mez

My hunting partner and very good friend fell out of a climber. GET A SAFETY HARNESS AND WEAR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He was almost to wear he wanted the stand and one of his feet was coming out of the strap on the platform. He sat on the rail and reached down to adjust the strap and he woke up 40 minutes later on the ground.When he got his wits about him he stood up and his left leg collapsed when he put weight on it. He stood up again and the same thing happened. Now he was in sort of a panic. He is a physical therapist, so knows about anatomy and injury. He calmed himself down, moved his foot, ankle and knee. All that worked and there was no destabilizing injury to the leg that he could tell. He stood up again on the right legand slowly weighted his left leg. As he did this he could tell there was no support there and as he was weighting it he could feel the top of his femur moving around up behind his belly button. Long story short, he had no cell phone along. He had to crawl to his pickup, over half a mile. Then get in the pickup and drive back to town.
He has healed fine but took him over a year and he still has nightmares about it and still is not comfortable in a stand. That was 5 years ago. He must have hit the ground feet first. The hip is a ball and socket joint, the ball of his hip smashed through his pelvis and was up in his abdomen. The left side of his pelvis was completely shattered. He is lucky that he is even walking unasissted.
Not the typical guy you would think would fall. He has been hunting from tree stands for 20 years. Played college football and is a very athletic guy. He still works out and is in great shape, 6' 2" and 210 lbs.