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Another accident last weekend


k_b_stephens

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After seeing Intense's post about the little boy who lost his life at Lake Wylie, thought I'd post this to raise safety awareness.

A friend/co-worker of mine got prop chopped by his girlfriend last Saturday. He had a horse shoe hidden somewhere!

His post on EORG

I want to remind everyone to be safe. Accidents Can and DO happen, so the best thing you can do is be prepared. Take a boat safety course. Make sure you have a first aid kit. Always ride with more than 1 other person, and make sure everyone on board is capable of operating the boat.

This is what happened to me this weekend. Pictures are at the bottom.

I was riding on Lake Jordan Saturday afternoon when one of the scariest things that ever happened to me occurred. I was riding with my girlfriend of 2 years, her cheerleading coach who is a nurse, and a friend of the coach. Her coach has a newer Supra.

I was on the wakeboard and dropped the handle to talk to my girlfriend, who was driving. She has been driving my Nautique for the time we have been dating, and is fairly confident with it. I made sure to teach her to drive and dock it.

As she circled around to pick me up, things got ugly. She knows the “driver side” rule when retrieving a skier. At the last minute, she switched and went to the passenger side. I was directly in front of the boat. I’m not sure if the left hand prop had anything to do with it or if it was just a mental error. I was still strapped into my wakeboard and wearing a coast guard approved PFD. I was able to stay out until the midline of the boat, when it sucked me under. I pushed off the hull as hard as I could and threw my head and body back, trying to get as low in the water as possible. I knew what was about to happen.

She did not take the boat out of gear, it was still notched into forward. The prop struck my right leg just below the knee, then hit my left leg at the knee. I felt the ripping flesh. It was a strange sensation, almost surreal. I did not feel any pain until I was back floating, when I saw the damage. The blood was all over the water.

They did not circle back to pick me up. My girlfriend was already in the water swimming to me. Her coach was not far behind. The boat was probably 30 yards away when it stopped. They helped me swim back to the boat and climb aboard. I was able to get the wakeboard off and laid on the sun deck. They applied a tourniquet to my right leg, which is much worse than the left. I would later learn this was not the best thing to do. Luckily, it was not very tight and I was able to maintain circulation, it just helped stem the blood flow.

My brand new straightline rope and handle had gotten caught in the prop during this somehow. I’m not sure what happened because I was going into shock. I know I did not have the rope when I was sucked under, so it must have drifted in somehow. They tried to get it unhooked for what felt like 10 minutes before I just threw it overboard. I was not sure how bad my legs were because I refused to look at them.

The fire department and ambulance were waiting for me at the dock. These guys were wonderful, professional, and fast. I was in the bus and hooked to oxygen and an iv before I knew it. He gave me 4mg of morphine, and man was that stuff wonderful. It cascades over you like a cold shower. I felt it go up my arm, through my torso, and into my legs before everything felt numb. I was able to talk to the paramedic all the way to the hospital and this kept my mind off of what happened.

I ended up with 4 lacerations to my legs. The right leg has 2 very deep gashes, just below my knee. The bigger one went all the way to bone. The left leg has 2 smaller ones on at the top of the shin and on the knee cap.

I was very lucky! I am SO thankful. Luckily I will have no permanent damages. There will be no muscle damage; no bones were broken or fractured, and no permanent nerve damage. All of my tendons and joints escaped unscathed. I went into surgery this morning under anesthesia, where they cut out all the dead or infected flesh and then loosely sewed me up. I am under heavy antibiotics and taking pain killers, but I should be back to normal in a few weeks.

Although I will miss the rest of the season in the water, I will be back out driving and hanging out as soon as they give me clearance. This has not and will not change my love for the water, be it wakeboarding, skating, surfing, or just being with friends on a beautiful afternoon.

It must be horrible to feel the way my girlfriend does. I know it was an accident and she knows so as well, but cannot forgive herself. She is having trouble accepting what happened. Please always be mindful about how you would feel hurting someone you know or love and the guilt you would feel. There is nothing I can say to take this guilt away from her, as much as I wish I could.

