Longtime friend of mine lucky to be alive.

Things like this make you reflect, and all the little problems don't seem like much of a problem..

Was wondering why I woke to a late missed call from him last night. Just wanted to talk a minute and let me know what happened.

Aortic dissection. On top of that, was on a 16 ft. ladder when it happened. Fainted, dropped..
Air-lifted and emergency open heart.

Broke 2 ribs and fractured 2 vertebrae in his neck. Just recently home for a long recovery. If luck was a real thing, this is it.
One thing to have an aortic tear, but add to that an unconscious fall with no chance of bracing for impact.

Gonna have to go hang with him for a few Saturday. He's not one to sit around and very social. Said he's already going stir crazy.

I hope he recovers.

Chock Full o Nuts said:

Things like this make you reflect, and all the little problems don't seem like much of a problem..

Was wondering why I woke to a late missed call from him last night. Just wanted to talk a minute and let me know what happened.

Aortic dissection. On top of that, was on a 16 ft. ladder when it happened. Fainted, dropped..
Air-lifted and emergency open heart.

Broke 2 ribs and fractured 2 vertebrae in his neck. Just recently home for a long recovery. If luck was a real thing, this is it.
One thing to have an aortic tear, but add to that an unconscious fall with no chance of bracing for impact.

Gonna have to go hang with him for a few Saturday. He's not one to sit around and very social. Said he's already going stir crazy.

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He is lucky to be alive. Most that have that happen outside of a hospital do not make it to the hospital.

Worse place to have something like that happen. He's lucky there were others around to help him.

SavannahMann said:

I hope he recovers.

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Think he's expected to recover pretty well. Didn't really talk to him much as was on speaker with wife telling me what happened.
Tough time talking at the moment.

Wishing him well. Sounds like an awful accident with a long recovery ahead.

dmpi said:

Worse place to have something like that happen. He's lucky there were others around to help him.

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Yes, if he was working alone?..

Was with FiL working on something.

Is one of my concerns when I'm working alone. Say being up in a hot attic with no one around?

Chock Full o Nuts said:

Things like this make you reflect, and all the little problems don't seem like much of a problem..

Was wondering why I woke to a late missed call from him last night. Just wanted to talk a minute and let me know what happened.

Aortic dissection. On top of that, was on a 16 ft. ladder when it happened. Fainted, dropped..
Air-lifted and emergency open heart.

Broke 2 ribs and fractured 2 vertebrae in his neck. Just recently home for a long recovery. If luck was a real thing, this is it.
One thing to have an aortic tear, but add to that an unconscious fall with no chance of bracing for impact.

Gonna have to go hang with him for a few Saturday. He's not one to sit around and very social. Said he's already going stir crazy.

Click to expand...

A few years ago, I was out in the garage having a coffee while sitting there on a bucket cleaning up some of my drywall tools. I was watching my crazy & loveable Filipino buddy across the street on top of his 2 story roof cleaning out gutters and we were hollering out some smack talk to each other. All of a sudden he kind of leaned over and cartwheeled off the roof to the ground.

I took me a few seconds to process what I saw and probably another 30 seconds before I could get to him over his fence. He was alive and breathing, but he was laying there all contorted up and grunting.

The ambulance got there pretty quick and I followed him over to the hospital and stayed with him until his wife showed up.

About 5-6 hours later he came walking up my driveway?

As it turned out, it was some sort of sudden diabetic attack that I can't even pronounce. The lucky bastard had 3 bruised ribs and a broken pinkie.

How lucky was that? Not to mention that he could have laid there for hours if I hadn't seen him fall.

RetiredUSN said:

A few years ago, I was out in the garage having a coffee while sitting there on a bucket cleaning up some of my drywall tools. I was watching my crazy & loveable Filipino buddy across the street on top of his 2 story roof cleaning out gutters and we were hollering out some smack talk to each other. All of a sudden he kind of leaned over and cartwheeled off the roof to the ground.

I took me a few seconds to process what I saw and probably another 30 seconds before I could get to him over his fence. He was alive and breathing, but he was laying there all contorted up and grunting.

The ambulance got there pretty quick and I followed him over to the hospital and stayed with him until his wife showed up.

About 5-6 hours later he came walking up my driveway?

As it turned out, it was some sort of sudden diabetic attack that I can't even pronounce. The lucky bastard had 3 bruised ribs and a broken pinkie.

How lucky was that? Not to mention that he could have laid there for hours if I hadn't seen him fall.

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Ketoacidosis?

RetiredUSN said:

A few years ago, I was out in the garage having a coffee while sitting there on a bucket cleaning up some of my drywall tools. I was watching my crazy & loveable Filipino buddy across the street on top of his 2 story roof cleaning out gutters and we were hollering out some smack talk to each other. All of a sudden he kind of leaned over and cartwheeled off the roof to the ground.

I took me a few seconds to process what I saw and probably another 30 seconds before I could get to him over his fence. He was alive and breathing, but he was laying there all contorted up and grunting.

The ambulance got there pretty quick and I followed him over to the hospital and stayed with him until his wife showed up.

About 5-6 hours later he came walking up my driveway?

As it turned out, it was some sort of sudden diabetic attack that I can't even pronounce. The lucky bastard had 3 bruised ribs and a broken pinkie.

