Accidents & Injuries & First Aid

Just this past Sunday morining I was fishing for trout below Center Hill Dam on the Caney Fork River. The time was about 7:45 a.m. Two men pulled a boat trailer onto the boat ramp. The ramp was mighty slick because the water had been up high on the ramp for days. (The River is dam controlled and there had been three generators going which meant that the water level on the river had been high during the night.) As I was making a cast I heard a body slap the concrete. When I turned to look I noticed a man sliding down the wet ramp into the Caney Fork River. (The man was about my height and weight and looked similar to me.) When he went into the cold water his eye balls were wide and he his expression was a textbook example of shock. When he tried to stand up on the submerged concrete ramp he slipped and fell again. I saw his sun glasses hit the water. He was attempting to crawl up the ramp but his progress was somewhat retarded. He then slid all the way into the river and began swimming toward the ramp. I didn’t know what to do so I did nothing. His buddy was in the cab of the truck the whole time. (I figured if I walked out on the wet ramp then my big ass would slap the concrete and I would be in the river with him.) After a diligent effort he managed to swim to the side of the ramp and get his feet on rocky ground and stand upright. He was as wet as a fish in water but his cap was still on his headball. I heard him cuss when he discovered that his digital camera had been submersed in water. He stated that the camera cost $300.00. His buddy got out of the truck and asked him if he was alright. He said that he was OK. I asked the man if he lost his sun glasses. He cussed again and then said the sun glasses cost $150.00. I told him that all the equipment in my possession would not cost $150.00. (I was wearing a new $20.00 watch [a FORRESTER made by CASIO]. My new sunglasses cost only $10.00. My new rod & reel [a Travel Mate--Shakespeare] cost only $30.00 brand new. The fish that I had caught were on ice in a Styrofoam cooler that cost only $1.50.)

I suggested that the camera was “ruint” and the man agreed with me. He said, "The camera is toast." I asked him if he was hurt but he insisted that he was not injured. I told him that I had some bottles of beer in the cooler of my truck and that if it would help him feel better I would go fetch him a beer. He refused my offer but thanked me. After a minute he said he would like to have a beer so I went to fetch him a bottle. Beer is probably the best first aid to give to someone who has slapped the concrete and slid into the Caney Fork River and ruined a $300.00 camera and a $150.00 pair of sunglasses.

New Digital Camera: $300.00

Sunglasses: $150.00

Slapping the Concrete: $Embarassment

Having a beer to laugh it off: Priceless!

Well I have not had to render first aid to a victim of an accident is a while. A few years ago I was driving to work early in the morning. As I came down a hill on Highway 104 I saw a vehicle that had turned sidewise in a ditch. If the wreck was a gun then the gun was still smoking. I must have arrived just a few seconds after it had happened. I SLOWED down to a near stop to see what I could see out of the widow of my truck. I then stopped and rolled my widow down. All of a sudden a head popped up out the wrecked car like a Jack-in-a box. A woman’s head was covered almost entirely with blood. She raised a bloody hand toward me and said in a ghastly voice,
“H-E-L-P… M-E-E-E-E-E-E!!!”
The sight of her was so bloody ghastly that it almost caused me to soil my pants. And what did I do? I put the truck in gear and hit the accelerator and drove out as fast as I could. (I did not have a cell phone but I was only one mile from a public gasoline station.)

When I got to the Exxon station I ran in and told Tony to call 911 because there was a bad wreck down the road about one mile. (I should have gotten out and offered first aid but I felt that getting the call in would be better. ) When I came back from work that afternoon I stopped to ask Tony about the wreck. He said that a helicopter was dispatched to the scene of the wreck and the victim was air-vaced 100 miles west to Memphis. The woman was not wearing a seat belt. The car had rolled twice. It was speculated that the woman had fallen asleep at the wheel due to medication that she was taking. In retrospect, I realize that I did not do the right thing and if I had it to do over again I would have offered first aid.

Wow, PD, that's a pretty powerful image and story...at the time you did what you felt was right (I probably would have done the same, it seems getting and calling for help would have been the logical step). Did you ever find out what happened to her (lived, died...)?

I have a (sort-of) first aid story I'll share:
A few years ago I was in a pet store browsing around, and had just put one of those Wint-o-green life savers in my mouth. For reasons I still can't figure out, I swallowed it whole. It just sort of happened. I don't normally go around thinking it might be fun to see what that's like, but alas, on that particular day that's what occurred! It was stuck big time...I wasn't choking, because I could breathe (not easily, mind you), and I immediately began to *think* I was choking which made my throat clench up even more (panic attack anyone?!? ). Anyway, I squeaked out (literally) to the pet store owners that I had a lifesaver stuck in my throat, and they asked me if I thought they should call 911. I declined, figuring that it was pointless since I could still breathe, but I didn't know what to do. One of them made me sit down and tried to calm me down, while the other smartly heated up a mug of tea in the microwave. WISE DECISION!! She instructed me to drink it as fast as I could (it was quite hot) and after I drank what seemed like 100 cups, I felt the lifesaver burst apart from the heat and make its way down my system. Can't express how relieved I was, but what a scary feeling...I can only imagine how someone who is actually choking must feel in such a horrible situation.

