Fell off the roof today...

arcas

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2001
2,155
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Extension ladder slid out from beneath me as I was preparing to climb down. Fell about 10 feet. Spent the rest of day at the hospital. Luckily I escaped with only minor cuts and wounds and a badly sprained ankle (I figured it and my right forearm were broken). Hospital personnel said that given the height of the fall and the way I fell/landed, my injuries should have been far worse. If there are a such thing as guardian angels looking out for us, mine scored an A+ today...

 

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
Moderator
Jul 19, 2001
38,572
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If everyone else is gonna be nice, im gonna be mean.


DAMNIT!!!! WHY DIDNT YOU BREAK SOMETHING?!?!? GAH!!!!!

;)
 

Tominator

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,559
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Fall on your head next time...works for me!:p

Glad to hear you will recover. Got some good drugs I'll bet...;)
 

MrPhelps

Golden Member
Sep 9, 2001
1,421
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Ladder companies have the largests amount of lawsuits. Just a tidbit.

Glad you are ok;):)
 

Cyberian

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2000
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Man, I am really glad to hear that you are (mostly) OK!

My son fell off a ladder at work over 5 years ago, and he is still not even close to being better.
Shattered both heels and was in a wheelchair for quite a while. Then crutches. He still has to wear special shoes and he walks like he is tiptoeing all the time. Painkillers up the yinyang and he still has bad days if it's damp out.
 

Codewiz

Diamond Member
Jan 23, 2002
5,758
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Glad to hear you are ok!!!!

My grandfather fell off a ladder at age 72. It was the start of his decline in health. A year later his kidneys went into failure. He lived for about 4 more years on dialysis. However you spell it. He made it a lot longer than the docters ever thought possible.

I have never liked ladders since then. I happened to see him fall off. I have no problems with heights. I just don't like getting there on a ladder.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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my grandfather designed a mechanism for an extension ladder, but his is the only i've seen using that. ah well.
 

Farmall

Senior member
Jul 16, 2000
440
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Originally posted by: arcas
Extension ladder slid out from beneath me as I was preparing to climb down. Fell about 10 feet. Spent the rest of day at the hospital.

That much is the same for me but the end result was a broken wrist. Going on week 4 of a full arm cast, can tell you that they really suck bigtime. Get to have this one removed on the 4th of Nov. and then another 4 weeks with the half arm cast. :(

Makes it a bit difficult typing when you can't bend your elbow.

Good luck on the recovery.

Farmall
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,916
2,156
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Did you make an imprint of your body in the ground when you fell? :)

I fell from a second story ladder once, but luckily the ground was on an incline and I was able to roll to absorb the impact. I was fine UNTIL THE FRICKIN' LADDER FELL ON ME. Gave me a gash on the head that required 17 stitches :( My friends still laugh at me on that one heheheheh
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,022
17
81
  • OUCH! :Q
Really sorry to hear that! Sorry to hear about your son too, Cyberian. I'm not really comfortable at the top of ladders myself. Any heights take some getting used to, and I was in the building trade for quite a few years. Actually, I never did get used to it. I'll keep this in mind, next time I'm on the roof, and maybe be a little more careful. I'm certain something would break on me if I took a dive. I'm tight as a drum and probably brittle too!
 

fluxquantum

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2000
2,398
1
71
man that sucks. hope everything is okay. what were you doing up there? installing a satellite dish?
 

geno

Lifer
Dec 26, 1999
25,074
4
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heh

j/k, I hope you're feeling better man! ;) Next time be careful with that ladder and make sure it's secure! :)
 

arcas

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2001
2,155
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man that sucks. hope everything is okay. what were you doing up there? installing a satellite dish?

I'm able to hobble around with the help of my hiking staff and the wound on my leg finally stopped bleeding (still not sure of what caused it...I have no memory of the actual impact). I've noticed my neck has grown kinda stiff in the last few hours. Nurse said that might happen...kind of a whiplash thing. Hopefully it's temporary.

I'd been trying to scrub some of the dirt and grime off the skylights (which, BTW, doesn't appear to have worked). The ladder really did seem secure. The swivelling "feet" were making good contact with the ground and I'd already been up and down the ladder twice. Third time was definitely not charm. I think a future project will be to increase the size of the feet for more friction and maybe drill some holes so that I can stake the ladder base securely to the ground

I go hiking alot and have done some freestyle rock climbing from time to time so I've had a few close calls. One time I even thought . o O (welp, this is it. this is how you're going to die) but I can't remember the last time I felt as helpless as I did when I looked down as the latter fell and realized that there's not a damn thing I could do to keep from falling too. :(

 

crab

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2001
7,330
19
81
I met a guy in the hospital who fell off the roof, hit the main power line going into his house electrocuting him, bounced off the porch roof, landed on his head breaking his neck, and during this had a heart attack.

I thought I was hospitalized for too long, untill I met him.
 

Armitage

Banned
Feb 23, 2001
8,086
0
0
Originally posted by: arcas
The swivelling "feet" were making good contact with the ground and I'd already been up and down the ladder twice.

That sucks man. Glad it wasn't to bad.

FWIW, I only use those swiveling "feet" with the rubber pads on hard surfaces like concrete or asphalt. On ground or grass, I swivel them out of the way and let the ends of the ladder dig in a bit.

As for the a$$hole screaming lawsuit. You know next to nothing about what happened, and what you do know doesn't sound like a manufacturing defect or design flaw. So I hope you're just joking. Makes me sick when the first thing somebody says is "lawsuit" when they hear about some misfortune. Not slamming arcas here, but sometimes it's just your own damn fault.

 

thomsbrain

Lifer
Dec 4, 2001
18,148
1
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

BWWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

oops. um, i mean. sorry to hear about that. glad it wasn't worse than it was. ;)