Little Accident Today - Take care out there Folks.

[RSM-Gazza]

Decided to have an easy day coming out of two days of solid rain and most yards would be wet. So I did two soft jobs I wanted to get ticked off as done, although many more jobs are piled up.

My mind was on carring for my 87 yr old Father as he is living with my family and I since my Mum's passing last month. Prior to work this morning we had another discussion towards him selling up and moving 320ks to a few streets away from me ASAP.

Well I was close to finishing a garden pruning job and decided to mow their lawns lighty for the weekend to give it a smick look.

Went to get a container of fuel from the open side tool box and whilst walking out to the mower I hit my hit head hard on the locking device metal bolt. I was wearing a denim brimmed school hat. Which saved me a little from further damage and the hat material never tore, but it sliced my head open to the skull for the full length.
Rang my daughter who works in medical for many doctors (day off) for help as blood was pouring out. Whilst I was waiting for her to arrive the bleeding almost stopped as I was applying pressure to it with a towel.

The road had a high gutter and high nature strip lawn, so height under the opening lid was reduced.

Many stitches later and I have the GP's personal mobile number for the weekend until next Monday's re check appointment. He said to ring him if anything at all feels wrong and he will put me into Hospital and bypass the long wait in emergency.

Can you imagine a city GP giving you his private number for weekend care, love the country.

Well the offending locking bolts are picture, use my experience of discomfort to treat these things with the respect of a chainsaw me thinks.
Yeh, hurt tooo!!!!:)



http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy295/fish475/103_5831.jpg



The offending protuding bolt pictured at home.
http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy295/fish475/103_5830.jpg
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/Below is the damage done after the Nurse cleaned up a fair wack of blood and off my face. it's not too graphic after the clean up or I would not post it incase of children viewing it. Or I would have asked Dean for permission to post it if it was worse. If the photo offends anyone, PM me and I will remove it from the host site.
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http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy295/fish475/013.jpg

[PaulG]

Gees mate that's nasty. Hope you're feeling a little better now. I can imagine how much that must have hurt. I had a little accident where the corner of an aluminium window awning took a chunk out of my head earlier in the year and it was only about a quarter the size of yours. Left me sore a with a headache for a couple of days!

[RSM-Gazza]

Paul,

Hurt pretty bad and considered ringing 000 as I was hopping arround like rabbit holding my head with my hand covered in red matter.

The doctor gave me and my daughter who was with me several things to monitor over the weekend re the injury.
He said any final question you may have.
Said can I still have a beer or two night as it's almost friday night and a firm no was spoken as I'm penicillin antibiotics. Grrrr!!!

My daughter was working at the Albury Hospital last and my treating GP was there working with her at times. May be that's another reason he gave me his number.

[Mick]

I just dont think "ouch" will cut it this time! Hope you come good there mate!

[Bluey]

Good whack there Gazza old mate. Lucky you have a hard head. Cuts like that bleed real bad too. At least you will have a decent scar on your swede bone to show the grand kids when you go bald. You can tell them a story about how you got it fighting pirates. Take care mate

[RSM-Gazza]

Bluey,

That pirate bit me laugh real good - good one. Plus I'm 52 and not bald yet.
Mick - ouch it certainly was, but I didn't swear at the time.

I'm going to go Bunnings today but not as the driver as I've been told not to drive today.To get some little rounded end cap balls to put on the bolt ends.
Will have to grind off some of the bolt to compensate for the added length of the cap and I'm going to spray it yellow and then apply yellow/black hazard tape across the bottom area of the lower inside openning lid.

Feel like today I've been out on the grog last night and got assaulted with a stanley knife.

When it happened I also struggled to get my Nokia off lock mode to make a call whilst trying to compress the injury, so take care all whilst out there working.

[Fred's mowing]

Geeeezzzzzzzzzzzz Gazza, what ya doin? Lucky u got a hard head, & now we know your a ranga;frosty;
Cheers Fred.

[Redeye]

I've noticed over the years, 90% of times I bang my noggin is when I'm wearing a hat

[tizmee]

Sheez OUCH is an understatement!!! Gazza, you are one very lucky bloke. That could have been far worse than it is. Definitely a good idea to be shortening and covering those bolts like you intend to do and the black/yellow hazard tape is an excellent idea. There is a building site not too far from our place and some of the tradies often park their vans just inside the property but leave the rear door opened up, which protrudes over the footpath. When walking my grandson to and from school each day we have had to duck under them or walk out onto the road to avoid them and other obstacles because the nature strip is a pile of mud and stones at the moment. I wonder how they would get along if someone walked into a tailgate one day and injured themselves. Who would be accountable? Hope that gash heals quickly Garry... :who-knows

[Mick]

I've noticed over the years, 90% of times I bang my noggin is when I'm wearing a hat

OH yeah, thats for sure! Head down trimming around a tree.............. BANG! Muffs fly off, neck crunches! I fcukin HATE that!