Anyway, some good came of it, because I promised the owners I'd come back and buy something since they "saved me". A week later I went and bought a mouse (Herbie) who lived with me the rest of my college days.

Not as good as PD's stories, but now you know if you have a Wint-o-green lodged in your throat, drink a hot cup o' something and it should do the trick!!

Thank Ye Amy Dear/ that was a good little accident story. The victim of that accident that I describe survived but I never knew the extent of her injuries.

When I was eight years old and in the third grade I had an accident that resulted in an injury. This occurred at the McLemoresville Elementary School not long after the three-o-clock bell had rung. Most of the students at our school lived in rural areas outside of the city limits of town. Some of us students that lived in town would catch the late bus which gave us an extra half hour to play outside or in the gymnasium after school. On this particular day we were playing prison ball in the gymnasium. The object of prison ball was to throw a basketball at a body and knock the stew out of that body. You could run or duck but no one could throw a ball at you if you were on base. The bases just happened to be these heavy folding lunch tables that folded vertically into the walls and were locked by some sort of Allen wrench. As long as you were touching one of these tables no one could bash you with a basketball. I had just been out on the floor a-running and dodging flying basketballs. I ran toward one of these heavy metal tables that were folded into the wall. I actually body slammed the table with my back to avoid a flying basketball. All of a sudden the door came loose and began to fall on top of my little eight-year old ass. I realized what was happening to me but I froze up with fear and was powerless to stop the falling table. BAMMM!!! The impact should have killed me because the door weighed almost two-hundred pounds. (I might have weighed 80 pounds soaking wet.) I can recall seeing stars right about the time of the impact. There was nothing but blackness and white streaks that looked like stars. After the impact I can recall that I was screaming. All that I could see were feet in front of my eyes. There were assorted tennis shoes running about wildly in front of my face. I continued to scream until I saw a pair of black wingtip dress shoes step in front of my face. The door was lifted and I was slid out from under the table. The principal sat me up against the gym wall and let me scream and cry. There was nothing he could do for me by way of first aid. My mother was called and she was suffering from a full blown nervous fit when she arrived. I was stood up and walked to the family car. She took me to the Wilson Clinic in Huntingdon, Tennessee, which was about ten miles from our school. The Doc gave me a sedative to shut me up. It turned out that the extent of my injuries was only a broken clavicle and a concussion. They wrapped some bandages around my shoulder and neck and then sent me home, sedated. I could not use my right arm or shoulder for six weeks following the accident.

quote:

It turned out that the extent of my injuries was only a broken clavicle and a concussion.

Well, PD, since my DH suffered both those injuries, I know full well how badly you were hurt! Your clavical is the most difficult bone in your body to break! Plus a concussion, I am surprised that the Dr. sedated you! Surely am glad you lived to tell about it! Does the place where your clavical was broken serve you as a barometer? I have several old injuries that sound off when the barometric pressure is changing.

QUOTE]

Well, PD, since my DH suffered both those injuries, I know full well how badly you were hurt! Your clavical is the most difficult bone in your body to break! Plus a concussion, I am surprised that the Dr. sedated you! Surely am glad you lived to tell about it! Does the place where your clavical was broken serve you as a barometer? I have several old injuries that sound off when the barometric pressure is changing.[/QUOTE]

There is a knot on my right clavicle where the bones mended. It has never once hurt since it has healed. I was not aware that the clavicle is the hardest bone to break. During college my karate instructor (Sensei Vaughn) indicated that a hammer fist blow could be used to break an attacker’s clavicle.

One day my brother and I were outside playing with these wooden boomerangs during the spring of the year. We were actually hunting each other with the boomerangs out in the woods behind our house. At one point I was running away from my pursuer when my brother hauled off and threw the boomerang over handed at my back at close range. The boomerang hit me in the back of the head like a wooden knife and knocked me flat on the ground. Did I see stars? Yep! I didn’t think too much about it until my brother said that I was bleeding. When I looked over my left shoulder there was much blood to be reckoned with. It was squirting out of my head like crazy. (Head wounds are known to bleed intensly.) I immediately began screaming and ran into the house as fast as I could. My mother almost fainted when she clapped eyes on me. After she regained her equanimity she took me to the Wilson Clinic to get my head ball stitched up. I had to hold this white cloth on the back of my head while we were enroute to the clinic. She said that she would buy me a prize if I didn not cry so I sucked it up and choked it in. The Doc had to shave a big round spot on the back of my head before he put the stitches in. Some of the kids at school called me a scab head but generally not to my face.

Following the incident/accident our boomerangs were confiscated indefinitely. In actuality I never clapped eyes on those boomerangs again.

