Published Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1997
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OUTDOORS
Local men know too well dangers of tree stands
By Lawrence Sanata
Herald Staff Writer
Dr. Robert Multari knows only too well what it's like to fall from a tree stand. It happened to him about two years ago, while he was bow hunting for deer in West Middlesex.
The commercially built stand, he said, malfunctioned, causing him to fall several feet. Fortunately, the 48-year-old osteopathic physician said, he was wearing a harness.
Ken Armstrong was not nearly as fortunate. He is wheelchair bound as a result of a somewhat related, but unrelated, accident that occurred 17 years ago.
Climbing from his homemade tree stand where he was archery hunting for deer, he stepped on a branch which broke.
He said he had never used that branch before. When it broke, he fell to the ground and broke his back.
The former high school athlete lay in the woods almost four hours before his wife found him.
Fortunately, commercially available tree stands and harnesses have revolutionized hunting, said the 45-year-old father of three said from his home in New Hope, just outside of Mercer County.
Such things were unheard of when he was hurt. ``... Things have really, really changed for the better.''
Several months after his injury, he returned to the woods and killed a deer. He hasn't returned hunting since then.
Armstrong said hunters need to be especially careful when they choose a tree for a stand.
``There's not a deer out there worth being in a wheelchair.''
Multari, meanwhile, cautions fellow hunters to be careful even when using commercially built tree stands.
His stand collapsed like a trap door, he said. Had he not been wearing a harness, the doctor said he believes he would have been killed in the fall.
Multari said he believes he was suspended in the harness for about three hours before he came to and got himself free.
As a result of the fall, he suffered injuries to muscles and a rotator cuff, which today prevent him as an osteopathic physician from doing patient manipulations.
The Farrell doctor said he knows of another person who also fell from a similar tree stand, suffering two broken ankles.
Multari said he didn't think twice about a commercially available stand failing. But he said it's a possibility that all hunters need to consider.
He also cautioned hunters to be careful how they wear harnesses. The doctor suggested that the harness be placed under the arms to minimize damage to other parts of the body.
