Whats Your Worst Injury?

[Dirty_Mole]

whats your worst injury? i havent really had any but a few scars and still to this day no broken bones (touchwood) so tell us your gruesome stories.

cheers sam,

[philip_thomson]

hmmm worst injury hey. apart from the many broken toes and cutting myseld many times. i haven't had many major injuries. worst would have been when i was sitting on a skateboard and was kicked in the ribs. this left me with bruised ribs for many weeks and resulted in numerous asthma attacks from the pain. ouch ::)

[moater]

Nearly had my foot chopped/crushed right through when I used to work in a bluemetal quarry.We were shifting a conveyor system one friday arvo and it decided to shear off some bolts.I had a huge section of conveyor pinning me to the ground and I'm not ashamed to say that I cried like a baby-incredible pain!After things settled down a bit I sorta went into 'business' mode giving directions to my boss and another employee to get some chains hooked up to lift it with the front-end loader.Went into shock on the way to the hospital.Really pissed off as aside from the injury I had plans to go fishing on the weekend :( When I hear about horrific injuries suffered by whatever means I really think about the agony the poor unfortunate must have gone through.Regards,Darren...A bit ironic that it was actually a safety guard made of angle iron that collected me :(

[MY-TopEnder]

haha sam my smashed up finger wouldn't be my worst but currently i have a smashed up finger courtesy of a VX Commodore B pillar and Door meeting.

[Nathanrb4]

My feet slipped off the foot pegs of my CR250 when i was coming over a set of doubles a few years ago. ended up landing with both legs straight and compound fracturing both of them just below my knees. took 6 months to recover and still haven`t got back on a bike.

[Maria]

When I was a wee fella living in Rockhampton, someone (who shall remane nameless) and myself at the age of 5 were playing in the backyard....doing what boys do, pretending to be camping etc. Anyway, this particular person was putting up the tent and took a disliking to me riding my bike in circles around it as he feared I would hit one of the guide ropes. He lost his temper, took a pocket knife from his pocket, opened it and through it at me. The knife pinned me in the corner of my left eye some 1.5mm from my eyeball itself. The doctor who I was seen by at the hospital simply couldn't believe that the knife had missed my eyeball by less than the width of the piece of metal that comprised the blade. Took quite a while to heal, and was quite an experience for a 5 year old - something which I certainly do not wish to relive.

Ben

[Fitzy]

Snapped achillies tendon or fractured skull.
Neither were much fun.

[Fishinmishin]

One day, I kicked my big toe really hard. It hurt lots and it even went red. :'( :'(
Just jokes ;D ;D
I've been beat around a fair bit for my age but still never broken. Mostly due to my stupidity, running my mouth, fast cars, footy and boxing. Starting to feel the old man aches and pains at 27 yr old. Walked out of 2 cars I drove around poles with only slight whiplash and glass stuck in me. Concussed over 8 times- hence gave up boxing and footy. Put my knee about 50 degrees the wrong way and popped blood vessels in my head and eye. No real permanent damage or broken bones, hence my freinds call me cement. I think I've learned my lesson and hope got most of it out of my system. Still, very minor compared to lotsa peoples injuries, and I still have my health, and most of my brain. ;D ;D

[Mick]

During 1999 I was resuscitated by life guards (don't surf big waves anymore), got stabbed by angry teenagers outside Zillmere 7/11, had a head on car crash and my house caught fire in the middle of the night.
I was on a first name basis with a few hospital staff. Since then, I think the only other pain I have endured is losing a good sized barra.

[basserman]

well mine is a goodun and still get my own skin crawling to this day and with our modern medicine i dout i would be whole

was working at a soil quarry in sydney and we were doing all the stuff for the games as well as all the other stuff
well i was working 60+hours a week sometimes up to 75hours
(good money but no life what so ever just sleep and work)
well this on day i just set up the screen and stacker to make some more soil mix and had to adjust the convory belt
well cut a long story short my right arm was sucked into the convor and snapped (not broke) my arm in three major places and a few minor little cracks
well with no one around me for about 1km i somehow managed to pull my self crear (mind you i had my whole arm twisted around the drum till my sholder) i then had to walk some 600+meter with my arm dangling to get help
well i don't remeber too much more till later in the afternoon and it was then i found out just how bad it was and their was alot of talk of to try and save the arm or to take it off (i was in favor of takeing it off at that point and that was even with morphine) well i was lucky that the hospital they took me too was alos the hospital where australias leading bone doctor dude works
he was able to keep my arm on my but that was only after 10hours for the first time loseing all moverment in my arm for 7 mounths and then another 6 hour surgary to put another pin in
but now it's been 5 years and now i'm starting to get on with life and slowly getting strength in my right arm
i also got all movement back and only now have a small dead patch in my arm

would never wish that on anyone but i still count myself luckyi might not have my arm or even worst ::)

[SeaHunt]

My feet slipped off the foot pegs of my CR250 when i was coming over a set of doubles a few years ago. ended up landing with both legs straight and compound fracturing both of them just below my knees. took 6 months to recover and still haven`t got back on a bike.
COMPOUND Fracture ? That is when the ends of the bone are sticking out through the skin right?
:o

