You can read about my accident at http://townsend.be/ and the subsequent problems I have had trying to get my teeth fixed.
As you can see from the photo, my chest is not quite on straight and my shoulders pop out of their sockets. A steel bar holds my right arm on. I had 28 foot trailer of metal scrap behind my tractor. I guess something snapped from the weight when I started in bull low down a steep hill.
The tractor came up on the rear tires and I went screaming down the hill. The tractor didnt just roll over on me, it flipped and skidded down the road with me under it. I was caught underneath of it with the fender crushing my head into the gravel for half an hour before the tractor was lifted off.
I loved that old tractor, a 1960 Fordson Power Major, still do for that matter. Even after it damn near killed me with my own stupidity, I am still impressed with the engineering. I still regret selling it. but we ended up homeless after the accident. Fool that I was, I had never owned a tractor and just didn't know their limitations. Luckily I did not kill my son.
It is said the Lord loves a fool and I can tell you I was well loved that day. I was screaming for my son, terrified that he was hurt, but he wasn't. He suddenly appeared, screaming "Dad, Dad, Dad!". I remember thinking I was fucked and was going to die. I didn't want my son to have to watch that so I hollered for him to run for help. Smart kid, instead of booking it to town, he headed overland to a farmer in the area that he knew had a tractor big enough to lift the tractor off of me.
When I first got the tractor, I decided to try pulling a stump to see what it could do. As I pulled the cable straight, I realized that if it let go, the most likely target for the shackle on the end would be me. Making do, in the middle of nowhere, I found an old steel grid on a angle iron frame and bolted the frame across the fenders behind me. I scrounged some old 2x4's and built a frame and then used the cores cut from some steel doors as a roof. I had picked them up as scrap from a door plant.
When the tractor flipped over, I was caught between the metal door core roof that I had made and the tractor as it slid down the road. I think when the tractor first flipped over is when the six ribs in the middle of my back were snapped off my back bone, my shoulder blades and collar bones were crushed and the ribs on my left side broken off and driven into my lung. As the tractor lost speed, the roof caught on a puddle and I was smeared across the bottom of it. I figure my right shoulder that was on the bottom, hit the 2x4 frame and smashed my arm down, breaking all the ribs on my right side and driving them into my right lung.
When the tractor stopped moving, the angle iron I had bolted across the top over the steering wheel in order to mount forks, was laying across my wrist. It crushed my wrist down as flat as a match package. One of the one inch bolts holding it on was driven through my thumb and my hand was crushed into the mirror that was attached to it.
At first I was horrified that the tractor was going to burst on fire as I was getting covered in the diesel fuel as it ran out of the tank over top of me. Realizing that struggling was of no avail, I calmed myself and told myself not to panic. I kept pushing the blood out of my mouth with my tongue and taking tiny little breaths. I could feel the skin from my cheek being pushed through my teeth, but I could also feel the gravel getting pushed into my skull from the incredible weight of the tractor on my head and I nearly passed out from the pain.
Luckily a friend; Dennis Knox, happened along the road with a buddy that he had been out skidooing with. I hollered at him that I had a jack all at the front of the trailer somewhere. He got it and put it under the tractor. He was only able to jack it up two notches before the jack started to bend. He told me he was going to leave it there as he didn't want it to slip and kill me. What a relief that incredible weight was gone off my head though. Two minutes later my son showed up with Logan Bumpus and the lifted the tractor off me.
I stood up as soon as they did so as the pain was incredible. I struggled to breath and it felt as if the tractor was still on my chest. The front seat of an old Ford truck that I had on the trailer was brought over to the side of the road for me to sit on. I figured that likely saved my life and allowed the blood to coagulate in my lungs so they didn't kill me when they strapped me to that back board.
The back board has a strip cut out along the spine in order to protect the spine of the injured party. With six ribs broken off the middle of my back and my backbone laying in the groove, I screamed every time the ambulance hit a bump on the way to Nakusp Hospital, and there were lots of them. Funny that the MVB and RCMP haunt the highway and fine everyone out here in the middle of nowhere for everything from cracked windshields, rust on the vehicle, torn seats and everything else they can think of to rob you with a ticket, but they can't fix the damn roads.
I had what they call flail chest. My chest was just moving all over the place because I had so many broken ribs, there was nothing to hold it together. I was five hours in Nakusp Emergency and then transported to Trail and spent thirteen hours getting worked on in Emergency there. I was too screwed up to put on life support, so they ran a tube with pain killers in it into my back and kind of left it up to me. I spent the first week in ICU sucking the blood out of my lungs. Now that has to be a unique experience laying there with a foot long clot stuck in a tube and afraid to swallow and choke on the thing while you wait as the machine unclogs itself. My body was black with bruises.
