What happens when a routine day in the line trade turns into a life-changing accident? In this unforgettable episode of PowerGridTalks, host Thomas Williamson sits down with journeyman lineman Dominic Duchon and his wife, Naiane, to share the powerful story of a devastating workplace accident, Dominic's fight for survival, and the incredible road to recovery that followed.
Dominic opens up about the events leading up to the incident, the injuries that nearly claimed his life, and the months of recovery that tested him physically, mentally, and emotionally. Naiane offers an equally powerful perspective, describing what it was like to receive the call no spouse ever wants to get, navigating uncertainty while Dominic was hospitalized, and helping him rebuild after the accident.
Together, they discuss the realities of working in the electric utility industry, the importance of safety culture, family support, mental resilience, and how the brotherhood of lineworkers helped carry them through one of the darkest chapters of their lives.
Whether you're a journeyman lineman, apprentice, utility worker, contractor, safety professional, or someone who has family in the electrical industry, this episode delivers lessons that extend far beyond the job site. It's a reminder that every safety procedure matters, every decision counts, and every lineman has people waiting for them at home.
In this episode you'll learn:
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Dominic's firsthand account of the accident and what happened next
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The emotional impact on his family during his hospitalization and recovery
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The importance of electrical safety and jobsite awareness
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How resilience, determination, and the lineworker brotherhood helped fuel his recovery
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Why every lineman should never take shortcuts in the field
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Lessons for apprentices, journeymen, contractors, and utility leaders
If you're passionate about linework, electric utilities, power restoration, transmission, distribution, utility safety, apprenticeship, storm response, and the people who keep the lights on, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
(3:18) - Family on the Road (6:26) - Dominic's Accident (9:38) - Response and Rescue (12:42) - Waking Up Weeks Later (17:17) - Hospital Reality Check (23:36) - Pregnancy and the Seizure Scare (28:14) - A New Perspective on Work (32:02) - Returning After Injury (35:34) - Rehab Memory Gaps (38:33) - Faith and Community Support (41:11) - Birth During Rehab (44:10) - Company and Insurance Pressure (47:06) - Safety Lessons for Apprentices (49:42) - Advice for Line Wives (56:11) - Seven P's and Humility (57:43) - Mental Health
🎧 Subscribe for more conversations with linemen, utility leaders, contractors, and the people shaping the future of the electric power industry.
🌐 Visit https://powergridtalks.com for more episodes, articles, and resources from the PowerGridTalks podcast.
00:00:00
Every lineman knows there's risk in this trade, and in the back of their mind,
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every spouse of a lineman knows it too.
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Most of us hope that that phone call never comes, but for Dominic
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and his wife, one day it did, the call that changed everything.
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Today's conversation isn't just about an accident, it's about the
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recovery, resilience, how it affects the family, and what happens when
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life changes in an instant, something that a lot of us take for granted.
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Check it out in this full episode.
00:00:27
Let's talk about it
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You're listening to Power Grid Talks, from the bucket trucks to the boardrooms.
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I'm your host, Tom Williamson, a journeyman lineman with
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over 15 years in the trade.
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Here we bring you real stories and real conversations from the
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field to the executive suites of the electric utility world.
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It's about the people who keep the power flowing and the grid strong.
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Let's get to work.
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So out here today talking to Dominic and Nyan.
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How are you guys?
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Good.
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How are you?
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I'm good.
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Good.
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I'm good.
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So we're gonna kinda talk about how you got started in the trade and, and
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how old you were and that kind of stuff at the beginning, and then we'll get
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into the rest of your story as we go.
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Is that fine?
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Uh, sure.
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I don't remember how old I was- But yeah, that's fine.
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Okay.
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All right.
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So how old were you when you got into line work?
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Early 20s.
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Did you always wanna do it, or was it something just found you?
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I was going to college here in Big Rapids- Okay … for engineering.
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Nice.
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Yeah.
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And decided engineering was not the way to go?
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I had one semester left, and my little… And I… It was summer break.
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My little brother's like, "Hey, you wanna go bid power lines for the
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summer?" And I forgot why I had a CDL, but I already had a CDL, and I was
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like, "Sure." So we signed up on the books, and they brought me on with
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Ingalls and McCoy- Okay … back in '04.
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Okay.
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All right.
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So you started out on the outside construction and you
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stayed there the whole time?
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Nice.
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Did, did you know about line work at that, at that point?
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Were you guys together at that point?
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No.
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No.
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No, no, no, no.
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Okay.
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Not yet.
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So when you met him, was he already doing line work?
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He was.
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Yes.
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Okay.