Worst thing that happened to me was breaking my leg and ankle in a head on with a car on my 650 Yamie back when I was 18. Had a few bikes since , even broke my leg again on one (same leg). :P
Boats now , no bikes. ;)

[vortfu]

I guess mine would have to be a concert related injury. The result of a bad crowd surfing decision and landing on the back of my neck/shoulder (on the metal floor grate at the front of the mosh no less). I managed to popcorn every bone in my shoulder, get drunk and catch the next few bands :-X

It all healed up .. sort of .. who needs to raise their arm above their head anyway ?

vort-fu

[michael_Brewer]

I wanna hear lucky phills story? dunno about his injuries but heard he's had some pretty close calls?

[Zeeke]

my worst? knife got dropped on my foot when i was 9 while out fishing.. stuck in like it was dropped into sand with the blade well and truely buried... also been in a dog attack.. i won.. ;) they can bite.. but i bite harder.. few other nicks and cuts from whirling hooks and knives.. but never had a hook buried into me.. just ripped in and out..


Tim

[bugman]

Anyone know the waterfall and the cliffs at Picnic Point in Toowoomba.

Some drunken idiot ran over the edge one night after vaulting the fence and landed on the rocks below.

Not one broken bone but some quite severe concussion that resulted in memory lapse of a day or so - apparantly. ;D

Bugman

[subzero]

I was always falling out of trees, broke my arm 8 times, leg once, the worst injury would have to be in my youth in the odd stouch getting kicked in the nuts... nothing compares to the agony of that I reckon :( Give me broken bones anyday :)

[Needmorerum]

Well, besides the broken ribs and ankles from waterskiing and barefooting, I was a bit silly at age 13.
It all started with an upbringing around guns and shooting. A mate and myself got together and made our own guns, I won't mention how we did this as it was adults talking about it back then that gave us the ideas. We took our new inventions way out of town to test them out and see how they went, well things went a little to well. I ended up getting shot in the arm, loosing most of the muscle out of the back of my arm.
Not knowing what to do, I tore my shirt up to tie around the top of my arm to stop the blood, I managed to ride the 5k back into town. Luckily my mates mum was a nurse and they lived on the outskirts of town, well it was the outskirts then. My mate went in and told his mum that I had cut my arm open, she told me to come into the house, but I didn't want to get blood all over the place.
Anyway, she cleaned up the wound and wrapped it up, then raced me up to the hospital. One of the funny things was watching my mates sister walk into the kitchen, seeing my arm and passing out on the floor.
The hospital wouldn't touch me until they got onto either mum or dad to get permission, then they cleaned it up further and started putting stitches in. All up, I ended up with 22 internal stitches and 30 external.
I have full movement of my arm, just not all the strength. We made up a story to try and stop us from getting in the shit that I had fallen off my bike and landed on a broken bottle, well, as I know now (that I have kids of my own) parents aren't as silly and nieve as kids think. I got busted, although I didn't get a floggin like I thought I would.
Ironically, I left home 18months later and did a Fitter / Machinist apprenticeship, then I did a gunsmiths apprenticeship and ended up spending 6 odd years repairing and rebuilding firearms.
Thanks to Johhny, that type of career isn't to profitable anymore.

Oh yeah, Sam, thanks for reminding us all of our bad memories, LOL.

Corry

[reef05]

I got a few injuries from when I use to surf but the worst was when I had just picked up my new board from Caloundra,I stoped at first point at Noosa on my way home for a quick trial run.All was going well untill I decided to come in, in the shallows I hit a rock with the fins which threw me off balance instead of just stepping off the board I lent and fell backwards, yep landed on the same rock with the middle of my back.Couldn't move for quite some time (no one around to give me a hand either)when I finally did move it was very slow ended up having a week and a half off work the doc said I was very badly brused no perminent damage. :)

[Cheech]

Not quite sure where to start with my adventure. Will try to keep it short. This is a long post. Sorry about that. I will try to keep the waffle to a minimum.

After 19 years involved in skydiving. As a fun jumper, instructor, video cameraperson, and mostly a competitor at state and national level, I was doing pretty good as I hadn't had an injury.

I was one of those that pushed their canopy to the max. did really specky landings, came in at a million miles an hour,, that sort of thing.

Then 4 years ago there was my final jump. Training for the state championships, hooked in a bit too low on landing.... ok, I can pull out of this.... The only thing that will be my undoing is a completely unexpected downdraft at about 40 metres. Guess what I got? All it took was a momentary colapse of my canopy and I was freefalling into the ground.

Fortunately I kept it together enough to spread the load (and spread the injury).

Jeeze that hurt.

Half an hour later in came the careflight rescue helicopter. even drugged up, I still remember that flight.