[cadase]

Don't know how many times i've almost knocked myself out on those air conditioners hanging out of walls at head height, the peak of hats gives you a blind spot, and after you hit it you start to see spots :)

[geoff]

Bloody lowered iron clothes line....if i dont hit it once i hit three times in one day..i hate that..
Gazz mate feel for you as us old boys take a bit more time to heal....
I do see some contractors wearing a hard hat..you might laugh but not so silly after seeing garry,s scone

[Mrs HMS]

Ouch! Nothing bleeds quite so much as a scalp wound either (cept a major artery).

Think you can safely say you have a thick noggin. Looking at that bolt you were very lucky not to have ended up with a fracture or haematoma. Hope you heal quickly and start to feel human again soon Garry.

I tend to just smack my head on clotheslines and walk in to tow bars (which makes Mrs HMS come out with some language that would make a wharfie blush).

Just highlights how important it is to be constantly alert, especially if you work alone!

[RSM-Gazza]

Thanks all for get better wishes - appreciated.

One thing I didn't post is that it took 20mins for my daughter to drive from NSW to VIC to check out my wound and help me. I couldn't see the wound on my head and didn't think it was so big. All I knew was that red matter more plentiful than in the last Star Trek movie.

In that 20mins I tied a long towel over my head and applied pressure with one hand and the other hand pressed the SP lever.
Thought if I finish the job I could invoiced it for the full amount. Mowed the small rear, two front lawns and two nature strips whilst I was waiting. Guess it keep my mined off the injury and kept me from stressing out
I knew I wasn't going to pass out because I had not seen the damage and the bleeding slowed down.
How stupid and mucho was that.

Bought the yellow spray paint and haz tape today and checked the workings out of the lock and founds that the protruding bolt can be grinded off.

The doctor asked me 6 questions to see if I was coherent.

One was, What is the Prime Minister's name.
Answer to him and the nurse was, Julia Gilliar.:)

[****]

Saw something useful today in RSEA safety shop...and after hearing of this last night and other peoples experiences with clotheslines and AC units they are probably not a bad idea.

Bump caps. Good idea with company logo.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/220674199939?hlp=false

[Jayk]

Don't know how many times i've almost knocked myself out on those air conditioners hanging out of walls at head height, the peak of hats gives you a blind spot, and after you hit it you start to see spots :)

i did once when i first started cadase. walked round the corner, ... wack. on me arse, and out to it. dear old client came out after hearing the bang! think i ok, must have a pretty hard head lol!

hope you get better soon paul.

[South East Mowing]

Thanks all for get better wishes - appreciated.

One thing I didn't post is that it took 20mins for my daughter to drive from NSW to VIC to check out my wound and help me. I couldn't see the wound on my head and didn't think it was so big. All I knew was that red matter more plentiful than in the last Star Trek movie.

In that 20mins I tied a long towel over my head and applied pressure with one hand and the other hand pressed the SP lever.
Thought if I finish the job I could invoiced it for the full amount. Mowed the small rear, two front lawns and two nature strips whilst I was waiting. Guess it keep my mined off the injury and kept me from stressing out
I knew I wasn't going to pass out because I had not seen the damage and the bleeding slowed down.
How stupid and mucho was that.
Bought the yellow spray paint and haz tape today and checked the workings out of the lock and founds that the protruding bolt can be grinded off.

The doctor asked me 6 questions to see if I was coherent.

One was, What is the Prime Minister's name.
Answer to him and the nurse was, Julia Gilliar.:)

Yeah sounds like the time about 10 yrs ago soon after having heart surgery I had pains in my chest. Decided to drive myself around to my local GP after I finished my job. As the pain got worse I just left the mower in the yard, had 000 ready on the mobile while I drove to the doc!!:doh

[edbeek]

Many years ago, I tore open the base of my thumb on a star picket at work. As I was alone, I drove myself 70km to the hospital. There was no pain and not much bleeding so I was feeling fine. The doc put some local anaesthetic in and started poking around and the tendon that was hanging on by a thread snapped, and I went down like a bag of spuds.
I'd be gone now if it decided to let go on the trip into town.
After surgery, the surgeon brought in a bottle with 8 decent wood splinters that he fished out of my hand from a previous accident. He never got the tendon working again though.

