Wilderness Medicine Podcast · Wilderness Medical Society

#36: Treestand Safety & Catfish Injuries

·1 hr 16 min·5 clips

Dirk says he fell from a tree stand after a windstorm bent the tree away from the ladder.

Daryl Macias opens the December 2024 Wilderness Medicine Podcast by setting up hunting and fishing injuries. He frames the journal-club segment around an article on tree stand injuries. The Arkansas finding gives the episode its anchor. Tree stand injuries outnumbered projectile injuries among hunters there from 1993 to 2000. Dr. Dirk Haslow, the paper's main author, joins the discussion. Fred is part of that conversation too. The show uses the article as a starting point rather than a final answer. That keeps the episode tied to real field problems. One listener story lands with particular force. A ladder looked fine the day before, but a wind storm overnight shifted the tree away from it. The top section separated from the middle section while the hunter was climbing. That section then dropped onto his wrists. He was carrying a gun and a backpack. He fell about eight feet and landed flat on his back. His gun snapped in half. The story leaves him realizing he is alone, injured, and without cell coverage. That becomes the episode's clearest argument for taking stand security seriously. Another anecdote follows from military life. A man climbed into a stand with a nine millimeter pistol in his waistband. The gun discharged and went through his thigh. He was lucky it stopped there. The hosts treat that as a reminder that remote locations leave very little margin for error. From there the conversation shifts toward how people actually secure themselves in a tree stand. The tone stays direct and a little sheepish. The episode also makes room for fishing injuries. Catfish show up as more than scenery. The hosts talk about people trying to restore catfish to their former glory. They also wander into noodling. Then comes trap tickling, which gets the kind of amused treatment you would expect. The banter is goofy, but it keeps the episode from turning into a dry safety lecture. Medical talk is still welcome. So are jokes, small corrections, and plain language when the evidence is thin. The show keeps saying, in effect, that some parts of the field are obvious and still regularly ignored. That tension gives the conversation its value. By the end, the episode has linked journal-club medicine, real hunting injuries, and a very odd fishing detour into one brisk listen.

As heard by us

A grounded look at treestand accidents, with enough odd detours to make the safety message stick.

Treestand safety can sound narrow at first, then a wind shift, a bent ladder, a broken gun, and a hard fall make it feel a lot closer to home.

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Why you'd press play

When you want a blunt safety check before you climb into a tree stand.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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