Anyway, was taken to the goldcoast hospital. Went into surgery and had an 8 hour opperation to try to save my leg. This was the luckiest day of my life that the surgeon in the middle of the night put in such a huge effort for me. I only wish I know who it was so I cound thank him. In the middle of all this I had cat scans as there were serious concerns about kedney damage. Ended up just being oxygen intake levels. Then spent 3 days there being pumped on morpnene whilst they tried to work out what to do with my broken back (broken between L3 and L4) and as an afterthought, my broken heel on the other leg.

This is where I get even more lucky. My wife happens to work for one of the leading authipedic surgeons in the state that specialises in below the ankle. One down, 2 to go. He then knew one of the states leading back surgeons. 1 to go. They both know one of the better leg surgeons.

Fortunately I had been paying for private health cover for 20 years. Never thought I would need it.

Had surgery on all the bits. 5 weeks in hospital, then came home in a wheelchair. Spent 3 months in a wheelchair and then got on to crutches. Spent the next 12 months after that on crutches.

The back surgery went fine. The heel surgery went ok. But the leg just didn't happen. I had about 4 or 5 operations on that leg (lost count). stapf infection set in.

18 months later and I still had ooze coming out of my wounds that couldn't heel.

Time for the heavy duty. Went in and got an external fixation installed. This is one of those big rings (3 of them) and in between the rings they run stainless steel pins from one side through the leg and then fix it to the other side. Had about 5 or 6 of these stainless steel pins.

After 2 years of drugs 3 times a day, the infection finally went away. Then the bones finaly took and started healing.

Went in for operation number 9, and finally that was it. I woke up, the rings were off, and the infection seemed to be beaten. Was the AFL grand final, things were looking up. Another year of drugs and it was gone (touch wood).

I ended up loosing 34mm from my left leg after the external fixation as it had to try to squeeze everything together. No complaints though. I still had my leg.

Private healthcare probably covered about 50K in fees.

Anyways,,,, then a friend of ours said, want to come out for the day on our boat, spent the day on a deserted beach with out 2 familys,,,,, the rest is history. Bought a boat, then another boat, then some gear, then some more gear,,, as I said, the rest is history. I ended up here in Ausfish.

Cheech

[MY-TopEnder]

Gees cheech, thats a bit rough... suddenly my smashedup finger seems pretty bloody piss weak.

[cooky]

i was going to mention my injuries, but after reading Cheeches I;m not going to bother.

My god Cheech - I'm amazed at how the human body repairs. You must REALLY appreciate life now. No wonder you want to get out and enjoy it.

Do you still watch sky diving or anything or is it too traumatic?

[SeaSaw]

I havn't done anything too serious, but have broken 9 bones (first at 18 months old when I jumped out of a high chair) and had too many stitches to count #:'(

The silliest accident I had was at about 15 years old riding my bicycle down a hill as fast as I could ... wearing cheap thongs ... on my feet #:P ... when my foot slipped of the pedal and into the front wheel spokes. #Well the spokes cut deeply into my ankle as my foot locked the front wheel against the forks. #The bike then became airborn and, I am told by friends that were with me, I did 4 complete forward somersaults with the bike before coming to rest. #Apparantly a spectacular show #:o :o ;D #And the damage .... backly cut up ankle and a few bits of gravel rash ... very lucky #:o. #I just bent the front wheel back so it was nearly round again, put my thongs back on, and peddled home #;D

Cheers,

Mark

[bigal]

Holidays, camping as a grom i thought i would pick up my now brotherinlaws hand spear and show off.. was told by mumsy to put it down so being the safe lil bugger i was i speared it into the ground with all my might to keep everyone from kicking it and hurting there toes... Shoulda been lookin as i sent it ( 5 prongs three into toes... nearly lost 2 ) down i got me. i tried to be all swarve at age 9 to the hot nurse, told her i was chasing a big fish! doc said "ya can keep the spear head and loose two toes or loose the spear head and keep the toes." would have been great to show my mates three toes but he thought better of it and killed the head. bugger it it was a brand new head. no broken bones. copped a 3/0 clouser in the cheek.. lots of blood but was a tap. and the worse one was i got bit on the hand by a chopper tailor. i poked it and it bit me again.. >:( nottin much other than that. oh i drowned a few times steppin in yabby holes after they were pumped out. ::)

[adamleah]

I chopped part of my finger off playing with an exercise bike at age 2, my old man was driving along 2 days later and was wondering what the smell was.. realised it was my finger in his top pocket still and tossed it out the window somewhere near Holland Park ;D..

Age about 5... was fishing with dad and he was underhand casting a handline... copped a 1/0 long shank in my eyelid...off to hospital

Age about 6 - was at boat ramp getting ready for annual week long trip to sth straddie,,, dad was pushing boat off trailer and yours truley walked into the spinning winch handle... 5 stitches in face.. no annual trip that year

Age 10 - christened mates new grey nick whilst wicket keeping ... fractured cheek and 6 stitches...

Been ok since then cept for having every non vital organ removed from my body ... :o

My old man is a shocker for accidents also. sort of an Australian Tim the tool man ...

