Tree Surgeon Describes Day He Cut His Own Throat with a Chainsaw
Carl Moulton thought 'I'm a dead man' after accident at Hammersmith school
Local tree surgeon Carl Moulton has talked about the day he nearly died after cutting his own throat with a chainsaw at a Hammersmith school.
Carl, 41, a dad of four from Ladbroke Grove was in a harness, 15 feet up a tree when the power tool sliced into his neck as he slipped on a wet branch.
He had been trimming a 60 foot shrub at the primary school in Hammersmith when the accident happened.
Carl told the Evening Standard: " I just slipped. Judging from the cuts and how it landed, it hit my arm and then rammed into my neck.
" My first thought was, 'I’m not going to see my kids grow older. I'’m a dead man, I’m a dead man.'
" But then I got some composure and realised I could still breathe and I could still talk.
"I was lucky I didn’t hit any major arteries."
Carl managed to lower himself to the ground where his workmates bandaged him up while waiting for an ambulance.
He said: " I was waiting to feel faint but it didn’t come. Once the ambulance and the air ambulance arrived, I felt so relieved.
" I ended up going to hospital by road. I thought, ' What’s a man got to do to get a helicopter ride around here?'.
Carl was taken to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington where he spent three days receiving treatment for a six inch gash on his arm and a three inch neck wound following the accident on February 16.
He added: "I burst into tears when I saw my kids again. How the hell did I survive it? I just don’t know."
March 9, 2016
