Trauma incident + 20 seconds: You're alive but will you survive?

摘要

Terry, a 52-year old climber, was standing on an elm limb about 35 feet off the ground. He had one foot in the crotch at the trunk and the other foot balanced on the limb. He stretched out with his handsaw to cut a branch. At that moment his climbingline caught around another branch and he decided to unclip his carabineer - only for a second - to untangle his line. However, in that second, he fell. His fall was typical for tree workers -the path to earth was not direct but involved collisions with several branches and limbs on the uncontrolled descent, almost an aerial pinball. Terry landed on a pile of brush about 10 feet from the trunk. While he was initially unresponsive, he regained consciousness within a minute or two and with the help of Frank, his coworker, sat up. Terry felt a little dazed, a couple of aches, but thought he was fine.