Yesterday morning Dave started sanding down the starboard side of the boat at about 8.30am and was going to have it all finished - he was sanding with a brush contraption that goes on the end of the drill. Several times he would knock on the hull of the boat wanting me to either shift the extension cord or pass him something. I was doing some work on the computer. Just after 9.30am there was another knock and I cursed and went out and it was the French lady (Marie-Christine) next door who is a solo sailor. Looked down to see Dave sitting in a chair with blood pouring down the side of his face and looking the most ghastly colour - when I asked what happened he just looked at me blankly and didn't say anything. I got some water, dettol and bandages and went down and still got no response from him so ran down to Anne & Leo's Boat to get Anne as she is a doctor. It turned out Marie-Christine was also a doctor and she took his blood pressure and checked his heart and they were all normal. Nobody could get anything out of him as to what happened but we all assumed he had fallen from the plank he was standing on which was across 2 44gal drums. By this time I was in a state - wanted to be sick, went as white as a sheet and felt very faint and decidedly ill so I was no help to anyone. A couple of Philippino guys who work at the yard and live in a house behind us had come over when they saw Dave on the ground and so they rang the Yard Manager and he came and took Dave off to hospital and Anne & Leo went with him as I was in no state to go.
Marie-Christine and a couple of other ladies sat with me and it took me over an hour to get back to some sort of normality - my blood pressure went right down and Marie-Christine said it was worse than Dave's.
Anne & Leo arrived back about 2 hrs later and the yard manager had taken them to a Medical clinic but the doctor there said go to the hospital. Unfortunately yesterday was a holiday - Malaysian Independence day (Merdeka) and so there were no doctors at the hospital. However there were some very senior nurses there and Anne asked for various tests to be done, x-rays etc. Anne & Leo were asked to leave so they came back here and had lunch with me and told me what was happening and the hospital would ring when they had the test results etc. Leo got a ring at 1.30pm saying that the tests were all clear and that Dave could be discharged. So Leo and I got a taxi and went up to the hospital to pick him up and found him normal. He does not remember a thing and was quite surprised to wake up and find himself in hospital and it was sometime later before he realised that he had wadding etc. on the side of his head.
It turns out that Dave was not on the plank across the drums but standing on a wooden block sanding, his arms above him with his neck back and what Anne suspected and would be right that it cut off the blood supply to his brain and he fell. As Anne said, if he had concussion or been knocked unconscious he would remember what happened but he does not remember anything from standing on the block sanding. The hospital must have been shocked at his attire as he was in a raggy shirt & old shorts and was black from head to toe with antifoul dust. He felt fine when he came back and had no headache or dizziness but has a bit of a sore neck. Anne came over later in the afternoon and cleaned and dressed the wounds on his face and head and also gave him some acupuncture needles in his neck as she does acupuncture as well. Dave spent the rest of the day resting and if he had his way he would be back sanding today but we have all said, no and also he needs to keep the wounds on his face clean. His face does look a bit of a mess.
All in all a rather traumatic day and one I hope never happens again.