Seeing your life flash in front of your eyes is such a scary experience. It keeps replaying over and over in my head. I can’t describe it in any way other than sheer terror, knowing something terrible is about to happen but helpless to do anything about it. I don’t want to think about how much worse it could have been. The lord was really watching over me. I feel LUCKY.

Please everyone be careful! Out on a lake one simple mistake can change everything!

WARNING GRAPHIC PICS

http://endofropegang.com/cpgnuke/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7998

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That's bad but I think there is a big difference between getting injured and loosing a life, not that accidents won't happen but it's unfortunate when an innocent life is taken away from a loved one for a mistake like that.

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The sequence of events shows... there is no such thing as an accident.... there are incidents with a series of decisions and actions that align to create an unintended outcome. Where I work the word accident is a dirty word.

Edited by G-Mack
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I don't know how to respond to the 2 previous posts without showing my @ss, so I'll just leave it at that. KB, I wish your buddy a speedy recovery, hopefully his girlfriend can learn from and move on from this accident.

Edited by Ndawg12
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Wow what a crazy incident. I have to say I've thought that was going to happen to me before in the past. I'll also agree that yes it may have not been intentional in any way, accidents always have causes they don't just happen for no reason. I used to think an accident was just an accident until I started investigating them many years ago, it was then I learned the importance of learning from incidents and not letting them happen again.

I hope your friend gets better and his girlfriend will learn to forgive herself.

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I don't know how to respond to the 2 previous posts without showing my @ss, so I'll just leave it at that. KB, I wish your buddy a speedy recovery, hopefully his girlfriend can learn from and move on from this accident.

Thanks I will not return any disrespect.

As a critical incident investigator and volunteer firefighter (I lead investigations on fatalities). I watch people repeat history repeatedly. It goes without saying people are grieving and all that can be done is offer support. That's why I didn't add my comment to the fatality post out of repect and commented on the injury post where the outcome will most likley be positive.

Look at your day to day lives and your near misses as the only thing that prevented them from getting worse was luck not skill.

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I think I'll show those pics to my sons (my daughters might be a little to young still) as a visual reminding of how quickly things can go wrong.

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martinarcher

Wow that is rough. I'm glad he is going to be OK and had the sense to push off the hull hard and get his body as low from the oncoming prop as possible. It probably saved his life.

His post said he can't wait to get back on the water, but I bet he has a really hard time getting his girlfriend to drive again even though after that accident she might be one of the most careful and best drivers on the water. I really hope she can forgive herself because he certainly has.

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I don't know how to respond to the 2 previous posts without showing my @ss, so I'll just leave it at that.

Yea really, tough crowd.

Edited by k_b_stephens
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In all my years - I've found the best thing I can do when I hear of another's misfortune, especially one that had an injurious unintended outcome, is offer support, kind words and a prayer. Kindness, a prayer and good wishes from me to all involved here.

After that, I'll take the lessons the OP has shared, quietly, and to myself; apply them to my own life, again thankful it wasn't me or one of my sons. Because I know from my own hard lessons where I was judgmental (and now I owe those folks an apology) - I take lessons other people offer, apply them or remind myself of importance of what is being shared.

So to the OP - thank you for posting. And best wishes plus prayers for everyone involved. Your friend's generosity in sharing your pain so others may quietly - and to themselves, remind themselves of basic safety measures so-as to avoid this in their own lives - is very much appreciated. For those that judge you or your friends for this generous post, or post ridiculous un-needed words that only add to the injury and have their own "unintended consequences" I offer a third party apology to you. That person's good fortune has lasted longer than their own ability to be humble in the face of someone else's very bad day.

Cheers.

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martinarcher

In all my years - I've found the best thing I can do when I hear of another's misfortune, especially one that had an injurious unintended outcome, is offer support, kind words and a prayer. Kindness, a prayer and good wishes from me to all involved here.

