rootabaga
Android Expert
I don't know if anyone cares for the narrative, but I thought I'd share my experience falling from a ladder. Maybe it will prove useful to help someone else not get hurt. I'm in my sixties now and have always treated ladders with a lot of respect and have had good results whenever I've done so. For example, I don't lean away from them to any meaningful degree, and if I have to use one on uneven ground I use wood to even it up. If I had to go up into a tree, I would always secure the ladder to the tree, since that is usually not very stable.
It's the violation of this latter rule that forms the basis for my fall.
We have a mature plum tree that had in its youth formed three distinct sections from the main trunk starting less than two feet from the ground. One of these split off and came down and after doing the work of cutting it up and clearing the debris, I wanted to take a little weight off of the two remaining sections. We have an electric polesaw, which is really just an extensible wired pole that came with a 10" chainsaw. (The chainsaw itself can be removed and has been pretty handy and quite reliable.) Anyway, I was using this rig to trim off some branches (Pro Tip: When clearing branches from overhead, always wear eye protection and a hard hat!) and there were a couple that I just couldn't reach with the polesaw fully extended, so I got the extension ladder and leaned it up into the tree. I knew I was only going up a couple of rungs, so I did that initially (empty handed) and jerked around a little bit. The ladder felt stable, so I figured I'd go up, make my two cuts, and be done with it. No reason to go clear back to the garage and get out a ratchet strap just for this little job! So I grabbed the polesaw, climbed up three rungs as it turned out, and made my first cut. I came down one rung and made my second and last cut, and as the saw broke free of the branch (Note: it's ten feet long) the movement and lever action of the pole transferred just a bit too much force to the ladder, which started to slide against the tree and it felt like the legs were about to pivot. (Had it been secured to the tree...but it wasn't.) My next mistake was to grab for the tree (rather than the ladder, since I knew the tree wasn't going anywhere!) and when I missed it, I came off the ladder as it pivoted. Somehow I ended up almost on the opposite side of the tree, and my back pretty much hit first, flat on the ground. At least I missed landing on the brick walkway, so that was good. The back of the hardhat hit, absorbing some energy and sending the hardhat flying. The polesaw had stopped running, of course, and luckily it landed clear of me (ironically it landed on an ancient wood bench that is (was!) purely decorative, which collapsed. And speaking of irony...the ladder had indeed pivoted...and landed against another branch, still in the tree. Had I simply held onto it, I'd have been fine.
Anyway, this was about five months post shoulder surgery, so my first concern was obviously that I might have torn that up, but other than a little soreness it seemed okay. My left shoulder was very sore with some sharp pains, and after picking everything up and putting it away it was still pretty sore, so I called the doc and went in. They did an x-ray and exam and found that I had a very small break at the top of my shoulderblade, and they were all very surprised because that was all. The gist of it was they saw lots of broken shoulderblades, but only in combination with lots of other damage; apparently it's pretty rare to just break your shoulderblade. There was really no treatment, just ice and ibuprofen and it healed up on its own. (Honestly, I'd gladly break a shoulderblade any day than have to undergo shoulder surgery ever again!)
Anyway, fast forward to a few days ago, when I had to go WAY up the same ladder with the same polesaw, albeit in a different tree, to lop off a limb the squirrels like to use to get on our roof and cause trouble. I asked my brother in law to come over and spot me, and with him holding the ladder I climbed up it and ratchet-strapped it securely to the trunk. The base of it was against a retaining wall, so it wasn't going anywhere! The limb came off quickly after that, and after playing with the dog a bit (he actually spent more time playing with the dog than helping me...wise man!) my BIL went home.
The moral of the story? Don't ever get too comfortable with ladders. They can't be trusted. They are not your friends and will sell you out to gravity if they get the chance!
Stay safe out there, everyone!
