Russ: My injuries that day was I cracked my head, broke the back in three places,
severed the spinal cord, broke the clavicles, broke the ribs, and chipped a tooth.
It's been almost 23 years.
I went in January 3rd to get my shoulder looked at and I had had seven previous surgeries
on my left shoulder; and they told me they can't fix it, they can replace
it.
So, I thought okay.
I went in for a full shoulder replacement.
Most people in wheelchairs don't have this done.
Within two weeks after the surgery, it got infected.
They fixed the infection.
In February, it came back, so February 9th I had another surgery where they went in and
cleaned out the shoulder for the infection.
Then I've been on, ever since, antibiotics PICC line IV, where I have to inject myself
every eight hours with an IV.
It's been 22 years and I'm still dealing with this.
It's not going to go away.
Now, hopefully in the next month, I've been functioning without a left shoulder for approximately
a month now.
It's a tough one, but it's not going to beat me.
It's very difficult right now; Laurel has to pick me up to get me in bed, I have a hospital
bed in the living room that I've been in for nine months now.
This does not go away, it doesn't.
I will die in a wheelchair.
This is how it's going to end for me and it's not worth it.
Think of your kids; put a picture of them in your hard hat, on your excavator, something
to remind you why you are at work.
Laurel: Wasn't able to teach our son how to ride a bicycle.
He tried and tried and he kept knocking him over.
Our neighbor had to come over and teach him how to ride a bicycle, you know, without the
training wheels.
It�s something you don't think about.
All the sports that Spence was in and Russ couldn't really
participate.
I mean he could be a team dad, but he really couldn't, you know,
practice with him and stuff.
He was a really great runner in junior high and
high school and he actually did a couple marathons.
Spence got the gene and he was a runner, but they couldn't do
it together.
By that time, Russ�s shoulders were shot already, so things
like that he couldn't take him.
He used to go bird hunting a lot over in Eastern Washington.
Couldn't take him to do that.
Steelhead holes, pretty much inaccessible.
All kinds of things that he used to do, you know, and wanted to do with our son, he wasn't
able to.
Russ: This gets to you after a while.
It's lonely being in bed by myself all day.
I have caregivers come in that have to help me get dressed and get me out of the hospital
bed.
It's embarrassing, frustrating.
You need to let these people know what I'm saying.
It's not worth it.
Our son Spencer asked me when he was about 7, what do you do at these meetings when you
talk to the people and I told Spencer I just tell them the story about me falling, whose
fault it was, and if they don't listen to me, I tell them to think of their family.
He says why didn't you think of me.
I just hugged him and said sorry.
That's all I could come up with.
Michael: The aftermath of a bad fall, it can be really traumatic.
If you look at in terms of an employer, or you know, a business.
I mean let's be honest; you've had someone on your watch who got traumatically injured.
I mean that could be devastating to you as a business owner and as an employer.
You also have to deal with the fact that, hey, you're one worker down, so it's really
going to compromise your ability to get a job done on time.
That of course, is going to affect your profit, the money that you're
going to make from that job.
You also have to look at the rest of your employees.
Now you've got a crew who has got to try to work to make up for that one worker that's
down.
So they're going to probably be overworked; they're going to be exposed to
maybe getting hurt themselves; and they're going to be stressed out trying to
get that job done quickly to make up for someone being gone.
Doug: There's a lot of excuses, shall we say, for not using fall protection or not using
it appropriately.
Oh, it will create a trip hazard, oh it's a greater hazard, it slows me down.
Well, all of those will be vastly changed if one fall injury, or god forbid a fatality,
occurs; production halts.
It's a lot more expensive to take care of an injured person, or sadly a fatality, than
it is to purchase the appropriate piece of fall protection
equipment.
Michael: As an employer and as a business owner, it's going to affect your rates.
You're going to find yourself paying more money in workers compensation insurance; which
is going to affect your bottom line.
It's even going to affect your ability to go bid for jobs because there are certain
businesses that you're going to go and work for that are going to look at the accidents
you've had and the claims you've suffered.
Maybe even OSHA citations that you've had or complaints.
It's really going to affect your ability to get quality work.
Walter: Make the decision that your company and the assets that you control to include
your person and your family and those around you, are protected by developing a program
that includes your people, without regard of the
price.
Because the loss of you personally, or the loss of an employee within your company, is
not recoverable.
You don't write a check and make that go away.
It's with you forever.