A Logger's Close Call
A Bainbridge Island logger survives a horrific accident after accidentally slicing his own wrist.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Robert Impett, the well-known logger, whose family resides in this city, and whose logging operations are carried on near Mosquito Bay, on Bainbridge Island, left Port Blakely yesterday to walk over to Port Madison. When about one and a half miles on his journey, he opened his knife, and while preparing a cane, or walking stick, his knife slipped and severed the radial artery in his left wrist. He immediately started back to Blakely, but was so weak from loss of blood that he fainted on reaching the mill wharf. The men there cared for him as best they could, and Capt. Fenton ordered the steamer Polikowsky to let go a schooner she was towing out of the harbor in order to bring the wounded man to Seattle for surgical treatment. Dan McDonald, the ship carpenter of Port Blakely, accompanied Mr. Impett to this city, and Drs. Smith & Willard dressed his wounds, after which he was taken to his home. Had Mr. Impett been half a mile further on his journey when the accident occurred, he would undoubtedly have bled to death before assistance could have been rendered him.
“Had Mr. Impett been half a mile further on his journey when the accident occurred, he would undoubtedly have bled to death.”
Workplace safety in Washington’s timber industry was notoriously perilous in 1883, with minimal infrastructure for emergency response. Today, while the industry remains high-risk, the integration of cellular communication and professional emergency medical services in rural areas represents a fundamental shift in how we manage the 'cost of doing business' in the woods.
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