After that, I'll take the lessons the OP has shared, quietly, and to myself; apply them to my own life, again thankful it wasn't me or one of my sons. Because I know from my own hard lessons where I was judgmental (and now I owe those folks an apology) - I take lessons other people offer, apply them or remind myself of importance of what is being shared.

So to the OP - thank you for posting. And best wishes plus prayers for everyone involved. Your friend's generosity in sharing your pain so others may quietly - and to themselves, remind themselves of basic safety measures so-as to avoid this in their own lives - is very much appreciated. For those that judge you or your friends for this generous post, or post ridiculous un-needed words that only add to the injury and have their own "unintended consequences" I offer a third party apology to you. That person's good fortune has lasted longer than their own ability to be humble in the face of someone else's very bad day.

Cheers.

I could not have worded a post better. Very very well said Jeff! Thumbup.gif

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VERY well said Sir.

In all my years - I've found the best thing I can do when I hear of another's misfortune, especially one that had an injurious unintended outcome, is offer support, kind words and a prayer. Kindness, a prayer and good wishes from me to all involved here.

After that, I'll take the lessons the OP has shared, quietly, and to myself; apply them to my own life, again thankful it wasn't me or one of my sons. Because I know from my own hard lessons where I was judgmental (and now I owe those folks an apology) - I take lessons other people offer, apply them or remind myself of importance of what is being shared.

So to the OP - thank you for posting. And best wishes plus prayers for everyone involved. Your friend's generosity in sharing your pain so others may quietly - and to themselves, remind themselves of basic safety measures so-as to avoid this in their own lives - is very much appreciated. For those that judge you or your friends for this generous post, or post ridiculous un-needed words that only add to the injury and have their own "unintended consequences" I offer a third party apology to you. That person's good fortune has lasted longer than their own ability to be humble in the face of someone else's very bad day.

Cheers.

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I don't know how to respond to the 2 previous posts without showing my @ss, so I'll just leave it at that. KB, I wish your buddy a speedy recovery, hopefully his girlfriend can learn from and move on from this accident.

My comment was based on the previous post of the boy that died, and what I didn't explain (my fault) is that at least he is alive and has a chance to see another day. And even if he doesn't feel that way now, he should always look back and be thankful it wasn't worse. I wouldn't wish this to happen to anyone and I do hope he has a speedy recovery with no complications. My apologizes to everyone for coming off as not caring on my first post here.

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Prayers and thoughts to both your friend and his girlfriend. It must be tough knowing you hurt someone you love so seriously unintentionally. I believe your friend was not lucky but BLESSED to be here to tell his story for others to learn from. We wish him a speedy recovery from his physical wounds and his girlfriend from her emotional ones. God Bless

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Thanks for posting the story. We all try and be careful, but stories like these help us to learn, to be aware of dangerous situations and remind us not to become complacent about anything.

Hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend and is extremely causious of the dangers created by ourselves and others out on the water.

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Best wishes for you and your lady. I'm sure we'll all hope for a speedy recovery for you.

I'm afraid your gf will take longer to heal, I hope she gets help. Make sure she knows it could happen to any of us drivers!

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Three things...

1. Your friend is so lucky! I am glad that it turned out okay (besides his jacked up leg)

2. His GF owes him BIG TIME!!!

3. How the heck do you not think about getting run over every time a boat circles around to pick you up???

Edited by jetskipro550
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Your friend is amazingly lucky. Could have easily lost one or both legs, or worse, been cut so badly he bled out and died. Hopefully his recovery will be speedy and complete.

My pickup technique for a downed skier/boarder is the same every time. Keep the person that is in the water in clear sight on the drivers side of the boat. Cruise in with the boat just in gear, keep a buffer zone of at least 3 feet, as the bow becomes inline with the person I shift into neutral and turn the engine off. From there on I just allow the boat to drift and the person can swim a couple of feet to the stern of the boat or if I happen to over shoot, they can grab the rope and we just drag them to the boat.

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