He decided to paint our old house...and a series of accidents ocurred

1. came home from school to find him in backyard with steel trestles on top of him yelling for help..
2. fell through window and slashed under forearm ... would have needed about 15-20 stitches ... but no he was too tough ... ::)
3. sanded his stomach to bare flesh with a massive sander whilst prepping..

we subsequently sold the house .. partly painted..

He also stuck a 1/2 inch drill bit through his wrist and had to let go of the drill, reach for the reverse button on the bottom of the handle and reverse the bit out of his wrist ,,, ..

Who needs qualified tradespeople...

[Remo]

Fractured my Vertebrae in my neck playing Rugby, Sounds a lot worse than what it was. Still scary, continued to play on for another five years after a bit of a lay off.

[wessel]

One of the more recent ones as attached.
Not too gruesome for kids to see nor too big to need a 4 foot screen to see the picture I hope:)

First Dorado of the morning/ Was a bit of a baby of under 2kg and wanted to release it back to the big blue drink unharmed. Ended up with a treble hook through that fleshy bit of skin between your thumb and index finger. The other hook was attached to a Dorado flopping around the deck and trying to rip the hook out of my hand.

This was taken before we succesfully removed the hook. The poor Dorado didnt make it though, the adrenaline made me squeeze so hard that I broken it's spine unfortunately.

[Sportfish_5]

Here is a story for the marlin boys;

A Marlin to Remember
By Capt. Peter B. Wright (more by this author)


I'm often asked if any particular catches are more memorable than others. Of course, the biggest marlin stand out, but other fish stick in your mind for different reasons. One of my most memorable was a black marlin that we tagged and released one day in the middle of Australia's Cormorant Pass. This fellow then turned on a dime, crashed into the boat and skewered my deckhand in the chest with its massive bill. That was 30 years ago, but the day remains burned into my brain; I could never forget that fish. Those of you who saw professionally distributed copies of the home video shot that day probably won't forget either, and many of you have questioned me about the day Jimmy Burns got speared.

My team on board Kingfish included angler Bill Chapman and wire man Emmett ''Mutt'' Coble. I had talked another captain, Jim Burns, into coming along as our third crewman for a couple of weeks. Burns was a handsome young man with a beautiful wife and two small children. A bricklayer by trade, he had a great physique with a sculptured musculature from lifting thousands of bricks and concrete blocks.

Joining us on the first mothership trip this far north of Cairns were noted Australian Capt. Peter Bristow and his crew and charter on Avalon. Along with our catamaran mothership, the Tropic Queen, we trolled north along the outside edge of the Great Barrier Reef until we were due east of Lizard Island, where we reached the top of Number Ten Ribbon Reef.

We enjoyed wonderful fishing as we progressed farther and farther north, but wondered each day when we were going to get too far up the reef and run out of fish. Some days one game boat would have slow fishing, but the other would have a great day, so we kept pressing on into new territory.

I couldn't believe my eyes the morning I saw a sleek sport-fishing cruiser approaching from the north. Garrick Agnew, an Australian multimillionaire, had heard about the giant marlin being caught off Cairns and had run his custom-built 53-foot Pannawonica completely around the top half of Australia, over 3,000 miles from his home port of Perth. On Kingfish we had already tagged two or three marlin that day, and just before the two boats met in the middle of Cormorant Pass, we hooked up again.

The fish made a long run with enormous greyhounding leaps across the surface. Anywhere else in the world, the 600-pound marlin would have been a trophy. Here it was slightly above average, but no where near ''large'' and well short of the ''it's-a-horse'' distinction we used for marlin over 1,000 pounds and later called ''granders.''

The hook might have started out in the fish's mouth, or maybe it was hooked in the fish's back from the start. In either case, the marlin rapidly took line off the big Fin-Nor reel faster than I could back up in Kingfish. It took 200 yards out before I could get the boat turned around and give chase. I ran at planing speed from the control station in the tower. As we chased the marlin across the waves I could see the remains of the scad bait lying on its shoulder, where the hook had caught near the dorsal fin.

Chapman had recovered most of the line by the time the marlin began to slow down to recover from the oxygen debt incurred in the long, sustained run. All those majestic leaps had helped burn up the available oxygen in the bloodstream, and oxygen was necessary to allow the mighty muscles to function.

The thought flashed through my mind that here was our chance to show the new guys how a really good crew fought and caught marlin. I dropped from the tower to the flying bridge and spun Kingfish with the engines to back up after the marlin. Because I had stopped in a position up-sea and upwind from the fish, I was able to back up fast with no water pouring over the transom covering boards and with little spray even reaching the angler and crew.

The marlin continued to swim down-sea and came up to surf on the swell and chop generated by extended periods of 15- to 25-knot southeasterly trade winds. As the fish got a free ride from each wave, the tip of its huge sickle tail would protrude slightly above the surface of the water, and through our polarized sunglasses we could all see the color of the huge body under the surface.

I kept Kingfish backing up hard but angled her off to one side. Once Chapman had two turns of the 30 feet of doubled 130-pound line safely around the reel, he increased the drag. With the boat racing back after the fish and the increased drag slowing the marlin's forward speed, we continued to gain line until the big snap swivel connecting line and leader came within Coble's reach.

