I fell 12' to the concrete a little over a year ago, broke my clavicle in 2 spots, and six ribs.I was not knocked out, and I think it was shock that allowed me to get up ( probably the loudest scream I ever made) Got to the phone, called girlfriend to come rescue me. Was very comfortable sitting there, until I realized that I did not unlock the door handle on the man door, it does not unlock with the key. That has been fixed, and is a bit of advice to everyone to make sure yours does too.
OP, I feel for you, it is a frightful moment on the way down, I hope you did not suffer too much or too long. I was off work for 4 months, the worst was the first 2 weeks with 2 days of so much pain I could not sit up, or get out of bed.
Ladder safety should be forefront in everyone's game plan! Ladders are dumb, don't put anything dumb on them.
Well to be truthful....I don't remember a dat gum thing after the awh schitt! moment. I had bought some insulation bundles and was putting up what I could in the spaces that would take the 15" wide stuff. Most of the wall framing is on 24" centers but every now and again some spots were narrow enough to work in the 15" wide stuff. I had been up and down the ladder 50 times that day and was trying to finish one little section over the big door. I had not put any 2x4's on that part yet so I went up and measured how long they needed to be then cut them and was nailing the 2X's in place and putting the insulation batts in at the same time. I got half way across the opening and everything was looking good. I moved the ladder to put in the next 2x to a spot I thought was just right and when I got up there I noticed the ladder needed to over about 1 stinking inch. Well I remember something telling me to go down the ladder and move it but I also remember something else telling me.....man, it ain't but a inch, just scoot it over a little, what's the worst that can happen?LOL
I don't think it would have kicked out if it had not been for that black plastic paper I had wrapped around the header. I put that plastic around it because it was a long time before I got the roof on from the time I framed it up and I didn't want the plywood that was sandwiched in-between the 2X10's I built the header out of get wet. Anyway, I hopped it over and it was almost there but the corner of the ladder was hung up in the plastic and while trying to free it so it could be moved over the bottom kicked out on that shiny new concrete floor and away she went. The ladder was resting on the top of the header and once it slid down the face and reached the bottom my weight and angle shot the top of the ladder out into wide open spaces and it also flipped me onto my side as gravity took control. If I had been up a little higher I probably would have had enough room to flip all the way over and landed on my head but I did a perfect belly flop which was better I guess.
I laid there cussing and kicking for I don't know how long then finally my brain started to work a little. I mean, It was like I was sitting on the sidelines looking at this fool laying on the ground, kicking and cussing at this ladder then all of a sudden I felt a really bad pain in my leg and as I tried to get up and at first I thought I had broken my femur as I rolled back over. I felt my leg where I thought the pain was coming from but nothing felt out of place then I reached down to check my lower leg and then I remembered the pain I felt in my knee and when I touched that area I could tell it had already started to swell. My whole body felt numb and I knew I was probably either in shock or headed that way and all I could think about was how bad I wanted to get up and get a drink of water. I tried several times to get up but things just wouldn't work right so I just laid there for awhile until my head cleared up and finally I was able to crawl over to a welding table and pull myself up to where I was standing, or more like leaning against the table. I had a bottle of water sitting on a bench about 10' away and I decided I would try to walk over there for a cool drink and I made about 3 steps and my knee was hurting so bad I thought I was going to cry but instead several really raw and colorful cuss words came screaming out of my mouth that I'm sure the neighbors several blocks away heard quite well and as I reached the bench and grabbed the water bottle I remember peeking out the door opening to see if anybody had been watching all this as the cussing sounds echoed through the woods and beyond.
I knew my day was done and once the strange feeling and numbness, that had held me captive for the past 1/2 hour or so started to wear off I figured I would try to make it to the house. That was a long 200' walk and just as I rounded the corner my daughter who had just got home and was getting out of her car, saw me and came running. She asked if I wanted her to take me to the hospital and I told her just get me to my recliner and I'll be alright. I told her to keep her mouth shut when the boss got home and there was nothing wrong with me that a couple days in my easy chair wouldn't fix.
Things were pretty rough for a week and a half but after that the pain started to slow down but after another week a big ol' knot puffed out right over the knee cap and as it didn't hurt as bad I could tell something didn't seem right about this new happening. I watched it for a couple more days and it looked like it maybe could be getting infected or something. It felt really warm to touch and it felt like it was full of water. So I headed on over to the patent first to get it checked out. They took a few X Rays and they said they didn't see anything wrong with my shoulder but the knee cap was broken into 3 pieces and it now looked like a hippy peace sign. They gave me some pain pills and some antibiotics in case there was some infection in the area over the bone and that was about it. They said it had been so long it would be better to leave it, watch it and that it would probably grow back together completely in a month or less and never be a big problem.
So far so good, its healing quite well and I'm back to probably 80% or better. Last week I dug a ditch 4' deep and about 120 feet long to put my water line and the hot water feed lines to where I plan on putting my boiler one day. It was a slow go but after being cooped up for so long it was good to get back at it.....but I still haven't messed around with any ladders yet. Maybe next week, I'll see how it feels and get the nerve to finish that little bit of insulation.