How lucky was that? Not to mention that he could have laid there for hours if I hadn't seen him fall.

Click to expand...

Wow. Good thing you were jabbing it up. Who said shit talking was a bad thing?!

Chock Full o Nuts said:

Wow. Good thing you were jabbing it up. Who said shit talking was a bad thing?!

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Yeah, we have been close for about 36 years. He and his wife were like a uncle and aunt to my kids when they were growing up..

On the funny side of it all. I gave him a 2 step kitchen ladder about a month later and told him to practice on it.

RetiredUSN said:

Yeah, we have been close for about 36 years. He and his wife were like a uncle and aunt to my kids when they were growing up..

On the funny side of it all. I gave him a 2 step kitchen ladder about a month later and told him to practice on it.

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That's just wrong......... at least give him a legit 4' Werner.

But I'd probably do the same to a good bud after all was well!

RetiredUSN said:

Yeah, we have been close for about 36 years. He and his wife were like a uncle and aunt to my kids when they were growing up..

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Hitting almost 30 here. Old work coworker/friend.

Glad he is expected to make a full recovery!

Chock Full o Nuts said:

That's just wrong......... at least give him a legit 4' Werner.

But I'd probably do the same to a good bud after all was well!

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Your post motivated me to get up and look for the brand name on the little 6 rung ladder in a corner of my office. It folds in two.

Ah! Murphy ladder; opens up to 7’ length. Got it a few years ago as a gift. Using it right now to drape a towel and hang clothes on.

Love me a good ladder sometimes!

So, saw my buddy for a while today. Seems to be doing alright and just some time to recover. Just hard time talking after having a vent in his throat for 4 days. Happened back on the 30th, 9 days ICU and then a day or two later, told them to get him the **** out of here.

Apparently his aorta tore at multiple places from heart down into abdomen. Said he just remembers getting dizzy and then waking up on the floor and hearing sirens coming wondering WTF in a daze.

Seems some bad things of the incident were actually good you could say. As in, they said being unconscious with the fall left him limp. Like how they say drunks survive crashes. But that's definitely dependent on how you land.
And the drop he took put it into the trauma category which warranted immediate life-flight response to get him downtown to University of Cincinnati and immediate CT which revealed what went down.

Said squad was there in less than 5 minutes and chopper in route. If he had just been walking and fainted?...
There may not have been such urgency and he may not be here today.

Never smoked cigs, just weed, and rare drinker. Blood pressure always been pretty good, though he is a busy body high strung person and doesn't deal with stress well.

But I have known this happening can be somewhat tied to a genetic predisposition, and they informed him that weed can contribute to a weakening of the lining of your vessels.

Man that's tough. I hope he gets better. If he's one of these high-strung guys it's going to be hard for him to get the rest that he needs to recover.

Chock Full o Nuts said:

Things like this make you reflect, and all the little problems don't seem like much of a problem..

Was wondering why I woke to a late missed call from him last night. Just wanted to talk a minute and let me know what happened.

Aortic dissection. On top of that, was on a 16 ft. ladder when it happened. Fainted, dropped..
Air-lifted and emergency open heart.

Broke 2 ribs and fractured 2 vertebrae in his neck. Just recently home for a long recovery. If luck was a real thing, this is it.
One thing to have an aortic tear, but add to that an unconscious fall with no chance of bracing for impact.

Gonna have to go hang with him for a few Saturday. He's not one to sit around and very social. Said he's already going stir crazy.

Click to expand...

Oh man, there's hardly a worse physical position to be in while having a major health emergency that results in immediately becoming unconscious! I guess it would be worse to go unconscious while going 80mph on a dirt bike while attempting to jump over 22 busses....

Did the broken vertebrae lead to any spinal damage or loss of physical motion as a result?

dmpi said:

Man that's tough. I hope he gets better. If he's one of these high-strung guys it's going to be hard for him to get the rest that he needs to recover.

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He is. Stir crazy. This dude works(ed) full time, buys, remodels/flips houses on the side, among other side work.
And on top of that his life situation beforehand. Was living in an Rv on his FiL's property as his second wife after bad split with first.

She started bringing in dogs and cats and stuff. He couldn't deal.

This has turned the page. He said he's blessed to have her there for every moment.

I joked "you didnt have to go this extreme to move back in the house you have paid off!"

The big Huskie he moved out of nuzzles up to him, and he pets.

ModerationNow! said:

Oh man, there's hardly a worse physical position to be in while having a major health emergency that results in immediately becoming unconscious! I guess it would be worse to go unconscious while going 80mph on a dirt bike while attempting to jump over 22 busses....

Did the broken vertebrae lead to any spinal damage or loss of physical motion as a result?

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Apparently not. So lucky. Said neck feels fine(give it a few years), but those busted ribs. Heard that's the worst. Not much you can do.

Chock Full o Nuts said:

Wow. Good thing you were jabbing it up. Who said shit talking was a bad thing?!

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Unfortunately, sht talking leads to micro aggression, which are obviously far more mentally and physically dangerous than sudden heart attacks, strokes, etc. So please refrain from taking part in such banter, for the sake of your friends' feelings! (Kidding, of course).