Coble, a tall, burly and athletic man, took hold of the swivel and heaved, then got a wrap of wire around a gloved hand and heaved again. The fish came ever closer to the boat. Now I could see that the leader was tangled around the fish and was pulling from a point behind the rigid bone of the pectoral fins. The marlin was both hooked in the dorsal fin and lassoed by a hitch of wire around its body. Coble would not be able to lead the fish from the head; he would have to try to pull the 12-foot-long, 600-pound body sideways through the water.

The black marlin and the boat were both racing down-sea with the fish alongside and to starboard. It was swimming parallel to the cockpit, with its head even with our transom, when Burns stepped in for the tag shot. As he reached out with the 10-foot tag pole, the marlin spurted forward past our stern and hurled itself into the air, out of his reach.

[Sportfish_5]

Part 11

''Don't break it!'' I yelled from the bridge as the marlin launched itself into the air again. Coble bent his knees to keep his body low so he could pull against the steel wire with his full strength. The marlin's leap went up more than out, and Coble, gauging the strain on the wire, continued to hold on. As the marlin went airborne in a high reverse somersault, Burns scuttled around Coble to reach out over the stern to apply the tag. I rapidly shifted from reverse to forward, then applied full throttle.

''Watch your hands!'' I cried as water from the spinning props jetted out from under the stern. It first stopped our reverse momentum, then started accelerating Kingfish forward. The boat was starting to move away from the fish, but although I didn't know it yet Coble's thickly gloved hands were not our greatest concern.

Burns reached far out over the transom and tagged the marlin in the shoulder as it finished the somersault and landed on its side with a huge splash. The video camera shows Burns backing up to get away from the marlin as it instantly jumped again - this time directly toward the boat.

I remember the boat starting to move, but too slowly. The video shows Burns getting caught on the armrest of the chair and being unable to move away from the oncoming fish as it came over the covering board and half into the boat. In the video you can see the bill making contact with Burns' left side. Some people even claim to see a bulge in the back of his shirt in one frame.

I heard a cry that registered at the time as ''got him'' as the fish landed half on the covering board and fell back into the sea. I thought the crew meant the tag was in, and we didn't need to continue with the fish. The boat sped away from the tagged marlin, and Coble hung on and broke the wire. Then I saw Burns clutch his chest, sit on the starboard gunwale and stagger into the salon and out of my sight.

I stuffed the gear levers into the neutral position and leapt from the bridge into the cockpit. I was the first one to reach Burns, who sat on the salon floor, leaning against the portside daybed. He was holding his chest, slightly to the left of center, directly above where most people think the heart lies. Blood stained his shirt and oozed through his fingers.

My heart sank, and I thought to myself, ''Oh God, I talked him into coming with us, and now I've killed him. And his family - what'll they do? I've really done it this time!''

I remember feeling terribly melodramatic as I grabbed his collared polo shirt and ripped it open. I was expecting a huge hole right in the center of his chest, and when I saw a smaller wound over to one side, closer to his armpit, I felt a rush of relief.

The relief was short-lived when I realized that the tissue I could see protruding through the lips of the wound was part of Burns' lung that had been pulled out when the rasplike bill exited after penetrating his upper body. I grabbed half of the torn shirt and wadded it up to hold it over the wound.

''Get me something to make a bandage,'' I said over my shoulder to the others who stood behind me. ''No, not the paper towels. Get a clean sheet and tear it into long strips.''

We made a bandage of a folded section of sheet secured with strips of sheet tied around his chest and made Burns as comfortable as we could. He sat on the salon floor, leaning back against a corner formed by the day berth and the bulkhead. ''Let him rinse his mouth with water,'' I said to the others. ''But don't drink anything, Jim. We're heading for Lizard Island. You're going to be all right.''

The Vietnam War was still in full swing with guys suffering horrible chest wounds every day, and I figured that if we could get Burns to a hospital quickly enough he would be OK. Briefly, I thought about the risk of infection from the material that the fish's bill could have introduced, but reasoned that if Burns lived long enough to have an infection, with modern antibiotics his chances of coming through this were excellent.

I grabbed a chart and ran up into the tower. There was no Loran or GPS in Australia in those days, and no buoys or aids to navigation in these remote waters, but a glance at the chart showed a narrow pass through the outer reef, then several miles of open water with no worry about coral heads. I grabbed the radio and called a Mayday, which was answered immediately, as I throttled up and started to run for help.

Within minutes I had relayed our situation to Bob Dyer, who was fishing much farther south on his Bertram Tennessee II. I planned to head for Lizard Island and asked that the Royal Flying Doctor Service send one of its airplanes to the small dirt landing strip that I had been told existed on the uninhabited island. Confirmation of my message and the successful relay to shore by boats nearer to Cairns brightened the outlook.