I don't really remember much of the first week except the third day. The nurse had come in a couple times and given me heck for pressing the button so many times on the medication machine. She told me that it would only dispense a certain amount and no more. It was a good thing my wife stayed in the hospital room the whole thirteen days I was in the hospital and refused to leave my side. She finally went off in search of another nurse and asked her to check the machine as it didn't appear to be dispensing anything. When she checked, she found the other nurse had not pushed the little roller on the line when she switched the bags.
The second week I got up out of bed and started walking. I could not use my arms and they told me I would never use my right hand again as it had no nerve response whatsoever and had totally degloved. They had to rebuild my carpal tunnel and graft skin from my arm onto my thumb where the bolt went through it. It was over a year before I could dress myself or even go to the washroom without my wifes assistance.
They could not fix my fragmented collar bone until I was well enough to get operated on. Since I had three holes punctured in my lungs by my ribs, I had to wait for those to heal first. All of my teeth had also been broken in the accident and they could not do anything to them for the same reason. They told me they would also fix those later. Since there was nothing more they could do for me and I was getting worried because they kept checking to see if I had contracted the super-virus yet that was currently making its way through BC hospitals. Realizing I would be dead, with holes in my lungs, if I got it, I checked myself out of the hospital thirteen days after my accident.
My good wife has made me many herbal remedies as I don't use pharmaceutical drugs. It is coming up on three years since my accident and I can now lift my arms and use my hands. I taught myself how to play a banjo to get the use of my hands back. I am not very good since my hands feel like two blocks of wood, but I can play a few songs.
I energize and meditate every day to try and restore my body to health. It truly is a case of mind over matter and I try to stay positive and focussed. Unfortunately the issue with my teeth is very draining, both physically and mentally.
I was sent to see a specialist about my teeth when I was on the coast. He took x-rays and used a high powered camera to look at them very closely. This fellow said they were a mess and all of them broken. I am always spitting out little black grains that break off my teeth. I have had a metal taste in my mouth since the accident, that I think is the mercury slowly leaking into my body. Click on the mercury link above to imagine for yourself what is going on.
After I saw the specialist on the coast, social services told me that they would only pay for up to $800. worth of work if I paid a $200. deductible. I told them that they knew I could not afford that as I only get $800. a month to survive on for my wife and I and my son who is still in school. On the one hand they brag about Canada's health care system, but the reality is that the very poor can not afford it because of financial barriers like this one that keep them from availing themselves of the services.
After nearly three years of constantly writing letters to try and get my teeth fixed we were referred to the free clinic in Vernon a month ago. I went in there and saw a young dental assistant. She poo-pooed my concerns about mercury and said that it was just a bunch of overblown nonsense. I told her no, it was not, that I could taste the mercury and it made me feel ill all the time.
She said that my teeth looked wonderful, compared to many people that she saw. I told her it was not of much consolation to me that my teeth were no worse than a bunch of drunks and meth freaks she treats on a daily basis, but I was not in a contest to compare who was the worse off.
After I told her that I had been studying the problems with mercury amalgams for a few years and could offer her everything from videos to congressional hearings on mercury, she replied that I had come to her because she was the expert. I reminded her that she was a dental hygenist that cleans people's teeth and I did not see a PhD on her name tag as I did on the people who made the video.
Finally she told me that they could do some work on my teeth but they would only be willing to replace the broken mercury amalgams with more mercury amalgams. If I wanted to have non-poisonous substances used for the work, it would cost me extra. Back to the old catch-22 of living on minimal assistance and not being able to afford services that 'require only pennies from the recipients'.
That is just a fake load of crap that keeps people from being able to get services that they have been FORCED to pay for all their working lives. If you want to know what I mean about FORCED to pay for, click back to http://townsend.be/ and read about our experiences with the 'Canada Revenue Agency'. We moved our family out to the middle of nowhere after they twice seized our damage deposits to purposely force us out on the street. Look for yourself in CRA's own records. You don't get a day in court. A minor unelected bureaucrat rubber stamps a federal court order and they seize all your belongings for debts owed to the Queen of England. Not a day in court, it is called an ex parte hearing.
Anyway, the bottom line is that I sit here daily trying to regain my health and I am being slowly poisoned as I try. I look at this mercury issue and I no longer believe it is borne of ignorance. For the 'powers that be' to respond to this issue in the manner that they do, like the fluoride in the drinking water issue, indicates they are not only well aware of the problem, but responsible for perpetrating these crimes upon humanity in the first place.
Mercury is a very deadly toxin. There is no way it can ever be made safe to be inside of the human body. The only reason mercury is used is because the FDA allows its use as a 'dental construct'. If the information on my web pages has been of use to you, please make a donation on my site so that I can get this poison removed from my mouth.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, all the best. Jim
