



Glad you lived and are back...

I swapped deer stands (a 4'X6' box with 8' legs) with a buddy. You now the guy, the one that is always whining that he dont see chit. Any how it was foggy that morning I climbed right on up the steps into the stand and took my morning deer nap. At ~7:30 am I lifted one eye open and could see a nice 10 point buck about 60 yds out. I took the buck waited until alittle after 9:00 to go get him. Opened the door took the first step and it broke. Being I am 6'4" and 275 lbs I traveled quickly to the rocky ground. As I laid there trying to catch my breath with 3 broken ribs on the left side of my back, I thought Thank God! I unloaded my rifle.
TEXMAG

Rapid and successful healing
Freedom from pain
Many long years in the fields and streams
Success in your hunts

Wishing you alla' the above

GTC

Ditto.

I don't use any tree stand either.... had a fellow hunter take a dive down outta a poplar from a height of about 30 feet (the stand slipped all the way down) - thank God for all the snow that year, because he was unhurt but sore as all get out the next day.. He never used a tree stand again.

Holy Mackerel! Glad you're mending.

Whew! Thank God it wasn't a Winchester!

(just kidding.) Glad you survived.

Dan

And your buddy didn't see a damn thing either, did he.

I was hunting in Kerrville,TX at the time. I was able to slowly get myself up and walk back up hill to my truck. I made it back to Deer camp at 10:30 am and all the guys where sitting around the fire. My buddy asked, did you see anything? was that you that shot? and I hope you where careful getting in and out of my stand that top step is loose. I replied shot a 10 point buck 60 yds in front of your stand, can someone drive me to a hospital? and I am going to kick you AZZZZZ! when I get healed up.Funny story now, wasnt funny then.

TEXMAG

You should have checked the step to see if your buddy had sawed through it for shooting all his deer.

Have a hunting friend who on his first fall without a harness sustained a compound fracture of the leg. After his second fall a few years later he is now in a wheelchair. Some people are just meant to self-destruct. They are usually the same ones that won't wear seat belts when driving. You may not believe it but there are people reading this that will be hunting this fall without a harness.

100% on the safety harness.

Back in high school, my buddy's father fell asleep in a stand without a safety belt. Fell out and broke his neck. DRT. Very tragic.

A harness alone isn't enough. Most fall climbing down out of their stands, after they've typically unhooked their harness. With a ladder or loc-on, you need a rope secured around the tree as high up as you can reach, standing in the stand. You tie a short prussik sling and carabiner clip that to the tail of your harness. You slide that prussik up above your head as you climb up, and the reverse as you climb down. The prussik knot will lock onto the rope. The more slack you allow, the farther you will fall if you slip.

I've done the same thing installing siding 25-30ft off the ground, working on pumpjacks. I secure the rope to the peak of the roof. Knowledge of knots and rigging can save your azz working or playing up high.

Godspeed with your recovery!

Glad you are still here among us to tell your story!

incredible story! glad you will recover. thanks for sharing, in order to help prevent another accident.

ked

Holy crap dude! You're lucky to be here.

My uncle works for Claiborne Electric and had to go out in a bucket truck a while back to get a big guy from a stand that was unconcious and dangling upside down from his tree harness. His phone had fallen out of his pocket, so he couldn't call for help. Luckily, someone knew where he'd be hunting. The rule on our place is to always let somebody know where you'll be.

Glad you are on the mend!

Glad to hear you cheated death.

Here's to a speedy recovery.

Everyone should also be aware of the concerns related to suspension trauma, as well. The CD's that come with modern deer stands cover it pretty well.

You are very fortunate sir. Good luck with your recovery.

Darn OM, was missing your posts and a little concerned. Asked about you about 1-2 mo ago and no one knew anything, of course. Quit screwing around and get us some stories on thinning the varmints.

Sure glad to hear you are still kicking, and hope you get well soon.

I keep my fat behind on the ground. Glad you made it out alive, but I'm going to KEEP my fat azz on the ground, where it belongs.

We're glad you're back and on the mend!

Wish it didn't take so many warnings for people to buckle up.

I switched over to ladder stands a few years ago. Way safer.

Glad you are getting better, I'm scared of heights.

Safer, but not foolproof. Buckle up.

bea175


I'll be 62 next week.

RWE


I dont know enough to know if its repairable or not. Let me talk to someone that might know and I'll get back to you. Thanks!


Thanks to all for your well wishes, advice, and smart azz remarks...

What do you think would have been the outcome if you did not have your cell phone? Just wondering.

Glad you're on the mend.

Glad you're on the mend.
+ 1000 on the harness!

I hope you recover 100%. Glad your still upright, that could have ended very differently.

OO



I'm pretty sure I know part of what would have happened. Some time after dark, my wife would have called friends and family, and a search would have started.

Whether they would have found me that night, I dont know!

I'm sure they would have found me the next day, what shape I would have been in, who knows?

To find me as quick as they did, I had to use the rescue helicopter and guide them to me. They got the coordinates and radioed them to rescuers on the ground and they got to within 150-200 yds of me, close enough I could hear them calling my name. The rescue fellows started IV and got me in a clam shell, rode me out on a 4 wheeler for about a mile, transferred to a pickup for a couple of miles, then on the helicopter for the trip to the hospital.

I know I was stupid and lucky. That's why I encourage everyone to use a safety harness.

After all that, I think you should do something nice and get a pre-64 94.

whew gives me pause, hunting out of trees where I hunt now is about the only way to get er done

but also got me thinking of ways to do it safer. no cell service where we hunt and my pard was 2 miles upstream, if I'd have taken a spill that bad I'd have laid there all night till he came to look for me next a.m. after no radio contact.


brrr I ain't relishing that thought, it was chilly this year.

so far I climb and saw limbs, no harness, clear me out a place to place my board(s) and always just free handing it, though I do try and be slow, methodical and careful when messing around that high up

2 seasons ago I was afraid to try and come down outa the big spruce I was 30-40 feet up as the wind was howling something fierce, tree I was in was swaying back and forth, trees crashing down around me.

you've given me pause to come up with a better plan.

am certainly hoping you heal up well.

I got a pre-64 model 70, does that count?


2L2Q

I'm like you, I like to hunt out of trees, but from now on, I will wear a safety harness.

What an ordeal.

Glad you are still among the living.

Glad you are healing.

Oldman,

Glad you are better! sounds like your sense of humor is intact as well! take care buddy!

Sycamore

Glad you are back home and on the mend.

Oldman,

I admire your cander and really appreciate a man that can "tell" on themselves in order to help another [possibly] avoid the experience.

I certainly wish you to be "back in the saddle" soon. May you have a speedy recovery!

bhtr

several years ago i was reading a thread about safety harnesses on a traditional bow hunting forum. one guy posted something like this, "my stand gave way and i fell 20 feet to the ground. as soon as i hit i immediately knew i was paralyzed". and he was (and is today), paralyzed from the shoulders down. the tip regarding using a proper safety harness can't be repeated enough.

You can fall from a 4 legged one with a seat or a tripod also. Even if railed things can happen...

Oldman, glad to hear you are still with us. We had a local friend of ours fall from a tree stand some years ago. He did not survive the fall.

I think the rule on wearing the harness should be repeated as often as we can. Its no different than a seat belt in many ways. You never need it until you do, but you can't put it on fast enough at that time... has to be on first.

Thank you for the warning but it is practically graven in stone that we blokes will not only not heed you, but we will likely do exactly the same thing.

It's a boy thing.

I don't need to be stupid like you. I got my own stupid all figured out thank you.
Best wishes for a full and fast recovery.

Well, hopefully not EXACTLY.