I stopped in the calmer, more protected water inside the reef and went below to check on Burns. I unwrapped the blood-soaked bandages to reappraise the damage and relay it to the doctors. Burns tried to sit up, but blood poured from the hole in his chest, and he fell back against the bunk. I was sure that what I could see was lung tissue, but Burns' pulse remained strong, and he was conscious, alert and breathing slowly and steadily. I reapplied the bandages.

''I got through to Bob Dyer, and he relayed it to Cairns,'' I told him. ''The flying doctor has been contacted. You're going to be OK.'' I tried to be more optimistic than I felt and didn't say anything about the punctured lung.

Chapman came into the tower with me and held the chart open in the wind so I could see how to approach the island. I had decided to run the boat up onto the beach if necessary, but we found a small commercial fishing boat in the anchorage and borrowed a dinghy.

We moved Burns off the deck and onto the bunk once we anchored in the calm waters of the lagoon. After talking to him and again checking his pulse, I went ashore and found a caretaker, the sole inhabitant of the island, living in a tent on the beachfront site where a fancy new resort that would become today's Lizard Island Lodge was soon to be built.

The caretaker's radio had the flying doctor frequency, and soon I was talking to a doctor who was already in the air aboard an air ambulance. They would be able to land at Lizard Island in under an hour. ''Take off the bandage and make an airtight covering over the wound. We want to prevent his lung from collapsing if it hasn't already. Plastic cling wrap under a bandage will do,'' the voice said through a background of static. ''Move him ashore, off the boat - we can do surgery on the spot if necessary.''

We decided not to follow these instructions. The inside layers of sheet were soaked with blood, and I was sure our bandage was already airtight. The boat was cleaner than any place on the island, and it was completely still in the anchorage in the island's lee. If there was emergency surgery to be done, we would let the doctor decide if the island was better than the boat.

We waited alongside the dirt strip with a small tractor. When the plane landed we carried a doctor and nurse with two large wooden cases and a stretcher to the beach and ferried them and their equipment to Kingfish.

Quickly and efficiently the team sprang into action. The wooden boxes unfolded into an emergency operating theater, complete with instruments and oxygen. They could have done open-chest surgery on the spot, and my relief at no longer being in charge was enormous! Less than two hours had elapsed since the accident.

After an inspection that revealed a partially collapsed lung, we strapped Burns onto a stretcher and transported him by boat and tractor back to the waiting airplane. After takeoff, the plane flew at almost zero altitude, skimming the waves en route to Cairns. A decrease in atmospheric presure from a high-flying airplane could be fatal.

The pitch dark of a moonless tropical night caught us several miles short of our mothership. I picked my way slowly through the treacherous coral heads with the the aid of a spotlight. When we finally reached safety at Tropic Queen, they yelled across the water that the evening news on the radio had reported Jim Burns was resting comfortably in Cairns Base Hospital in ''good'' condition. Our ordeal was over.

Postscript: Within two weeks, Burns was back at sea running a boat. When we got a chance to talk, I told him I had not wanted him to know how serious I believed his injuries to be as we ran for help. He in turn had thought we did not appreciate how badly he was hurt.

''I had this feeling that if I could keep from coughing and tearing myself up I might make it,'' he said. ''The urge to cough was awful, but I tried to keep breathing steadily.''

The doctors told Burns that the punctured lung was serious, but even more important, the tip of the bill had missed his heart by only millimeters. His heavily muscled chest possibly provided that fraction of an inch that meant the difference between life and death.

Every year, the Royal Flying Doctor Service gets my grateful donation!

[el_carpo]

;D I was once called a NERD by my own mother! ;D

Believe me, the crippling emotional injury far outweighed any of the major physical injuries I've sustained in my life. ;D Of course, once my brothers heard about it, I received plenty of those too. ;D

As far as the physical stuff goes...

1. I've been chewed up by dogs about ten times pretty good while trying to break up their fights (ordinary fights, not that pit-bull/gambling garbage). Scars/broken fingers. Sibrian huskies.

2. My knee was split open to the bone on a piece of metal. Stitches/scar.

3. My arm was split open on glass. Stitches/scar. ;D A lady saw the scar on a bus one day and started screaming at me for "Trying to kill myself." I said, "Lady! Lady! It's not like that! I wasn't trying to kill myself! I got this trying to kill my brother!" (I got cut when I missed a punch I threw at him and fell landing on a big glass jar that shattered.) She paused and said, "Well......WAIT!!!, THAT'S WORSE!!!" ;D ;D ;D

4. My front tooth went through my lower lip and got stuck in the wooden bed post (Should have listened to my parents when they said "No jumping on the bed). No stitches but a cool scar that I tell everyone who asks, that it came from "My bare-handed fight with a giant Grizzly bear!" They never believe me though.;D

5. Had the end of my little finger crushed in a car door. Made it worse wen I pulled it out before the door was open. Took most of the skin and all of the nail with it. YEEEEOOOUCH!!! :o ;D

6. Cut the end of my thumb off watching the "Simpsons" instead of the chicken I was cutting up for dinner one night. D'OH!!! "Mmmmmmm....chicken...arggggggg!" (Hard to impersonate Homer when typing.) ;D

7. Did a somersault off of the garage roof onto the cement (I was aiming at a snow pile) and broke some stuff. I can't remember why I was doing that. ???

