Wheels in Motion June - The Fear Factor

Hi Friend,

Welcome to the June Newsletter

We have a massive newsletter for you this month...so much to share!

Michelle has a Mother's Confession, James asked Will my Dick Work?, we have a great story from a regular reader on Identifying Risk, Smithy is on his way to Rio and Alan updates us on his Bionic Arm.

Woody's Words launches on the 6th July so make sure you are in the loop to receive these video messages to share with your team.

EOFY Deals, Where are our Safety Speakers.....a jam packed issue of Wheels in Motion.

Take care and look out for each other.

James Wood & The CNBSafe Team

The ‘Fear Factor’
A Mothers Confession - Michelle Rath

I feel that unless you have traveled this road then it’s not something you can ever imagine.

How years later it is for those of us left behind to pick up the pieces.
It’s now been 3 ½ years since we lost Alex.
Our family has been trying to re-group, find our own identities and gather some form of normality.
But life for all of us will always be a work in progress.
We have all changed and without a doubt, even today it still seems all too surreal.
I do believe it will always be this way!

But I openly confess that since that day, I have struggled greatly with anxiety.
As the mother of 2 other adult sons, I am in constant fear and it is with me every single day. I am always left wondering who I am going to lose next, that is my BIGGEST fear.
My insides churn even if a text message or phone call isn’t returned in a timely manner.
I have come to identify this as ‘the fear factor’ and it’s the new normal for me.

I was never like this before Alex’s accident

and I doubt it will ever go away.

I share these feelings with our readers because once something like this happens, it’s with us forever and it’s a traumatic change to many lives.

Don’t let this to happen to you, your business or your workers!

I hope you think about asking me or one of our other
CNBSafe Safety Speakers to your workplace.
We all share our then story and where we are today with how our lives have changed.

Our real life stories CAN and DO make a difference!

Identify the Risk

I received this email from someone recently sharing a story with me.

My husband and his best friend were doing some work on an old caravan, it's quite heavy and they fitted a Wind Up Jockey Wheel to make it easier to move.
They noticed that one of the brackets that holds the Jockey Wheel was not screwed up properly.
The first guys says to the second guy "We should do that up" .
The second guy says "Yep let's just move it over here first".....

CRUNCH the first guy now has several broken toes!

The lesson here is that when you identify a risk don't delay in fixing it!
Don't risk an injury for the few seconds it would have taken to fix it!

I got two things out of this email, the first is as she said, if you identify a risk stop the job until you can remove the risk or fix it!
The second thing is by sharing this maybe we can learn from what happened to the First Guy!

Thanks Rosemary for the email...love it when others share their stories.
If anyone else has a story to share that we can learn from please send it through & I'll put it in the newsletter.

Will my Dick Work?

Recently published on LinkedIn

Apologies in advance if any of you take offense to the title of this article, but this was an actual question that I asked the doctor after my workplace accident where I broke my back and crushed my spinal cord.

September 1985, I was in my early 20’s and had just finished my apprenticeship as a diesel mechanic. I was earning good money, living away from home and enjoying life. It was a Monday morning and my girlfriend had visited for the weekend. She had the Monday off and she asked me if I could take the day off too….. But I had broken the muffler bracket on my motorbike the day before and I knew if I went to work I could weld it up during my lunch break so I decided to go to work.

Now I won’t go into too much detail here about my accident, as I spend a large part of my year sharing my story with workplaces, but I will say that I was thrown from a vehicle and snapped my back….. I’ll also tell you that I was going too fast and I did not have a seatbelt on!

CHOICES that I made caused me to end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life!

The rest of that day was horrible, I still have bad dreams about some of the things that happened to me, The workplace first aid treatment, then the local paramedics, then the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was flown in to take me to the Spinal Unit at RNSH in St Leonards in Sydney.

There were tests, there were X Rays, there were questions, there was pain…. Did I mention the pain? Best I don’t…. It still hurts.

Doctors don’t communicate very well, sure they know the workings of our bodies and what makes them work and not work. But some doctors spend so much time studying and practicing their profession that they lose the ability to communicate what is in their heads to their patients!
I was asking questions, I knew how a cummins diesel engine worked and I could explain it to you in detail, why could the doctors not answer my questions?