[happymowin]

aido, nice find.

i emailed the seller to see if i can go look at them, theyre in brissie too.

see how i go, i will post if i find anything

:)

[Bluey]

One of the refs that I ref with at paintball with has one of these. They are pretty hard. I reckon though half the problem is a cap itself. I wont wear caps anymore. If I wear them I am always whacking my head but if I wear a proper hat hardly ever. My old offsider always wore a cap and ended up hitting clotheslines that many times I nick named him Peg ( always getting hung up on a clotheslines)

[Bluey]

In 1984 I got married in Brisbane. My Mum and Dad drove up from Bendemeer in NSW. She couldn't drive so Dad did all the driving. On the way home he was complaining about a pain in the chest just before the border. He drove all the way home to Bendemeer and went to bed. Got up next day still crook and tried to do some work around the place but realised it was serious. He then went and saw the doc in town 25 miles away. Drove there too. Doc put him in hospital straightaway and turns out he had suffered a mild stroke. Doc ripped shreds off him apparently. He suffered 3 more strokes after that and had a double bypass. The last one finally got him on Xmas Day 2000.

[Bluey]

It is amazing how much a person can do even though seriously ill or injured. There was and probably still is a barra fisherman up in Princess Charlotte Bay in FNQ by the name of Louy Komsic. Toughest old bugger I have seen in a long while. I liked Louy and even though I was a fisheries officer and on the dark side as far as he was concerned we got on well together. We stayed at his place one night and got on the turps and he told me the story of how a crocodile broke his back. True story.

He was running his nets and a big croc had got caught in one and was lying doggo as they tend to do. Louy was by himself and hauling it in by hand thinking he must have a bloody lot of fish. As the croc got close to the surface it thrashed about and it's snout whacked him about the side of the head. Now Louy is a big man but he reckoned it knocked him out. Trouble was it knocked him backwards and he landed across the rear thwart of the boat and basically broke his back. When he came to he could not move very much at all from the shoulders down. The net had fallen back into the water and he had drifted off down stream. Somehow he managed to get the motor started and managed to drive it back up stream about 6 miles whilst lying in the bottom of the boat. He reckoned he could only just barely lift his head up every now and then to see where he was going. He finally made it to his landing and beached the boat. That was just the start of his problems. Next he got himself out of the boat somehow and hauled himself up to his hut about 300 yards away. Took him a couple of days to do this in agonising pain. He was worried about crocs getting him before he got to his hut. Once in his hut he got to his HF radio and called for help then drank a whole bottle of whiskey. They came and got him a couple of days later and he was pissed as a fart. Spent a couple of months in hospital and was able to walk again. He reckons nothing could kill him.

This same bloke who's nick name was Boom Boom once walked all the way from the tip of Cape York to Cairns. But that is another story.

[RSM-Gazza]

After my Ding to the head.
I'm kinda more focused towards not doing myself any further harm.

One thing that has been playing on my mind for while, is that I service a large multi car dealership which is on a wide service rd of the main road.
I do blower clean that whole service rd which is mighty long. Whilst I use 3 witches hats behind my rig when the ride on ramps are used.
But I've known I should have a road worker sign, so today I bought one.

When I think there surely can't be no more to spend on more items, every day there is. Like yesterday I bought a Husqvarna Blower/vac as a back up to the other Husy blower as it failed yesterday on a job.

And Oh the head is still sore but OK.


http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy295/fish475/000_0419.jpg

[South East Mowing]

After my Ding to the head.
I'm kinda more focused towards not doing myself any further harm.

One thing that has been playing on my mind for while, is that I service a large multi car dealership which is on a wide service rd of the main road.
I do blower clean that whole service rd which is mighty long. Whilst I use 3 witches hats behind my rig when the ride on ramps are used.
But I've known I should have a road worker sign, so today I bought one.

When I think there surely can't be no more to spend on more items, every day there is. Like yesterday I bought a Husqvarna Blower/vac as a back up to the other Husy blower as it failed yesterday on a job.

And Oh the head is still sore but OK.


http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy295/fish475/000_0419.jpg

The bloody signs are not cheap either:wtf

[RSM-Gazza]

Yep, $132 complete, guess I'll get $13 backs in my next BAS, so that makes it $120.
Worth the added safety it will present. It the reflective one by law, even though we don't work at night.