8. Got hit in the head by my brother's friend's home-made ninja throwing star of death.

9. Got hit in the head by some kid I didn't know's ninja throwing star of death.

10. Fell down a 30 foot cliff face into a thorny wild rose bush while walking a dog in the woods. The dog was fine, I let the leash go, I however, wasn't.

11. Fishing injuries are all typical--hooks in hands, catfish spikes going where I'd rather they not, cutting hand with line, etc.

Compared to some of you guys, my injuries are a day at the beach. :o You guys are either really lucky or you've used up all your luck and better watch your steps! Go play the lottery and see which it is.

Be safe and catch some fish!
"Live long and Prosper!"--Egads!, Mom was right, I AM a nerd! ;D

E.C.

[DaneCross]

Me, broken neck + compressed spinal cord = quadriplegia.
Did it playing touch football :-/

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

that non-contact stuff will get ya ever time eh dane.

very little of my skin is the original + broken noses from footy & a field hockey ball (plural), front teeth smashed in from an iron plate falling on my face when I was working under a bus...

- index finger flat as a 20c coin between a gate & post

- toes split right apart up thru the webbing into the foot proper, riding barefoot on a bike & losing it - #the spoke did the cutting work

- bike accident on mt buderim that left my kneecap showing #- rode to a doctor

- THE MOST HUMBLING... was vacuuming one morning before work to surprise the missus who had gone to work early. Walking backwards whilst doing it I tripped & fell ass first thru a glass top coffee table. A 30cm sabre shaped piece of glass went into my left buttock - the docs don't know how it missed the siatic (?) nerve. When I stood up out of the table I had only minor scratches - I was amazed & thankful that I didn't put my hands down or I would have cut my wrists. I felt a dribble down the back of my leg so I went to the bedroom to look in the full length mirror. I bent over to get the best view onf the back of my legs & the wound opened & sprayed the mirror like a gerni - i remember thinking - awww shit, then phoning my brother sheepishly for help.
THE LESSON - vacuuming is woman's work !


none of that hurt anywhere near as much as watching my 18 month old son get stitches in his bottom lip - i would have taken it all tenfold again for him to avoid that - its a bitter sweet thing only a parent could understand.

Dane, if he's never said it - your old man thinks that thought for sure - & your ticker & gusto mate soothes his agony.

Hope I didn't cross a boundary there. #:)

chris

[DaneCross]

that non-contact stuff will get ya ever time eh dane.

Cheers Chis, no boundrys crossed. Yeh did it diving for a try in the grand final, ran into an opponents knees/shins head first - no spear tackle involed ;) :D Just freaky/unlucky i guess... gotta keep on keeping on though, despite set backs, you only live once ;)
Dane

[jewies]

hmm mine is nothing much compared to others but sisterly love bought mine on.

my sister and I were trying to find a way to remove a cricket stump from the ground which was completely imbedded in. Anyway me being stupid ran to the shed and pulled out the pitch fork. Anyway i bought it to her and she got pissed and yelled at me saying this isnt going to work. She then proceeded to poke the fork at me and sing dance tom dance while i screamed stop it stop it. as i screamed stop she stopped and i stopped but she didnt stop iuntil the pitch fork had imbedded through the side of my foot and come out the bottom.

anyway my mates brother was riding his yammy 250 and struck a tree stump causing him to fly over his handle bars and cutting his leg up very badly resulting in approximately 150-200 stitches up his leg. To make it worse he also broke his femur and his ear was then dangling by a thread and needing stitches around his ear

[bungie]

This is my wifes story in her own hand :-/

Funny isn’t it that we all remember so clearly that day that changed our lives…I probably couldn’t tell you a lot about the day leading up to my accident, nor the following days…ummmmmm that’s prolly cause I was in a coma…

It was 1981, March 2nd, and I had been to a town to visit my aunt. My friend and I decided to leave early to head home as mum had a roast on…

10:15 in the morning when we turned onto a gravel road that I had travelled some 20 times, but today it was loose as it had just been resurfaced and graded so I was very cautious as I headed along. I was doing about 60km an hour, but the guy coming the other way wasn’t as experienced in gravel or country driving and obviously thought the faster you got to the other end the better so he was doing in excess of 110kms per hour. When he came over the hill it was obvious he didn’t have control of his vehicle but there was no where for me to go so I just put my feet on the floor of the car and hoped he would sneak on by…uh uh….the next thing I remember is crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaashhhhhhhhhhhh and my car spinning as he had hit me head on. Didn’t have much feeling in my legs so thought they must have been broken …could have had something to do with the engine that was now sitting firmly on them.

