Young Worker Injury Stories
Ruby Dam: No helmet, plenty of injuries.
 Last summer, 17-year-old ranch employee Aaron Gilman flipped his ATV. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.
“I was up at the Ruby Dam,” says Aaron, “spraying weeds with other area ranchers. I had a tank on the back of my four-wheeler and decided to go to the top of the hill to get the weeds. When I got up there, I hit a bump, and the four-wheeler flipped over backwards on top of me, and drug me down the hill.”
The left side of Aaron’s jawbone went through his ear canal; the right side was broken in two places. Both cheekbones were fractured, along with both eye sockets. His pallet was ripped down to his throat. He also suffered a broken nose and wrist.
“The handlebars hit me right on the tip of my nose,” Aaron remembers. “If they had hit a half-inch higher, I’d either have severe brain damage or be dead. That was lucky for me.”
Had Aaron been more mindful of ATV safety that day, it’s likely this accident would never have happened. At Montana State Fund, we encourage all young workers to work safely this summer.
Hardin, Montana: The accident took four seconds. The coma lasted four weeks.
 “I don’t remember anything from the day of accident,” 17-year-old Robert says. Weeks earlier, a tire blew on the van he was driving. The van went off the road, flipped three times, and landed upside down. Robert was ejected from the van and found unconscious. He fell into a coma that lasted over four weeks. “Then the doctors told my mom that she should maybe look into funeral arrangements.”
When Robert emerged from his coma, he could not speak or walk on his own. He’d watch as nurses brought food, hoping he’d know simply how to eat. “I’d just take a handful of food and shove it in my mouth, choking.” Robert has endured brain surgery, months of physical therapy, vocal rehab, and life skills training. Today, he has difficulties with short-term memory, jotting down notes to remind him of appointments.
But he hasn’t forgotten the reason for the difficulties that lay ahead. “Seatbelt,” he says, matter-of-factly. “Just buckle up. Follow safety guidelines. If you don’t know the rules, ask. It’s not that hard. Make sure your boss offers you help to avoid something like this.”
Belgrade, Montana: Losing a leg, gaining perspective.
Thirteen months ago, on a late winter day in Belgrade, 18-year-old Katie was at her job at an equestrian center east of Belgrade. She was helping with chores when her leg was caught between the bucket and wheel of a skid-steer tractor. Her right leg and much of her hip were torn from her body. Her femoral artery was severed and she began to bleed out.
Quick action by her employer, who slowed the bleeding with direct pressure, probably saved Katie’s life. Bozeman surgeons acted fast to patch up the wounds, before sending her to a Seattle trauma unit. There, she began a three-month stint that featured multiple surgeries and other treatments.
She has endured some 25 surgeries, months of recovery, wheelchair confinement, and physical therapy to begin the long process to walk again. “It’s scary,” she says of her new prosthetic device. “It’s hard to trust something you can’t feel.” Doctors have pointed out that Katie is “one in five who have survived this kind of trauma in the last 25 years.”
Before the accident, Katie had been accepted to the equestrian program at Rocky Mountain College in Billings. Today, she’s finally thinking about taking them up on their offer. “If things go well, I want to go to school full time in the fall,” she said, adding that three more surgeries—one minor and two more complicated—stand between her and that goal. “I just go along with my life,” she says. “I try to stay positive.”
See Katie's Blog |
