Not Just Another Day-Gerry Kinney's Story by Safe Electricity.org

Jerry was the best of the best probably one of the smoothest safety-conscious linemen I've ever worked around he was kind of always like a teacher type but also like a real friend type and I don't think there's any question that you're in Kenny is was probably as talented if not the most talented outside employee we had here at Wayne white I've been with the coop actually about 18 years probably mister I actually happened and I was actually at the time had probably been a foreman for two or three of those years my wife Denise also works here I've been here for 17 years and I work in a records department and I have other additional responsibilities along with the meter data management that just implemented a few years ago it was a July 16th of 2015 it was a Thursday and you know I got up that day thing and just call me any other day in our line of work it was going to be an easy day a lot of it was cleanup from the storm that we had maybe a week or two before we'd put the phase up let the neutral down because it was in private right away and was going to have to climb a pole to get it back up on it we went over this job probably two or three different times before we started it and which makes it really kind of even that much more strange I guess I don't know how else to put it because and Jerry was the one that led the meeting he would be in charge that day we had kind of a road crossing you know that we needed to we kind of set up a truck area for lights on stuff you know I left a guy there you know - we got ready pull wire up and stuff you know and I basically set out my truck a puppy 40 40 feet away from a transformer pole but also set up there so I could kind of look down over a hill to see the guy that was climbing the pole so we could signal each other you know on getting a wire up and stuff like that so and there was a bunch of brush just immediately to my right where I kind of had to you know lean lean in just a little bit to see him I was one Spanaway I had to climb a pole he had that Mitchell down through the right away I had to climb pull the tie it back in we got the wire all laid out and he got climbed up the pole and got the neutral laid up in the school and then I proceeded to pull it up there at mid-span and I got it pulled up and then it had it caught in a hoist and I hollered at him to see how his span was on his side and he said it need to come up just a little bit so I gave it a couple clicks looked back down there and he said it looked good and I gave him a sign of like this to tide in and the next thing I know is I was a little confused because I had a vision of me a time and a brand-new line but I was in front of a super huge white structure that was very bright and that was confusing me I couldn't I couldn't decide what it was or you know for a minute maybe even more I was so at that point I didn't know I'd got into anything yet I reached down to grab the handle the bucket to move it and I could not make this hand do anything and I was getting a little frustrated on why it wouldn't do anything so I got this hand off and put my left hand over there on it and I still could not make it move and I was getting really frustrated why I couldn't make my hands move and I was wearing long-sleeve shirts and kind of right between my leather glove and my long-sleeve shirt I could see the color of my skin and it was discolored badly and I hardly barely right after I've seen that weather that's when the pain started coming up both my arms and it was it was horrendous and I couldn't see him from where I was at and I backed up kind of the hill and now I seen the top of his hat on the bucket his head we thought his head was kind of turned away a little bit like he might be calling one of us on the phone it's kind of the first thing that we thought of but pretty much a second or two after that we knew that that was not the case and that's kind of when we realized there something was wrong so Jason went over to see what was going on Jerry I hollered ten guys and we all heard at him and couldn't get a response so we I started running up that in and and then couldn't really tell so we started getting the bucket down we pulled him out of the bucket and I could see underneath his was that his he was red like bran that's when it realized would have happened phone service wasn't good so I left to call for help the gist of the road I could get reception so I called the boss and told him we needed some help and then got back and that's pretty serious so went back and called for the helicopter then at 11 o'clock I answered the phone and it was a close friend and she said which one of the linemen got hurt and I said I hadn't heard and she said she how they've called Air Evac so I immediately went to the engineering department to ask them which crew is in the helm area I just don't think they were ready for me yet to find out so quickly and I asked Erin I said what happened and he said he came in contact and I said who and he said Jerry well we have several Jerry's here but Jerry's the only Lyman I said my Jerry and he said yes you're Jerry when I was laying there on the ground talking them guys I told my ganas I said I know I'm gonna lose my hands like it I just just knew it it was very obvious he was in a lot of pain yeah he would express he was hurting really bad he kept saying any of the pain shot and so they got me you know stabilized the kid blood pressure and stuff and got me out down to the road to where the helicopter could land and then picked me up down there I said whatever you do tell him to take me to the best burn unit there is and I believe every vac did it took me a mercy there in st. Louis he stayed conscious the whole time and it was it was amazing for what he was going through I mean I was conscious and I was mad cuz you know I couldn't believe I allowed that to happen I just cannot believe it you know I remember looking at I know talking to