Oh, Gad, I was having a blond (I was a blond as a child) moment! It is the scapula, not the clavical, that is the hardest bone to break. DH had a broken scapula, not clavical. Sorry, all4

During my college years I worked as a life guard one summer at David Crockett State Park. It was a really easy job that could even be decribed as fun. Work began at 9:45 a.m. which was fifteen minutes before the swimming area opened. This gave me an opportunity to sleep until 9 or 9:30 each morning (which allowed me to cat around until midnight each night). Four of the six life guards were gorgeous young college women. Two of the life guards including myself were handsome, muscular, college men. (I had a full head of dark blonde hair but not any more.) We all got along just fine. The work was ideal. I wore sunglasses and sat up high on one of the elevated observation chairs. There was little to do but get sun tanned and look . Not once that entire summer did I have to rescue a distressed or drowning swimmer. The only blood I saw that summer was my own.

While twirling the chain that held my whistle I accidently hit myself in the nose and suffered a bloody nose.

Yesterday as I was test firing a .44 muzzle loading revolver one of the rounds in the cylinder ignited when the round in the chamber ignited.

Muzzle fire from the shot somehow penetrated a load (causing it to fire). This mishap damaged the receiver and also injured my left thumb. (I was shooting with my left hand.) This is the same thumb that I injured in a crossbow accident in September of 07. Fortunately the top of my left thumb is already numb from nerve damage but the impact caused powder burn and an abrasion (only minor injuries). A portion of my thumb is still black.

Now I can say I have shot myself in the thumb twicet.

Yesterday as I was working in the ax yard that is closest to the house I accidently cut my left hand. I tried to run into the house and fetch myself some first aid. I bled all over the asphalt drive and into the carport. I left blood on the back door and all over the floor into the bathroom that is closest to the back door. There were no bandages in that bath room so I bled all over the dinning room floor and across the carpet of the den and then into the bathroom in the middle of the house. Once there I bled all over the vanity until I got a box of bandaids out of the drawer. Finally I just wrapped a hand towell over the cut and laid down on the bed in the Master bedroom. It did not occur to me that I had left a blood all over the house until my wife got home from work . She tracked me much like I would track a wounded deer untill she found me in the bedroom.

I told her that I thought that I was going to live.

Better leave that ax alone, dude, you might chopp off your left toe next! Poor wife, having to clean up all that blood, it smells NASTY!

WEll I had another accident yesterday. I cut my middle finger on my left hand with my nifty pocket knife. I bled on the dinning table a little and then on the kitchen floor. I wrapped the cut with a paper towel then soaked my finger in a tub of alcohol. I then applied a butterfy bandage to it. I think that I am going to live.

Thanks ALL 4 for the advice. I bought myself some steel toe work boots and some new leather gloves. I enjoy singing the Lumber Jack song when I am working in my ax yard.

Please let me know when you see a huge blue ox in your yard! all4

quote:

Originally posted by 4thedreamgiver:
Please let me know when you see a huge blue ox in your yard! all4

I certainly will ALL-4.

On September 29 it just so happened that I had two accidents that equated to two separate injuries. It was just afternoon when I went to Lowe’s (home improvement warehouse) in Jackson, Tennessee. I was loading bales of wheat straw in my truck. After I was finished I jumped off the tailgate onto the asphalt and my left knee was sprained. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest) the pain was about a 2. I was hobbling around but able to walk without too much pain. Later in the afternoon as I was hauling wheat straw down a highly eroded logging trail that is on my neighbor’s property I had a lapse of concentration and the ATV ran into a deep rut then turned over on one side. I was thrown abruptly to the ground on my left side. OWWWWW! Whama Bama it was a good hurt. On a scale of ten I rated the pain as an 5.9. It took several minutes for the initial pains to subsist. My left ribs were injured and my nose was bashed and bleeding. There was also a small cut right between my eyes. My buddy Michael and my brother-in-law Tom heard my yelling then came to assist me. The good news was that they were able to get my ATV back on four wheels. It appeared to be undamaged. Fortunately I had a medicinal supply of hard liquor stashed in my truck and this was promptly fetched then self administered as first aid.

This morning I went to the Family Care Walk in Clinic to get my ribs x-rayed. There was a beautiful Nurse Practitioner assigned to examine me after the x-rays were completed. She recognized my name and was delighted to meet me. (I was a bit surprised but highly pleased.) She told me that I didn’t have any broken ribs but they were badly bruised. I have never been so happy while I was in so much pain. She has long dark hair. On a scale of 10 I would rate her beauty as a 9.5.

Well, you need to use Babe, the blue ox to skid stuff around. I agree that generous doses of Ole Thumb Sucker really help a bad case of the owies! Try ice for your sprained knee and elevate it above your heart while using the ice. Been there, done that with knee and shoulder injuries. Wild Turkey with honey is a good substitute if you can't find Ole Thumb Sucker. all4

Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. Malachy McCourt

First is important for all weather it would be a victim or any one else, after all there is an human being in trouble and its important to safe a life. I think that it was important for all to have full knowledge about what steps are necessary to safe anyone's life. I would like to suggest you all a website www.gotoaid.com this site is working to provide information about first aid so that a person who got accident, or injured can be safed from dying. SO please get full information from this website and help other and cure yourself too..