As the first few co-workers rolled up some went straight to the work and a few came right to me immediately realizing something was terribly wrong, I believe I was already going into some form of shock. To protect the people I worked with and for other reasons I will not name them here in this blog, I'm sure you will understand. One of the girls working with me grabbed on to me asking if she needed to call a "Code Blue" (for those of you who don't know what this is, this is so that when an injury occurs any employee can call over the PA system to the entire warehouse a "code blue" and where in the building it is, so that ERT- emergency response team members can quickly get o the area and the person), I begged her not to telling her someone had already run for help. You may be asking why I begged her not to call in such a sever situation...well, in our warehouse the call for a code blue brings out the nosies and I knew I was in real trouble and I needed help not a ton of looky-lous hoovering about to get a fresh rumor to talk about.
As I was waiting for the Calvary of help to arrive "R" stayed with me, she tried to help me move to sit but was unsuccessful as I couldn't walk. Just as the team of ERT members came speeding up in a maintenance vehicle "R" started to notice that I was shaking uncontrollably and she was starting to have a hard time holding me up now, so the ERT took over. "RX" who had pretty much seen the accident or aftermath and ran for the help stayed just long enough to see I was going to be OK then went onto work. ERT members, "J", "T", and "JC" now had everything under control with the help of a close friend that was a part of maintenance, Greg. They swiftly lifted me onto the truck and speed me off to the ERT room and started splinting and icing my foot leaving my shoe on. I figure they left it on not knowing what they would find if they took it off.
Greg stayed as long as they would let him (which was nice on their part), as I was scared to death and they knew we were good friends (Greg's wife Michelle is one of my Best Friends, I had been in their wedding some years before), so I think they knew it helped to keep me somewhat calm as they were asking 1 million questions so they could fill out the accident forms and make the calls to my family and the ambulance.
"J" and "JC" wrapped up and stayed threw most of the paperwork then were sent back out to work as was Greg, so know all that was left was me, "T", a supervisor who had come in and random loss prevention people who had to come in and out for different info. at this point we were just waiting for the squad to get there. When the squad arrived so did the police (I have no idea why, but they did), they all filed into the room asking all the same questions and by now the pain was beyond what I could handle so I did my best to answer. They strapped to the bed rolled me out placed in the ambulance and off we went for the hospital.
The guys on the squad were all volunteer and very nice, also tried there best to not hit too my bumps...however that didn't work out so well. As they looked down upon my foot they felt as though I probably wasn't going to have a great outcome just from what they could see even with the shoe on. From what they were saying the swelling was unreal and given the type of accident i shouldn't be surprised if I didn't break my foot...well GREAT!
Well only the X-rays and the Emergency Room visit would give me the answers...we were all shocked, I'm sure you will be too!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Disaster Strikes
So there I am the first transporter at the dock with any work, as usual I travel around it to see where everything will be going as all the items generally do not go to the same place. The equipment that I'm operating allows me to take 2 pallets at one time so to make better use of travel time it always makes more sense to take 2 pallets going to the same place, so that's what I was scanning for. Now that I've just found what I needed I'm preparing my truck into a position as to back into these pallets to pick them up and go...or so I thought. As I tried plugging (a method of turning the throttle in the opposite direction) to slow my truck to then put it into reverse I quickly realized something was wrong so I tried to put my trucks arm bar (emergency break) to stop it , which didn't work either...my breaks were failing and my truck wasn't going to stop until it did so on it's own. (These transporters are stand-up driven motorized pallet jacks which carry 2 pallets, they weigh upwards of 2 tons, the top speed is maybe 5-8 mph but with that much weight behind them that's fast.) All of a sudden the only thought that came into my head was "fight or flight", I wasn't about to take this un-operated ride on this piece of heavy equipment until it came to rest wherever it felt like it, and maybe hurting me in the process, so I bailed...mind you this isn't the first time I or any of my fellow transporters have had to do this...but today it would be the worst decision of my life.
So I bail from the truck as I have done times before (then of course I have to call for maintenance to come get it, and they ALWAYS brought them back saying NOTHING was wrong...CRAP!), well this time as I jump down off the platform for whatever reason and to this day I still have no idea how it happened the truck sprung back toward me and rolled my left foot clean under.
OUCH, wasn't the thought even racing threw my mind, no one had even seen it, it was only 7:15 am and everyone else was still lulling about, hell I should have still been lulling about, maybe because I had just came off vacation and it was a short week I felt like just busting a move, who knows. At this point all I knew was I needed this truck OFF my foot and now, before someone saw it. The sheer panic it would've caused someone potentially seeing it may have caused them to drive it the wrong way and take my foot off, so I knew I would have to calmly think and process in my mind which way to turn the throttle to get it off my foot without taking my own foot off (which could be a really possibility at this point as the cast wheel was resting right on the bottom of my sneaker). Just I removed the truck and began to really feel the pain the first person started walking threw and realized what he had just seen...I think he may have been in as much shock as I was. He immediately went for ERT help and it seemed that at that same moment some of my co-workers had started descending on that dock for work and realized I was in real trouble....thank God!
Now my real fight would begin and I didn't know one was coming.
So I bail from the truck as I have done times before (then of course I have to call for maintenance to come get it, and they ALWAYS brought them back saying NOTHING was wrong...CRAP!), well this time as I jump down off the platform for whatever reason and to this day I still have no idea how it happened the truck sprung back toward me and rolled my left foot clean under.