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Yeah, I think he had just topped out maybe, like, a year or so.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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So when he told you that, did you know what it even was?
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No.
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No, I didn't.
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Okay.
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Um, I think… 'Cause we started dating online.
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Okay.
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You know, that was, like, the peak of online dating.
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Right.
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And he told me he was a lineman.
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I was like, "Oh my gosh, what team do you play for?"
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Yeah.
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Right.
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And he was like, "Girl, no. That is not it." I think that's
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pretty common though, don't you?
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I think it is.
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Um, so yeah.
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So he was already a lineman and had been topped out.
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He had an apprentice at the time.
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Okay.
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So yeah.
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All right.
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So, um, the reason we wanted to sit down and talk was because Dominic
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approached me at, at a conference this year and was telling me how he had
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an accident in the industry- Mm-hmm
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and how it kinda changed the trajectory of his career a little
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bit and how he thought about things.
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So I thought it'd be a cool story to get to everybody, right?
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So let's kinda talk about that a little bit.
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So how long had you been doing line work before the accident happened?
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When… Was it 2015?
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20- So 11 years
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15. Okay.
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All right.
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So how would you describe yourself as far as the, the industry goes?
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Um, what was- I- … your outlook on it?
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I was a tramp.
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Yeah?
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Traveled the country- All over … wherever you had to.
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Yeah.
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Made the biggest money you could.
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Yep.
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Okay.
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All right.
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Yep.
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And was that something that you were good with?
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Well, because our kids were so little, for a good portion of his
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tramping, if you will- Right … we were able to go with him.
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Right.
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So- So that's cool.
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Yeah … yeah.
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So the o- f- I think the very first time we did it, I was at my family's
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house in New Jersey, and he ended up getting a job in Buffalo, New York.
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So he drove to New Jersey, picked me up with our- eight-month-old son, and then we
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rented an apartment in Niagara and stayed there for I don't even know how long.
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That's cool.
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For a few months.
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Right.
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You know, and I… My thought process was as long as the kids aren't in
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school, why not do it together?
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You know, it gives the kids an opportunity to see the country, and
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it keeps our family together as much as possible, and then we can revisit
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that when the kids are in school.
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So Dominic, tell me this part.
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So you- you've been kind of the- the tramp lineman up to that point, right?
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What was the tramp life like by yourself versus with your family with you?
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Because I've talked to a lot of guys that when they're out there
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traveling the country, you're working long shifts, you're tired.
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You basically go to work, go to your hotel, fall asleep on the couch or
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go have some beers and fall asleep, and then get up early and go do it
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all again, and it kinda, it kinda feels like you're by yourself a lot.
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Well, you just get, I don't know, tired, lonely, whatever.
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Did you feel that way?
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No, 'cause, uh, you're with your homies, right?
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You're with your- Okay … you're with your line brothers.
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You got a crew of guys.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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So and, you know, you're a lineman.
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You're always… They're your extended family.
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For sure.
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And then like Nan said, you know, we… She met me a couple years after I topped
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out- And I didn't start re- like, I had some bigger jobs before we got married,
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but then I didn't really start getting on the hardcore trampolining until after.
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Right.
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Like, we were on a job in New Jersey.
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Yeah.
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Uh, and I got… It was seven tons, and I got passed, and like caught up.
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I was like, "Pack up the camper." She's like, "Where are we
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heading to?" Like, "LA." Okay.
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And so we went home for like a month, and then, uh, took off and went from,
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back from, you know, went from Jersey to Michigan and, you know, left again
00:05:09
and went to LA for almost a year.
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Literally across the country.
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Yeah.
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That's awesome.
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And that point, then we had two kids.
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Yeah.
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Yep.
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Um, actually, we sold our house, left it before we even closed on it.
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So we didn't even have a house when we went to New Jersey, which worked
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out great for me because I was only 45 minutes away from my parents' house.
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Okay.
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So he's working ridiculous hours, so I'm like, "You know what? I'm just gonna spend
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like two days there, come back-" Sure.
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"… hang out with him for a couple of days." So it gave us that opportunity, too.
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Yes.
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Um, we bought a house from Jersey here.
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We signed on it from Jersey, so we just kind of moved all of our stuff
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from storage to the house, stayed for, oh gosh, maybe two months.
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Did you buy it sight unseen?
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You go off pictures?
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No.
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No, no.
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We- We did see it … okay.
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You came to look at it.
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We had seen it already.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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But they weren't getting any bids on it, thankfully, and it was
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one of those houses that you get in and you fall in love with it.
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Now- Sure … I'll tell you, there was nothing crazy.
