FEATURE

Safety Message Too Late

Tomorrow, one of my friends will bury his only son who died after apparently falling from his treestand.

I have other friends who have survived, although with serious injuries, falls from their treestands. But others aren't so fortunate. Every year hunters die in treestand accidents.

That tragedy is worsened because it is't the fall that kills them; it's suspension trauma. They're killed by the very pieces of gear that are supposed to save their lives.

When someone jokingly says "it's not the fall that kills you" it's not always joke when you're talking about safety harnesses.

Suspension trauma also known as "harness-induced pathology" or "orthostatic shock while suspended" is the development of presyncopal symptoms (lightheadedness, muscular weakness and "feeling faint") if the body is held motionless in a vertical position for a period of time. If you've ever jumped from a sitting to a standing position and felt like you were going to faint, you've experienced mild presyncopal symptoms.

If, however, you're suspended in your safety harness and unable to get free, you're in a much more serious situation. Although there's really not a lot known about the idea of "suspension trauma" it was first suspected as the cause of "rescue death" of mountain five climbers who were found dead in their ropes after accidents between 1957 and 1968. In each instance, they had no obvious external or internal injuries to account for their deaths.

In the first medical experiments in 1968, five volunteers were suspended in parachute harnesses for 30 minutes. One person completely lost consciousness during the test. From that point, researchers suspected presyncopal symptoms in subsequent fatalities involving safety harnesses where otherwise uninjured people were found dead in their safety gear.

It's really not anything overly exotic, simply an advanced case of orthostatic intolerance. If you've ever seen a soldier standing motionless on parade suddenly faint, you've seen it firsthand.

In the vertical position, venous pooling in the legs due to gravity can actually reduce blood flow by twenty percent. If that condition persists, a person can actually die of cerebral hypoxia.

The person hanging motionless from a rope- or safety harness- can have that situation accelerated by a variety of conditions, including exhaustion, hypothermia, injuries, technical problems or even fear. Compression on the femoral arteries by groin straps are also suspected to add to the danger.

Today, there have been tremendous strides forward in the design of safety harnesses, including waist straps and sub-pelvic straps to keep you in a sitting position. That minimizes the distance blood must be pumped back from the legs. But it seems it is still possible to find yourself hanging in a vertical position.

If that's the case, you need to fight to get at least into a sitting position. From there, you need to either move into a horizontal position- minimizing blood pumping demands and- if possible- push your legs off a hard surface (think tree or the leg of a stand) in order to keep your muscle pumps active.

If you're hunting with a partner who takes a tumble and seems to be in shock, look for these symptoms: faintness, breathlesness, sweating, paleness, nausea, dizziness, low blood pressure, or in a worst case, unconsciousness, the most important thing you can do - if possible - is call for professional help.

At that point, try to rest them in a comfortable position - ideally lying down and try to keep them calm. If they're still in their harness, loosen or remove it. Check them for other injuries and keep them talking until help arrives.

If you're using harnesses, think about what you would do in the event you find yourself actually using it. I've known hunters who have actually stepped off treestands intentionally - just to know what to expect and be prepared for if they ever did fall. Others have a knife on their harness -in case they find themselves "stuck".

More than anything, make certain your safety gear is in good condition and you know how to operate it.

The life you save may be your own.

--Jim Shepherd

Dec 13	Nebraska Bow Hunter Education Instructor Training The Elba Community Center, 519 12th St., Elba, Nebraska
Dec 20	Final Wires of 2013
Jan 6	First Wire Editions of 2014

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