“What is happening to me?”
“Why can’t I move my legs?”
“Will I be able to go home tonight?”
“It hurts!”
“What is that tube you just put into my penis?”
And many more……

After the tests, I was in shock, the Doctors were still talking to each other but not to me. I think they had a pseudo meeting and drew straws as to which one of them was going to actually try to communicate with me.

Dr Harris was his name, I still remember it after all this time, came to the side of my bed and started to talk AT me….. But not quite TO me!

“James it appears as though you have broken your back at T7/8 Thoracic level and crushed your spinal cord. You also have some broken ribs and a possible punctured lung. Your shoulder is damaged quite bad and you have a laceration on your forehead and a chipped tooth!”
He paused for a moment to let all of this sink in and I could tell that he was thinking to himself “Have I forgotten anything?”

Before he continued to talk at me and said “We are still waiting for some test results, but depending on the damage done to your spinal cord there is a possibility that you will never walk again”
I’ve thought about that last statement many times over the years and the one word that sticks out to me is “Possibly”…..

Did he say that just in case he was wrong?

He then looked at me…… I’m sure he has had this conversation with many patients before me and I guess he was waiting for my reaction to what he had just told me.

There was nothing?

I looked at him hoping that he would continue on to tell me that even after all of what he had just said they will operate on me and I’ll be home by the end of the week!…..

But no, there was nothing!

I kept looking at him and he was looking at me and then at my chart which somehow acts as a shield to protect him! The silence was beginning to get uncomfortable…..
So he looked up from the chart and said to me “Do you have any questions?”

I looked at the doctor and without hesitating asked the first thing that would come into any young males mind.

“WILL MY DICK WORK?”………

Alan’s Bionic Arm

Update June 2016
NOTE….Alan’s Bionic Arm blog started in July 2015 and you can see all the previous updates here.

Last week I went to hospital to have a meeting with the surgeon and the head of the bionic arm program.

They informed me I will be the first person in Australia to have the new surgery technique called Targeted Muscle Re-innervation (TMR).

This is where my nerves will be split in my stump to try and give me more natural hand and finger movement. I was then told there were a few guests who wanted to meet me, in fact there were around 30 people who flew from around Australia to meet me…all experts in this particular field.

I’ve also been on a very rigorous routine of physio - adding weights to a rod that has been attached to the bone in my stump, and teaching it to carry weight again. Along with weekly rehab visits for this.

So it’s all very exciting as it is now all systems go… just waiting for the surgery date which is not that far away.
Quite a few people have put in a lot of study, time at work and outside work for what is about to happen, so it’s quite thrilling.

Thanks for reading and going on this journey with me...Alan Newey

Greg ‘Smithy’ Smith

is all systems go for Rio!!

Smithy is keeping very busy at the moment as he part of the coaching team for the Paralympic Wheelchair rugby team in the lead up to Rio 2016. So far this year already he has travelled to Rio, Japan & Canada...to mention a few places.

You can keep up to date with the team at Australian Steelers Wheelchair Rugby and also follow all the action leading up to Rio with all the Paralympic team on their facebook page AusParalympics

If you want Smithy to share his safety story around FATIGUE with your business then send Vanessa a message vanessa@cnbsafe.com.au

Launching 6th July 2016…….

Woody's Words

Come 6th July 2016 James…aka 'Woody the Safety Bloke', will be sharing weekly video messages, tips, thoughts, ideas etc…

Directly from Woody himself…these will be real, unedited, some serious, some funny, some sad but all with a take away safety message to make you think!!

FREE
Available to share with your team on a weekly basis to keep
a safety mindset at front & centre with your team.

www.cnbsafe.com.au

Friend, check out Woody's first message to you below...

Testimonial

James told us his very personal experience as a story. It was a bit like watching a movie. Movies based on true life are far more real and send a stronger, more relatable message. And the message for us was very much that workplace injuries are serious, and the consequences don’t just affect your job and employer. They affect your whole life, and the lives of your family and friends. There are some things Workers Compensation can never fix. Ultimately we have to recognise that apart from the organisation’s systems and processes, we do have a say in our own safety through the choices we are able to make at work. James’s messages made this very clear.

Joe Falvo - OHS Coordinator at Hume City Council