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It was a small house, but I don't know what it was.
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I walked through the front doors and I'm just like, "Oh my gosh,
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I love it." That's awesome.
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You know?
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And I wish we could still have had it, but that's okay.
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Well.
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We outgrew it.
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Yep.
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Now we have four kids, so.
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Now you're outgrowing about everything.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Let's kind of fast-forward to the, the day of the accident, right?
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Do you remember the day of the accident?
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No.
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Okay.
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Let's start with this.
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Walk us through what happened accident-wise, or what you've
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been told happened accident-wise, and then we'll go back to day of.
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How about that?
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So we were doing a triple circuit, um, transmission line.
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I, I think it was 138 up top and then double circuit 46.
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Okay.
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Right here in Michigan.
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And we're getting prepped for, um, doing rolling stops for crossing I-94.
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Right
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And it was 336 sad sack, so we're using double rigging.
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And the guys are up there hanging, hanging the rigging, getting it all prepped
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'cause I can't remember if it was, you know, that day we were doing the stops
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or if it was the next day, whatever.
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And I don't know if you've done sad sack, you know, when you got
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the buckies hooked to the grips.
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I've always done the same thing.
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I leave the buckies drooped over the bucket so they're not all wadded up
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and I can just grab it and hang up.
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They're at the static and it caught the top arm is what I was told, and that
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pulled the rigging out of the bucket.
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You know, it was 41 pounds.
00:07:28
Okay.
00:07:28
So let's go over that real quick.
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So the rigging was hanging over the edge of the bucket to keep it organized so
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you guys can just grab it and go- Yeah … like almost everybody does, right?
00:07:35
Yep.
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So as they're booming up, that rigging caught the static?
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The top.
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Okay.
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The top arm, yeah.
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Okay.
00:07:41
This is what- So right below the static … what I was thinking.
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All right.
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Yeah.
00:07:43
And then at that point, pulled it out of the bucket.
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Pulled it out of the bucket on a 100-foot pole.
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And you were under it.
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I was on the ground.
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Okay.
00:07:49
And it was a, it was a tight setup.
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We were, um… It was a concrete factory or whatever.
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They built, you know, the, the K rails or Jersey rails.
00:07:57
Yep.
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So we had two 125s HLs in there, so there's… That's a big footprint, right?
00:08:02
100-foot pole, 110-foot pole, whatever it was, and the Jersey barriers are all
00:08:06
piled up there, so it was already tight.
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And then, uh, the guy, like he's a good buddy of mine.
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I talk to him just about daily still.
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is a loud, loud lineman.
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So when he yells, you can hear it.
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Yep, everybody knows it.
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Yep.
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He yelled.
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It, it went inherent to the third time he yelled 'cause of the traffic.
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Oh, man.
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And then it- It's a busy highway … it was I- And the trucks are loud
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when you're down in the valley.
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Yeah.
00:08:27
Yeah.
00:08:27
Yeah, and that was, and that, and that was right by I-94.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So 80 miles an hour, nonstop traffic.
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It ricocheted off the tower.
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When they yelled, "Headache," we all took off running.
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I never looked up, and I've talked to the guy that saved my life.
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I still work with, you know, at the company I'm currently working at now.
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He's like, "You ran," he's like, "You stopped."
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He's like, "You ran like 20 feet and stopped at, you know,
00:08:49
with your head." Oh, my God.
00:08:50
So had you stayed where you were- If I would've stayed where I was … you
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probably would've been fine … I would've never s- Gotten hit … or
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if I would've taken one more step.
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So it's 41 pounds from 100 feet.
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So hard hat on still?
00:09:00
Oh, yeah.
00:09:01
Yep.
00:09:01
Okay.
00:09:01
I have the hard hat on.
00:09:02
So then that was a big difference.
00:09:03
Oh, yeah.
00:09:04
Had he not had it, it would've gone f- back to front, split
00:09:07
his head completely in half.
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So what, what do you think actually hit you?
00:09:11
Was it the, was it the grip?
00:09:13
It, it was one of the grips- Okay … is what I was told.
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Which big transmission grips are- Well, it's 336.
00:09:17
Okay.
00:09:17
So whether it's at a 40 grip, I think, but, you know- Okay, so not s- not crazy.
00:09:21
Yeah, but from 100 feet.
00:09:22
Right.
00:09:22
100 feet with the other- Yeah … backing and the McKissick and the shackles.
00:09:25
You know, it's 41 pounds is what they weighed it at on the
00:09:27
scale- Okay … afterwards.
00:09:29
And what's maximum velocity?
00:09:31
60 feet, so it wasn't going any faster.