We were out in the country but lucky that about 30 minutes after the accident a family came by and stopped…to this day I swear that I owe my life to a 13 year old boy who kept my adrenalin going by teasing me and not letting me go to sleep..the Dr's have since said if I had gone to sleep that would have been it. This young boy stayed with me while his father went on into town to get help…no mobiles in them there days….The police, ambulance fire dept arrived…hmmmm a bit dramatic me thinks ... but they had to use the jaws of life to get me out of the car as I was trapped….some 4 hours had now passed and they were concerned about the amount of blood I had lost so they were pretty intent on getting me on board a life flight…

I did well on the flight etc until I got to the Royal Perth Hospital…like I knew I didn’t have to fight anymore, promptly went into a coma…My parents were told that I had a broken ankle and I would be out on crutches but my dad knew better as I was in the resus unit by now….after hours of xrays etc they finally gave my injuries as: 2 X crushed femurs, 1 X compound dislocated fibula and tib (ankle), 12 broken ribs, flailed chest, collapsed lung, punctured lung, clot on the brain, closed head injury causing a 4 sided bleed (was in a coma for 6 weeks), 3 X compressed vertebrae in my back, crushed pelvis, sliced tendon in my finger (now that hurt), broken nose , broken jaw, major facial cuts, various cuts and bruises and a crushed heel…where the accelerator had gone over my foot it had minced the top of my foot but hadn’t broken the skin – only a little nick – perfect breeding ground for good old gangrene…Well to cut a long long story off at the knees, I have had 42 surgeries and Murphy’s law says that the last op was meant to be the last but instead I ended up with a bony tumour in my hip so take morph every day..First stint in hospital was 18 months and then on and off in varying lengths of time since them….Greatest achievements being proving them wrong and keeping my legs, then walking on them, then having two wonderful kids that I have been told there is no medical reason that I should have had them.

Something I'll add, over twenty years down the track and she is on 240mg of Morphine a day for complications arising from the accident. The bloke driving the car that hit her ? he got up and walked away from it all without a scratch, surprising how much alcohol can protect a person. Drink driving rarely hurts the drunk, but the innocent can suffer for years

[Sportfish_5]

Bungie - Youre wife is a great example of someone with true courage. Amazing story of personal achievement to come through that.

Cheers

Greg

[DaneCross]

Bloody amazing Bungie :o What was it like the day she woke up after being in a coma for 6 weeks? That would have been such an unbelievable feeling of relief to have her back!
DC

[Dirty_Mole]

little tip, when working on the lathe always be carefull. I was on the lathe at school and i stopped it and as it was slowing down i put my hand on it and it caught my thumb and it dragged it under the guard thing and was burning it an ripped a few layers of skin off about the size of a 5 cent piece and i have no feeling in my thumb or i cant move it it kinda hurt but its all good freaked a few people out and if i'm lucky i'll have a cool scar ;D

[bungie]

DC, the accident was before we met, but her folks say it was a very dark time in their lives

[bidkev]

Had plenty of breaks and cuts as a kid most of them inflicted by others. The worst pain I can recall as a kid is a broken collar bone and dislocated shoulder that went untreated for 10 days.......a perforated ear drum from diving too deep comes close.

The worst as an adult, was a couple of episodes of chest pain a few years ago that had me on my knees gasping for air and thinking I was dying.

The funniest (in retrospect) was when I got in a scrap with a guy called Roger Kenyon (yes you pomms) the guy who used to play for Everton. I was in a park by a ride called a gondola which is a smaller version of the big ones you see at places like Sea World. He gave me a clout and I threw one back.......woke up in hospital with a broken hand and 6 stitches in my chin. Apparently, I'd missed him and hit the supports breaking my fist. Whildst I was hopping around in pain, I stepped in front of the gondola which hit me under the chin and proceeded to carry me skywards :-) Everybody buggered off and I was found by a passer-by.

A week later I was skating and fell and split the stitches. The girl across the road came to help me......I was in love with her......she was 17 and I was 14 (and naiive) and I thought she was the best thing since sliced bread. She patched me up and put me on a bus to the hospital. Everyone was looking at me weirdly and I thought, "what's up with them? It's only a bloody cut". Wasn't till later when she apologised for the "bandage" that I found out it was a sanitary towel that she'd placed on my chin and put the loops over my ears to hold it in place :-) Luckily, none of my mates saw me :-)

Thought I'd had a rough time till I read some of the posts on this thread.....I'm humbled.

cheers kev

[Nivlag]

I remember once getting home after a days fishing with no fish, my looks at me and says “you’re hopeless, you can’t fish” - just like that with seemingly no thought whatsoever just what it meant.

It hurt me – hurt me bad, cut straight to the bone. I start to sweat each and every time I pick up the gear now. I just hope none of you guys have to go through that

[Dodgy_Back]

After reading about all these injuries that happened as aresult of accidents. I'm so glad my back just wore out to the point of needing a couple of surgeries rather than some horrific accident.
The bad side is i can't do heavy work, even a carton of beer is too heavy ,but atleast my surgeon says i can still go fishing ,so i try to go once or twice a week, my insurance pays me for this so life is pretty relaxed for me. ( except for the dodgy back of course).
Good luck to all that are still recovering , some of those accidents sound terrible