Single incident

• Cut body part

• Chainsaw

• Cut/Laceration

• Head/neck

• Offsite Medical Professional assistance

• Sunny/mostly sunny

• Fatigue
• Training deficiency
• Complacency
• Bad work positioning

Embarrassing to say, but I feel the need to share another don’t be complacent story. I was working in what I had assumed was a Pin Oak, but I had a friend tell me that it was a scarlet oak. I wasn’t in a very good mind frame and hadn’t actually paid enough attention to the tree. There were two of us in this tree. Another guy who is 50 and well seasoned was working the inner side of the tree using the crane and I got impatient and moved to the opposite side of the tree and started laying out large limbs. I was using the snap cut for all of them. The largest was about 12 inches diameter and the next 3 got smaller. I had a good high tie in point and it was wrapped around another lead which was causing some pull back. I clipped into the lead with my lanyard but it wasn’t comfortable either. Instead of getting properly adjusted I made the under cut and when I put the top cut in the limb barber chaired and slung the saw out and around, right into my neck so violently I was in shock I still had a head. Checked for blood once before it started spewing out. I jumped down to where the other climber was and when he looked at the cut he told me he thought i might have hit the artery so I started panicking a little but I didn’t have enough rope to get to the ground so I had to reset my tie and then repel. I missed the artery and got stitched up at the hospital as the urgent care wouldn’t do it. They said i didn’t miss the artery by much but who knows I’m not a doctor. I just know I’m lucky to be alive and the cut was deep but relatively short in width which is also strange.

I had been a little sick and I told the other climber I was getting tired far more quickly than usual. For me to not even properly identify the tree I was going to be working in shows it. I had horrible positioning to make the cut. And I was not expecting the limb to split and definitely not expecting the saw to jump out which you should always expect as a potential outcome. Definitely a combination of complacency, fatigue, possibly some training failure although I’m still confused as to why the smallest limb was the one to split.

Better rest, more focus, better hold on saw and tools, better work positioning, slowing down a little bit could all have prevented this from happening. I am grateful I made it through this experience and hopefully this saves someone the trouble.