the guys a little bit on a helicopter a little bit there was like a covered walkway that you go from the helicopter into this hospital as soon as I was laying there and as soon as I seen that covering of that walkway I close my eyes and it was the last thing I remembered for probably a couple weeks you know the day that I got the phone call that the accident had happened the last person that you could ever think that would be involved in an accident would be Jerry I mean the first thing is you know your heart drops because you don't want to get a phone call that any accident has happened doesn't matter what the coop let alone the coop where I came from but on the way to Mercy Hospital the doctors called me and wanted to know if I was in route and I said yes they said this wanted to make sure I understood the severity of Jerry's injuries that his both of his hands were extremely burned and I said you don't need to say anymore I'm in the business I knew then he was going to lose his hands you know they told me that he was in stable condition that he had been life flighted but he certainly certainly you're doing your fair share of prayers as you as you're going down the road trying to dis cope with with what you've just been told I think the thing that probably saved me is the circular motion you know it just brushed it and I was right off of it you know where if it probably got stuck or hung up her y-you know if I wouldn't be here today and still fortunate to I am here because it did enter my right hand and come out my left hand so it crossed my heart the one of the miracle things was that that Air Evac helicopter had already taken off and cleared the building and was headed to a firemen's funeral and they got the call and could immediately divert straight to my location which you know that's denial that saved five ten minutes and that don't sound like much but five or ten minutes probably saved more length on my arms when I got there they immediately took us to the waiting room for surgery because they took him in for surgery and they did a fasciotomy on each arm and that's basically where they just cut them both open to allow them to swell because electricity causes compartment syndrome so for three days he they were wrapped but they had to let the swelling you know do what it was going to do to see how much damage they were going to the extent of it before they did the amputation of the hand my wife said the hardest thing that she's ever had to do in her life is sign a release to doctors to have him removed my hands she said that was the hardest thing she there she knew they had to go you know you could tell he's black and everything that she says the hardest thing she'd ever had to do is to actually sign a paper saying that it was okay to you know remove my hands and then he had eight revision surgeries over that five week time frame that he was in the Mersey burn unit because the electricity continues to burn at first they thought I was playing on losing this arm above my elbow and they had a wound pump on it and a few surgeries and was able to save this on down to about right in there and there was a it was probably two to three weeks after my accident I thought they can't see it but there's a scar right here in my armpit and they thought they had everything and then this blew open two to three weeks later and my wife said it was big enough that you could put an egg in just the helplessness and the you know the surge going there you know just ever surgery they take a little more off and it was just and you know seeing Denise go through all that and his family and it you know it's that's tough you hear all the in safety meetings you see all these pictures that you don't ever really put into perspective I guess until you're there in that situation and everybody co-op was it was different unless you've had trauma worse will be the hardest things you've ever done in your life the the mental part of it is probably just as hard or harder in the physical part of it because it's hard to my biggest problem was me you know why did I allow that accident to happen I'll be honest there's there's some days that I thought I used take me so we have to go through all this so we have to go through all the pain and you know because I mean it you can't describe somebody the pain that you have upper amputees are a pretty small percentage to be a double amputee is like you know it's 2 percent you know real real low percentage to use mile mile electrics why they actually are using muscles in my forearm to trigger that and my therapist knew that and I mean we worked and worked and worked in muscles you know so that would be prepared for when I put on my prosthetics the hardest part for me when we came home was watching him struggle just the simplest task of trying to get something out of the fridge rater I mean you don't realize how precious your hands are and Jerry is one of these people that he's going to do it or he is going to die trying and you might as well stand back and let him go now they have redone my shower and so now I can take a shower by myself it has like sponges on the wall you know a showerhead on it it keeps them wet and then the soap dispenser for them you know that I used to do my back and stuff at home and we've got over she's put all the food and stuff into containers that's got a big lip on the edge of them I can put right against the edge of the counter and pop the lid off and to be honest we've got our house set up so nice that most of time when I'm at home I'd just soon have my limbs off because I can do that everything I want to do without them but one of the biggest things that you really take for granted is your sense of feel you know even though even though I can pick stuff up my hand and stuff you know I have to physically watch myself pick something up you know I can't just feel for it and pick it up I got to watch it and feeling is such a big big thing that you just don't even think of at all you know even today