12/8/00 I got up and went to work on top of the world. I had my new son, his 1st Christmas was coming and everything was going great. I got to work and was sent to the town of Dover to clear a backyard for a pool and basketball court at a new house. The job was going great. I was working with 2 other people. We were removing a lot of large oaks, misc. trees and under brush. After lunch one of the guys was sent to go dump the chip truck. Myself and one other guy went back to work. I was felling the trees and bucking them to length and the other guy was moving the wood with a machine. I went to cut down a large oak that was standing all by itself. We hadn't cut any other trees around it all day. I made the proper cuts and was backing away at the safe 45 degree departure angle. About 12 to 15 feet away from the stump a 5" limb broke out of the top of the tree from about 40' and hit me in the helmet. It then skidded off the helmet on to my shoulder and dropped me to the ground. My helmet broke but saved my life. I was also wearing chaps and my saw somehow came in contact with my leg and chewed up my chaps. I spent 2 weeks in the hospital, about 3 months out of work and 6 months of physical therapy. This is all what people in the accident report said (I don't remember anything from the week of the accident and a few days after). I was told I had been doing everything right when it happened. It was just a fluke accident. The moral of the story is that cutting trees is no joke. Whether it's a 10" tree or a 4' tree, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Waking up a week later in a hospital after an accident is no joke. The doctors said if I wasn't wearing a helmet I would have been dead. I keep that helmet at work on my toolbox as a reminder to everyone and myself how important it is to wear your safety gear. Think twice befor you do something where you could hurt or killed.
John
John
