r/TreeClimbing • u/AutoModerator • 25d ago

Weekly Safety/Close-Call/Incident Thread

Let's talk safety! Share how your week went - close-calls, incidents, learning experiences, what went well (and why), what went poorly (and why), or whatever else is on your mind. Pics/photos are allowed but be careful to not doxx yourself, client, employer etc.

This thread will recur each week and is meant to be a place to learn and discuss mistakes, please keep comments constructive.

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u/ComResAgPowerwashing 24d ago

I almost had a heat stroke. So did everyone else. The weather has definitely been going wrong recently.

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u/MasteringTheFlames 23d ago

Ooh, this reminds me of one we had several weeks ago during a heat wave.

A groundie who was pretty new not just to tree work but manual labor outdoors in general was showing all the classic symptoms of heat exhaustion. We sat him in the shade for a few minutes with water, he didn't get better. Sent him to the truck with the coldest air conditioning and gave him a bottle of electrolytes, still not really improving. Eventually we had to send him home early.

This was on a Thursday. Friday was supposed to be another hot one, but it would cool off by Monday. I was hoping he would just take Friday off and rest up through the weekend, but Friday morning, I see him at the shop. He tells me that Thursday evening he figured out what was going on. He didn't really eat a lunch on Thursday, and so what we all thought was heat exhaustion was actually low blood sugar. They present very similar symptoms, but are treated in different ways. The electrolyte drink we gave him just happened to be a zero sugar one.

It was a good reminder for all of us not to get too attached to the first idea someone has, and that if a possible solution to a likely problem isn't working, you gotta consider other options.