Workplace injuries

[Hookedagain]

Originally Posted by Rmarsh

Gilly.... your scenario is alot like my situation was.

We were installing a gable end attic fan at the highest point of a two story building....once the staging was jacked up as high as it would go....against the brace....I could see the jack pole bending badly right near the splice. I expressed my concern to my much more experienced boss, and told him I thought we should add another brace...something I already had learned to do as a rookie sidewaller. He scoffed at my suggestion and said.." We'll be done in ten minutes....forget about it" Well... well ...five minutes later as I stepped onto the staging from the ladder...I suddenly felt nothing was there as the whole thing came crashing down. I hit the concrete below on all fours....with my head against the ground I saw a staging plank just miss my noggin then various tools and a can of paint. I managed to crawl about ten feet away and rolled onto my back......I looked up and saw my boss hanging from the roof....he was hollering for someone to get a ladder. My younger brother 15 years old had been hired to clean up old roofing shingles from the bushes around the building as we had re roofed the previous week.....he managed to lift the heavy ladder but it crashed through a second floor window instead. My boss managed to drop onto a portico roof not far below him. People were coming out of the building now to see the commotion. Police came... then the ambulance. Ruined my whole summer

GEEZ!! I hope you were alright after that fall. Falling definitely sucks. I was climbing a vertical ladder on the side of a building in Providence and misjudged a step, down I went! The fall wasn't very high, maybe 10'-12' or so. The problem was when I fell I caught my right knee on one of the rungs. Is I laid on the ground assessing my injuries I realized i couldn't bend my leg. I reached down and felt my knee cap was ups few inches higher than it should be. I used the handle of my hammer and pushed it back in place. Definitely the worst pain I have ever experienced!! As we share all these stories, makes me think of all the ones we don't hear about. I'm sure the guys who work for OSHA have some stories.

[Rmarsh]

Originally Posted by Hookedagain

I laid on the ground assessing my injuries I realized i couldn't bend my leg. I reached down and felt my knee cap was ups few inches higher than it should be. I used the handle of my hammer and pushed it back in place. Definitely the worst pain.

Hooked... Assessing the extent of the injury is typical and not easy to judge in the moment. I had the wind knocked out of me and couldnt breathe normally for a few minutes...I felt the need to move away from were all the tools and stuff were falling so crawled a few feet away and rolled over. No way I could get up or even move after that....Just watched as my boss dangled from the roof....my kid brother putting the ladder through the window......people coming out wondering what the hell was going on. Paint.... blood....tools all over the nice tile paved terrace.

When they finally loaded me in.....I could hear the ambulance guys talking to the emergency room about my injuries. When I got settled in at the hospital they gave me a phone to call my mom.
Poor mom....with eight children she went through so much of this kind of stuff.

[nightfighter]

Yeah, no.... I don't even want to type anything here....