OUCH, wasn't the thought even racing threw my mind, no one had even seen it, it was only 7:15 am and everyone else was still lulling about, hell I should have still been lulling about, maybe because I had just came off vacation and it was a short week I felt like just busting a move, who knows. At this point all I knew was I needed this truck OFF my foot and now, before someone saw it. The sheer panic it would've caused someone potentially seeing it may have caused them to drive it the wrong way and take my foot off, so I knew I would have to calmly think and process in my mind which way to turn the throttle to get it off my foot without taking my own foot off (which could be a really possibility at this point as the cast wheel was resting right on the bottom of my sneaker). Just I removed the truck and began to really feel the pain the first person started walking threw and realized what he had just seen...I think he may have been in as much shock as I was. He immediately went for ERT help and it seemed that at that same moment some of my co-workers had started descending on that dock for work and realized I was in real trouble....thank God!
Now my real fight would begin and I didn't know one was coming.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
That day
So it was my first day back to work from vacation, not one where we had went anywhere but just one of rest. I wasn't feeling really rested as Thanksgiving was that Thursday, and I was preparing to make several desserts for our dinner at my cousins home. I tried for years to get this week for vacation, even with the years I had in with the company so many people still had in more time to out rank me, so I was out of luck.
OK, getting back on track...so it was your average Monday, I woke up didn't want to go to work, as usual...lol...really, who does? Working in a warehouse runs sorta like a routine, everyday is pretty much the same and you know what is expected of you. The mornings start with a brief start-up meeting (kind of a heads up of the day), then your off on your way. As in any business there are busy and not so busy times, usually around holiday times. Where I worked my department was very busy prior to holidays then then other departments were busy leading up to the holiday. So in saying this, giving that the holiday was that week we were VERY slow, almost bored to death slow. It was almost comedic watching us trying to not to get into trouble for talking or inventing things work related to do to keep busy. This particular morning was also horribly slow, we could see it when we walked in and were already commenting on how long the day would be. Sorry if I'm dragging, I'm trying to make this accurate. As our start-up meeting closed and we all finished our equipment check lists and started to disperse I saw a a dock that had work to do...I thought "jackpot, found me some work", might not have been my assigned dock but mine had no work yet and this one did and within a few minutes all 12 transporters (that is what we were called, as that was the name of the equipment we drove), would be descending on this little bit of work.
I will end here, sorry for leaving you hanging once again but when I pick up disaster strikes!
OK, getting back on track...so it was your average Monday, I woke up didn't want to go to work, as usual...lol...really, who does? Working in a warehouse runs sorta like a routine, everyday is pretty much the same and you know what is expected of you. The mornings start with a brief start-up meeting (kind of a heads up of the day), then your off on your way. As in any business there are busy and not so busy times, usually around holiday times. Where I worked my department was very busy prior to holidays then then other departments were busy leading up to the holiday. So in saying this, giving that the holiday was that week we were VERY slow, almost bored to death slow. It was almost comedic watching us trying to not to get into trouble for talking or inventing things work related to do to keep busy. This particular morning was also horribly slow, we could see it when we walked in and were already commenting on how long the day would be. Sorry if I'm dragging, I'm trying to make this accurate. As our start-up meeting closed and we all finished our equipment check lists and started to disperse I saw a a dock that had work to do...I thought "jackpot, found me some work", might not have been my assigned dock but mine had no work yet and this one did and within a few minutes all 12 transporters (that is what we were called, as that was the name of the equipment we drove), would be descending on this little bit of work.
I will end here, sorry for leaving you hanging once again but when I pick up disaster strikes!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Feeling lost
Starting this for the first time ever, thought maybe it could be somewhat therapeutic. I'm not a writer so please ignore any and all mistakes, thank you.
So here it goes...I've worked for as long as I can remember, starting with babysitting at about 11. By time I was 14 I had my first REAL job with a paycheck working for Burger King in the mall, it was awesome at the time...at least to me. I moved on to other jobs as I got older and eventually ended up working for a warehouse in 96. Throughout my time there I held a few positions from within learning different things and always wanting to learn more, I think I've always been this way, wanting more. Working in a warehouse environment there is always a chance for injury and I wasn't immune to that, I've had my share of bumps and bruises and such. However there are times when people get seriously injured. In 2000 I had my shoulder repaired for such an injury and after therapy I returned back into work, but that wouldn't be the worst injury I would receive. I would never had guessed that the injury I would receive in November of 2010 would not only be job ending, but for me life altering. Sorry to leave you hanging here for now but this story is not that quick, I will pick it back up later.
So here it goes...I've worked for as long as I can remember, starting with babysitting at about 11. By time I was 14 I had my first REAL job with a paycheck working for Burger King in the mall, it was awesome at the time...at least to me. I moved on to other jobs as I got older and eventually ended up working for a warehouse in 96. Throughout my time there I held a few positions from within learning different things and always wanting to learn more, I think I've always been this way, wanting more. Working in a warehouse environment there is always a chance for injury and I wasn't immune to that, I've had my share of bumps and bruises and such. However there are times when people get seriously injured. In 2000 I had my shoulder repaired for such an injury and after therapy I returned back into work, but that wouldn't be the worst injury I would receive. I would never had guessed that the injury I would receive in November of 2010 would not only be job ending, but for me life altering. Sorry to leave you hanging here for now but this story is not that quick, I will pick it back up later.
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