I still have a lot of they call it like residual limb pain or whatever because I still feel like my hands I still feel my hands are still for each individual finger and you know but then my hands are always in a state of feeling like they're being stung maybe by bees or something yeah just constantly that never goes away the tragedy of this magnitude if you don't have support a family and friends I don't I don't know how people can make it through something so horrific a really good example of how this co-op is is when I made it back from the mercy burn in it and then I spent two weeks in Mercy rehab hospital and when I made it back home for six weeks every night somebody from this co-op brought out supper for six weeks having a lot of community support family support church support friends company support you know that was all in many many things that kept me motivated to be you know to get to where I wanted because I put so much time and and effort and prayer and for me to get better at least I can do is try as hard as I can to make that happen always a risk you know out there and it is just so critical that all the employees can stay focused all the time on what they're doing and that is harder and harder today it was such a simplest thing because this accident and a lot of people of ask well I didn't have rubber gloves on doing this I would always put rubbers on when used under three-phase then in a troll or under transmission different neutral that on single-phase it was just a common practice that you know I witnessed and down for years and years I knew that that next day I was going to be off for ten days you know in my life and I was we loved riding four-wheelers and we already had reservations made for a cabin because we ride in West Virginia law hatfield-mccoy Trails so you know it's kind of thinking man it's going to be an easy day and then tomorrow I'll start my ten days off you know if you've had a bad day or what else is on your mind when you leave the house it just waits for you to collect your guard down one time you think of all the jobs you've done you know that you'd consider super dangerous you know changing out a book on cornering off all cover you know but I think in a situation like that your your mind capacity is on the danger of it and you do cover and you do extra steps you know where I was in a situation where I didn't think much about it and become unaware of where I was you know to let this happen always be aware you know and that sounds like such a simple statement you know always be aware of where you're at you know because I mean I probably was just probably a few inches of where I shouldn't have been you know that was too many Evans too many inches you know and just because I became unaware or less don't ever think that you're yeah i'm close that you know I think I'm good you know I don't always take the extra precaution it's just sometimes in in our nature to get that you know go into the net you know let's get let's get just down go on it's nature of a lot of linemen that brought it home to me that I mean if it could happen to Jerry really could happen to anyone you just need to be aware of your surroundings and paying attention to what you're doing there's a million different things that you can be thinking of when we're all out there doing these hazardous jobs and you have to you have to be focused 110 percent of the time because it's one of your not that those little things those those those moments where you're not a hundred percent of aware of what's going on and unfortunately can be the difference between life and death whether or not you're permanently injured it was a job that I loved to go to work every day phone call will come in at 2 o'clock storm I mean his feet would be hooked on the ground and be dressed and out the door before you could hardly blink and I just a thrill thrown in a fuse or breaker something seeing the whole countryside light up is just it is phenomenal you know it showed your payoff after a lot of hard work sometimes and I just I don't know how it could be much more rewarding and I know when the accident first happened you know so many things go through your mind and you you wonder about your future but if there had been any other man but handling in that bed I'd have been afraid of my future but with him I I wasn't because I knew he would he would make the best of it and we have a happy life since my accident I try to look for and I do find a blessing every day you know somewhere in the day you know you've had a little blessing that made it a good day for you if you look for it don't sit there and dwell on negative stuff let that one little good thing that happened that day that's what motivates me now - you know maybe help somebody else or make it better for somebody else and you know when I'm making it for some better for somebody else I'm making it better for me too you know that's like a win-win what Jerry has done through this process has been just inspiring to everybody you know at the coop just an unbelievable person along with Denise you know his wife and the way they've handled this and he has gone well beyond I think you know I guess most people thought he would could do this but the timeframe and the way he has evolved has just been tremendous and inspirational I'm just so blessed to be here speaking to you and whoever else might see this and hopefully you know not do the same thing I think we all have a tendency of waking up every morning thinking that today is going to be just like yesterday things are going to go smooth I mean it can change in an instant you know in mine changed on something bull and don't think it's gonna be just another day take every day very serious you know even the simplest job you

Channel: Mountain View Electric Association, Inc.

Views: 57,761

Rating: 4.9414225 out of 5

Keywords: Safe Electricity, Safety, Lineman, Not Just Another Day

Id: clAM_VDIvgg

Length: 21min 43sec (1303 seconds)

Published: Thu May 11 2017