Very lucky escape

Last Wednesday I was doing general freight deliveries and while pulling the curtain back on the truck was struck from behind by the tynes of a fork lift RHS lower ribs, I had my back to him.
It left me winded for about 1 1/2 minutes, had a coulple of very colorful phrases for the driver to think about, didnt seem to worry me unduely and kept working.
Thursday ok, some minor irritation but didnt stop me working.
Friday morning 0430hrs, got up couldnt, walk, cough, sneeze, blow nose, put shoes on, etc. SWMBOW calls taxi, come to hospital, curse doctor and nurses when they poke me on the ribs, get xrays, no sign of breaks/fractures, get admitted with with appropriate strong pain killers.
Still here but better, bruising around impact point, still #@$%^!! hurts coughing or moving suddenly / wrong way.
WC claim started, would not like to be in the shoes of the forky, if he still has a job.

A lesson learnt, dont let a forky near you until you have un gated and you are in the driver safety zone.

Up side is have met a really top bloke in the same room as me, excellent medical staff and damn good hospital food

Take care everyone, no matter how simple or complicated the task, do it safely

Firstly, glad to hear you're ok!

Secondly, what an absolute knucklehead in the fork.

Thirdly, a couple of questions...

1. Re "damn good hospital food", are you sure you weren't hit in the head also?
2. How did the wife take the news that you "met a really top bloke"?

Here's to a speedy recovery.

Craig

You wonder if some goons get their licenses by post!!

Just hope all is well and nothing evil pops up at a later date!

Cheers mate!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

Ouch!
Hope everything turns out O.K.
Make sure you keep a record of all expenditure, including taxi fares, transport costs, phone calls, everything that may have come from your pocket, including expenses incurred by your wife traveling to see you and looking after you.
Keep a diary of all treatment and names of all medical people.
I can see a workers comp. claim coming, good records are essential. Hopefully there was a witness to the idiot driving the forklift.
Anyway, your recovery is the most important thing, and that nothing serious has been done to your innards.

Alan...

My goodness me Ray, as you said close call...
The forkie should be sacked for driving with his tines raised....
Take care good friend and blessing for a speedie recovery...
Cheers, crowie

Im now home with a week off work.

Severe bruising to soft tissue around rib / chest area.

As my doc said, I was very lucky it wasnt worse, a break or even punctured rib cage / lung

First time in my life I have had to go on workers comp

Good luck with the recovery.

All human activities have an error rate. Most errors have no or little ill-effect. Sadly this one did.

When in high school we had the local copper come in to talk about road safety. I don't recall the details but he did something like this: pointed to three kids and asked them to put their hands up. Said that in the course of our lives those three as an average out of the class would be killed or seriously injured on the roads.

All the best Ray for a speedy recovery. Hope your not missing the hospital food (or the bloke :D).

We had a 3 metre zone around fork lifts due to things like this and loads toppling off them. I saw two fully loaded cages come off the tines when loading as some dope had put a 600kg cage on top of a 150kg. Stuffed the fork lift, cages and damaged the product inside the cages. Lucky it was on Westpac's site and did not get out the door. Good luck with the recovery and if the curtains weren't pulled why was he so close to the truck?

Good to hear your doing better. Stay safe. You got another 15 years or so till you retire ;)

Take care Ray. Actually, take more care :) . Recover well.

Regards
Paul

Thank you all for your kind thoughts, yes I will be careful and those fork drivers will be getting a hard time from me about when and how from now on

Thank you all

Well, I wasn't happy with my rate of recovery, normally I'm a very quick healer, but was still get pain with very little improvement, insisted the doc send be for a bone scan so yesterday had a nuclear bone scan, yep, rib 8 & 9 fractured, 9 being the worst one.

Looks like the rest of the year off, no heavy lifting / twisting / not too much bending, all light duties.

SWMBO recons the definition of light duties are: washing up, sweeping, vacuuming, I know what I can get her for Christmas...... a new dictionary!!

LoL.

Damn, Ray, every silver lining has a cloud :rolleyes:

For bone healing I can recommend, on the basis of prof'l advice, magnesium, Vit D and calcium supplements.

Best of luck with your recovery.

Ribs are a very sore thing. I'll have a chat with your wife ;). I've had a broken rib.

Hope you're good for Jerilderie for Australia Day.



Dave

The Turning Cowboy