00:09:33
But I- So dropped you in your tracks.
00:09:35
Oh, yeah.
00:09:35
And so then I went face first, and then, uh- Like a tree?
00:09:38
Oh, the guy that saved my life is, is a qualified first responder.
00:09:42
S- and that's, you know, you and I have CPR first aid, but we don't- We're hoping
00:09:45
to never use it Right … w- and we don't know how to use it in the same- Right.
00:09:48
It's not the same, no.
00:09:49
He went right to work on me, and he's like, "And you were h- " He's like, "You
00:09:52
were horrible." He's like, "Your mouth and your nose is packed full of mugs.
00:09:55
We're in a transmission right away." And he's like, "I had to scoop all the crap
00:09:58
out just to give you- Right … CPR first aid." Luckily, he knew to do that, though.
00:10:03
Right.
00:10:03
Yeah.
00:10:03
Right?
00:10:04
Well, he knew well enough to, he'd give me CPR first aid, and I don't remember
00:10:09
how many compressions he went, and then he went to straight chest compressions,
00:10:13
and that's what brought me back.
00:10:15
Then they said I started yelling and moving around.
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And um, um, I was so done.
00:10:21
Like, I wasn't even bleeding till he got my heart going again.
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And then after he got me going again, then, you know, blood
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started flowing everywhere.
00:10:26
I started screaming.
00:10:27
Yeah.
00:10:28
Uh, I couldn't see.
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I was blind, like, 100%.
00:10:31
Oh my gosh.
00:10:32
And then, uh, he was able to call an air med that met us right there.
00:10:37
You know, he- Skipped ambulance altogether … skipped the ambulance.
00:10:39
Like I- he- So the helicopter came right to you?
00:10:41
He called in a CareFlight, yep.
00:10:42
Okay.
00:10:42
And there was a public building, like a s- somewhere there, so they were
00:10:46
able to get a stretcher right away.
00:10:48
So, and again, this is from- Right … probably Steve telling
00:10:52
me or somebody telling me.
00:10:53
Yeah.
00:10:53
It's not from him telling you.
00:10:54
It's not from him telling me, no.
00:10:56
Yeah.
00:10:56
Um, get him on the stretcher and the helicopter, like, barely touched down.
00:11:02
All the guys just threw him in, and they took off.
00:11:06
So between him getting hit and being in the operating
00:11:10
table was exactly 55 minutes.
00:11:12
Wow.
00:11:12
And that made all the difference.
00:11:14
That's a pretty amazing response, really, if you think about it, right?
00:11:16
Oh, yeah.
00:11:17
So what, what part of the country are you in at this point?
00:11:20
Michigan.
00:11:20
So you're in Michigan?
00:11:21
Yeah.
00:11:21
It was in Albion, wasn't it?
00:11:22
So- Mm. Yeah, Albion, 'cause he ended up going to Lansing for hospital.
00:11:25
That's the next city.
00:11:25
Fairly rural area, right?
00:11:27
Oh, yeah.
00:11:27
Okay.
00:11:28
So when you say he called the helicopter in directly, when he called 911, he
00:11:32
told them, "Don't send an ambulance, send a helicopter," or do we even know?
00:11:35
He's a qualified first responder, so, uh, he might have a
00:11:38
different phone number than 911.
00:11:39
Okay.
00:11:39
Okay.
00:11:39
Yeah, and it was something to the effect of- That's pretty amazing … like,
00:11:42
he was able to give his credentials- Right … and told them the severity and
00:11:45
said, "We're gonna need something bigger here." Talk about stars aligning, right?
00:11:49
Right, and I think at the time he's a volunteering fire
00:11:51
chief, so I mean, he knew.
00:11:52
Yeah, sure.
00:11:53
But, um- And the bigger alignment yet was when he got to Sparrow Hospital in
00:11:58
Lansing, it was during shift change.
00:12:01
Okay.
00:12:01
So they had twice as much as everybody in the building,
00:12:05
'cause it was in the afternoon.
00:12:06
And one of the best neurosurgeons in the state, if not in the
00:12:12
country, just happened to have been there doing some paperwork.
00:12:15
No kidding.
00:12:17
And took- Right … and, like, took his case.
00:12:19
That's- Um, you know, and he could have been like, "Nope." Right.
00:12:22
"I'm clocked out." Right.
00:12:23
Yeah.
00:12:23
You know?
00:12:23
And he- and it's funny 'cause he looks so much like Dominic.
00:12:26
He's just like a older version of Dominic.
00:12:28
Yeah.
00:12:28
And he's, like, this big guy, bald, like, super confident, like, "I got this."
