In 1987, I had Cervical Lamonectomy Surgery on my C-7, C-8 Vertebra; taking bones from my hips, going through the front of my neck, removing the disc, and doing alot of rotor-rootering. I was in a brace from my shoulders to the top of my skull for 8 weeks. I followed Drs. orders to a " T ", and never cheated.
October rolled around, still having 3 weeks left in the brace. I asked my Dr. about bow hunting and he said, " I'm not recommending it ". Since it wasn't a no, I took it as a yes. Fast forward to Oct.15. Half-hour before daylight, I'm 22 ft. up a tree, on a Lok-on my brother set up for me, with the brace on. { I wouldn't reccomend climbing trees with one of these on }. Right below the stand was a brook, on the edge of a field, with a crossing that looked like the Rawhide cattle drive was using it. Just after shooting light, I hear a noise; the chain of my stand rattling, and realize, having nodded out, I'm pitching forward, out of my stand, head first. I flipped over into a " sit-down " position, legs out stretched, buried my chin into the chin craddle of the brace, and landed in the brook below my stand, fortunately with the brook, instead of across it.
It completely knocked all the air out of me, and everything hurt, bad, EXCEPT my neck. There was about 1 foot of water and two feet of muck in the brook, and it saved me from a fate that gives me chills just to think about it. It's easy to say I shouldn't have been there in the first place, but I survived it without any problems. It was a valuable lesson. I was extremely lucky, and have since ALWAYS worn a safety harness since. I was fortunate to survive once, what many hunters haven't.
Frankly, only a fool would be without one, and this fool turned out to be "once bitten, twice shy".