I fell 15 ft. head first from my stand.Season over for me.

[RET3006]

last tuesday I was at a 15 ft. tower stand to replace the foam around the shooting rails.There was a wasp nest up in the roof but i didnt see any wasp on it.I used a piece of the stick foam i had to poke at it from a distance.Still nothing.So i crawled the rest of the way up into the stand and still didnt see any on it.When i went to brush the nest down they were on the back side of the nest.Next thing i knew they were all around my head.Trying to get out of the stand in such a hurry my foot slipped and went between the rungs of the ladder turning me upside down.I hit head first with my hands and arms out infront trying to brake my fall.I looked at my left wrist and knew it was broke.I was kind in shock and dizzy and staggered to the 4 wheeler.My neck and back were hurting and I could not use my left arm or hand at all. I could barely use my right arm to crank the 4 wheeler and drive it back to camp.I yelled to my buddy to take me to the hospital.After getting in the truck i lost the use of my right arm. After a bunch of test and xrays the only thing broken was my left wrist.I just knew I had fractured my spine.They had to put plates ,screws and pins in my arm and wrist . my arm bone had split long ways and the wrist was pulled away from the arm. Even though I will miss the rut and all the best part of the season i am still thankful.I could have broken my neck and never walked again.


PLEASE be careful this season.Your whole life could change in an instant.

[TheYoungOne]

Wow, thats crazy man.. sorry to hear about that, luckily more didnt happen to ya.. glad to hear your somewhat alright.. hopefully this doesnt make you never wanna get back into a tree.. but thanks for sharing.. get well soon

[m.t.hands]

glad your still with us, your story will be a painful reminder of how fast things can turn bad, i'm glad you got out with no more damage, it could've been a lot worse, maybe you can still rifle hunt and use the cast as a brace, get better soon

[minnesotahunter]

Wow, that is something else. I'm sorry to hear about your injury, but you are definately fortunate that that's the extent of it all. Wish you a fast recovery.

[jerseyhunter]

Sorry about your accident. Hopefully you'll be back before the season ends.

[JerseyJim]

Sorry to hear about your fall. I'm glad it wasn't any worse! Get better soon......Jim

[1dahunter]

Man you were lucky to get out of that alive, you could of so easily broken your neck. I am very glad that you only got a broken wrist and your still with us

[James B]

Good luck with your recovery. I worked many years in the constuction industry and took soom pretty good tumbles. They hurt worse now 30 years later than they did at the time. I bet you will be a much more careful man because of this tumble. Good Hunting.

[jamiebuck]

SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR ACCIDENT , THINKS COULD HAVE TURNED OUT WORST HOPE YOU GET SOME REST AND HOPPFULLY YOULL GET BETTER SOON

[RTA47]

RET3006 your very lucky!! And i know how it fills to fall from a stand Back in the middle 80`s I fell due to a broken deerstand 26ft out backwords. I was on a "jack pine" If you do not no what that is? it is a tall pine that had no limbs on it untill you get to the very top! I had a 27ft rope that i had tide to my gun and i would climb untill the rope was tight then i knew i was were i wanted to be. The morning i fell it was just before daylight when the top part of my stand broke and in a split sec i was hanging upside down with my feet still in the foot strapes of my stand with the top part of the deer stand twisted all around me. As i was freaking out trying to get back up and knowing i was a long way up. I felt my feet starting to slip out of the foot strapes and then every thing was quite and all i could here was the wind blowing then nothing. When i opened my eye`s the sun was shinning stright down on me. All of a sudden every thing in my body started to hurt worse than anything i have every felt before. I screamed for help but no one awsered. Then i rembered i was hunting along? I was scared to look down at my body i did not no if something was sticking through me? But i was lucky nothing was. I managed to stand up! But got very sick and started to throw up! I was very dizzy and felll down a bank that was next to the tree i had fell from at the bottom of the bank was a small creek that my upper part of my body fell into. It seemed to wake my up. I then walked out to my truck stoping every so often to throw up! When i got to my truck i rembered that i had left my gun still tide to the rope at my bottom of my tree! I walk all the way back out there to get it. That little trip seemed like a life time in it self. When i sat down if the front seat of my truck i looked into the mirror and there was dryed blood under my noise and on each side on my face that had come from the inside of my ear`s I drove home and when i walk into the house my dad was the only one home at the time. I sat down at the kitchen table. my dad walk in and sat down . He looked at me and sead :you look like you fell out of a tree? I sead i did! He ask if i needed to go the hospital and i sead i did not think so. I then went to my room and layed down this was around eleven or twelve o-clock that day i fell a sleep and when i woke up it was it was dark out? when i looked at the clock in my room and it read 4.00am i could not figure it out? but when i raised up i looked at my pillow and there was a good bit of blood on it? I then went into the bathroom and looked into the mirror and both my eyes were black i realized i had sleeped for ever 16hrs. I never did go to the doctor but i should have! If your wondering why my dad did not wake me or check on me? It was becouse he was an alcoholic at the time and had been drinking a lot! but he stoped some yrs later. My brother and i went back to the tree i had fell from some time later there was still an imprint of where my body has slamed into the ground, My brother did not say anything at first. He looked up to where i fell from the bottom part of that deer stand was still up in the tree, He then looked down to where i landed and then looked at me and ask how in the world did you live through that. Well I did live through that and o know so many people don`t` every yr. and from hights not near that far up! So i know what your felling when you say you fell from a tree!! I don`t tell this story often only sometimes when i here a story like yours or if i can help someone else from falling. I am not much on religion but i know that god was there with me that day! I now have two great kids and a wonderfull wife. You and i both are very lucky! I am not trying to out do your story just letting you no i know what it fills like to to fall! One hunting season not getting to hunt is nothing to compair to a lifetime not getting to go? things for you could have been a lot worse! RTA47