Got Hurt Pretty Bad Yesterday

[Travis_R]

I was standing on my finishing mower barefooted (mistake) , getting ready to grease it, and lifted up on the tractor's hydraulic lever. As the mower was coming up, my foot got severely smashed between the mower deck and the drive-shaft. I thought something comeout from under the mower and was biting me and wouldn't let go. When I realized what was happening, I hurried and let the hudraulic lever back down. I just knew my toes and foot was crushed. I then was hollering and stumbling around and made it up to the house, where I liked to have scared my grandmother and aunt half to death. One of them got me a wet wash cloth for my face, because I was extremely nauseated. The other one called my parents, where we live up the road.

I went to an after-hours walk in clinic. They took several x-rays and determined it was luckily not broken. I can't hardly walk on my foot as of right now, but its getting better, considering the blueness, blackness, and swelling and hopefully i'll be able to go back to work Friday or Monday.

LESSONS LEARNED:

1...Hydraulics don't "give".
2...Do not operate or mess with equipment barefooted.
3...Do not stand on implements while trying to hook them up.
4...Try to find help to hook up implements (which is very hard for me to do).
5...Let someone know you'll "be in the back working with your tractor".

Travis R

 

[George2615]

Glad to hear nothing was broken. Also seems like you learned a valuable lesson. Lessons such as this should be adhered to by everyone who operates any kind of machinery. I hope you have a speedy recovery.

George

 

[texasjohn]

Thanks for posting... a sober reminder to all of us that simple tasks done often can go wrong...

Hope your foot does improve soon.... not fun

 

[JimR]

Glad to hear you survived with only minor bruising. You lucked out this time. Machinery is unforgiving and could care less.

 

[keving]

Glad to hear you will be OK. This is one of my favorite quotes.

"Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement."

Henry Ford

 

[BobG_in_VA]

Really glad you're gonna be OK. Steel is totally unforgiving. Bet your folks are gonna be sorta unforgiving as well....for a while anyway. Get better! Hard lessons learned usually stay with us, I'm sure this one will. BobG in VA

 

[CurlyDave]

Moderator:

Could we move this post to "Safety"?

 

[scesnick]

Mowers and human feet never mix well. Ask my dad. As of 3 months ago he is missing his first 3 toes on his left foot !!!! Almost bled to death due to being on blood thinners. All is well now, even though he now wears a size 11 AND a size 9 !!!

Good to hear you came away from it alot better. Thank goodness it wasn't running !!!!

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Travis,
Glad to hear that you didnt break any bones !!! It could have been much worse ! Barefeet and machinery dont mix well, Im sure you wont make that mistake again !

 

[MossRoad]

Don't feel bad Travis... I once dropped a mower deck edge off the corner of a sidewalk onto my feet while wearing sandals. Ouch that hurt! And just a couple weeks ago I dropped the frame for the backhoe I'm building onto both of my feet while arc welding. That hurt, too! Point is, many of us don't think about the consequences of things until we experience them for ourselves. If we survive and remember, good lessons learned. If not... Darwin wins. Glad you only learned a lesson. Hope you're feeling better soon.

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

Glad that you will be fine...

 

[Travis_R]

Thanks for all the replies.

As of now, I can walk on it a little, mainly on my heel. The swelling and blueness is still there, but is getting a lot better. I can't quite move my toes all the way down, but I can get around.

This incident happened on 7-18-06. I turned 22 years old the day before.
I won't forget it.

Travis R

 

[3RRL]

Travis,
Glad to hear you're ok and will soon recover. We all have our little "problems" that we learn from. Maybe this will make you feel better??....

Mrs. 3RRL has seen me get the 4x4 ATV high centered. I try to rock it first, then get off and try forward then reverse and I can push it around some and keep control somewhat. Well, she was watering the food plot and did (tried) the same thing....I guess. Anyway, somehow she manged to get stuck on it. Then after trying the rocking bit, she got off and tried the forward/reverse thing. Well, she gassed it a little too much and ran over her own foot. Then the tire grabbed, got instant traction and she ran over herself...yes ran over herself!

So now the idling ATV is stradling her and she is kinda pinned under it. She couldn't get to her radio to call me so she struggled for about a ½ hour and finally got out somehow. Miraculously, she was not hurt and never said a word to me. The only reason I found out is I saw that she was black and blue and asked what happened...she finally told me but was embarrased. I listened to her story dumbfounded. Then, although I tried my best, I couldn't help but bust up and laugh MAO...then she started laughing too.