00:12:33
Um, yeah, so between, you know, Char- Dr. Charles and
00:12:38
Mr. Boyer, they saved his life.
00:12:41
Okay.
00:12:42
So, so day of- Do you remember anything that day, that morning?
00:12:47
No.
00:12:48
So that day's a complete wipe for you.
00:12:49
What's the first, the last thing you remember before this?
00:12:52
The day before the lineman that dropped it on me, we were going down the right
00:12:55
of way picking wild asparagus, right?
00:12:56
Okay.
00:12:57
For dinner.
00:12:57
Yep.
00:12:57
And then we were staying in my camper.
00:12:59
It was actually at my aunt's house, you know, we're, you know, 20 minutes away.
00:13:02
Okay.
00:13:03
We're eating dinner, you know, wild asparagus and venison, right?
00:13:05
Yeah.
00:13:07
And then I woke up in inpatient rehab weeks later.
00:13:09
Wow.
00:13:10
You know, there's nothing.
00:13:12
Okay.
00:13:13
So- And I couldn't tell you the timeline of when I got hit to when…
00:13:17
I, I, I don't know.
00:13:18
Yeah.
00:13:18
You know?
00:13:19
Yeah.
00:13:19
Anything could've happened in there and you, you don't have a clue.
00:13:21
And I, and I don't know if it was three weeks or five weeks, 'cause, you know,
00:13:24
my memory just started coming back.
00:13:26
Okay.
00:13:27
So Nayan, at th- at this point- … where were you when you got the phone call?
00:13:31
At home.
00:13:32
Okay.
00:13:33
Kids are with you?
00:13:34
Yes.
00:13:34
One, one was gonna kill- One kid at this point?
00:13:37
Oh, we had two, and I was 35 weeks pregnant.
00:13:39
So you had two kids and one on the way.
00:13:41
Oh.
00:13:41
Okay.
00:13:41
One- Okay … almost here.
00:13:43
Okay.
00:13:43
That's the re- that's the reason I was on that job, 'cause
00:13:45
I w- Trying to make money?
00:13:46
Okay.
00:13:46
No, we're in California, and- Oh, you came back for that baby
00:13:49
to have a- It was a California love child I understand.
00:13:52
I understand.
00:13:52
Yeah.
00:13:52
Right.
00:13:53
Right.
00:13:54
Okay.
00:13:54
So what's the first thing that went through your mind?
00:13:56
I'm… It was really weird, 'cause I don't take na- well, now I take naps.
00:14:01
Sure.
00:14:01
Then- Yeah … it was one of those, like, really eerie things that now when I think
00:14:05
about it, I try not to take a nap, because it almost, like, okay, the, all of these
00:14:10
things are aligning, and it reminds me of that day, so I have to, like, break
00:14:13
it, 'cause I'm like, "I can't have that."
00:14:15
So both of the kids were napping.
00:14:16
I am extremely pregnant.
00:14:19
Um, and I was so tired, and I remember, I was like, "I'm gonna take a shower
00:14:23
and I'm gonna lay down." So then the kids were still… And I woke
00:14:26
up, and the kids were still napping.
00:14:27
I go downstairs, and I will never forget this.
00:14:29
It's super weird to remember those details.
00:14:32
Um, and I was like, "I'm just gonna eat a yogurt." And it was complete silence.
00:14:36
And you know, if you have toddlers, - There's never silence
00:14:39
… complete, there's no silence.
00:14:40
There's something burning somewhere And I get a phone call from his general foreman
00:14:47
And his voice was so shaky, you know?
00:14:51
And again, also a pretty confident guy on the phone, and happy-go-lucky,
00:14:57
and he was like, "Hey, Nyan."
00:14:59
And I was like, "Where is he?" Like, I immediately knew.
00:15:02
As soon as he said it like that, I'm like, "Where is he?" And he's like, "Well,
00:15:07
he's in, um… I- I'm actually not sure.
00:15:10
All I know is that they put him on a helicopter and
00:15:12
took off with him." Oh, man.
00:15:15
And I'm like, "Well, is he alive?" And he's like, "I have
00:15:18
no idea." Oh, my goodness.
00:15:20
I'm like, "Okay." So you just start spinning at that point, right?
00:15:24
Oh, yeah, because I'm like, "I don't know where he is. Like, where do I drive
00:15:27
to?" And at that time we didn't have, like- Right … how to keep… Like, we
00:15:31
weren't keeping track- Right … of each other on, like, Life360 or anything.
00:15:34
So I'm just like, "Okay, where do you begi- like, where do you begin?"
00:15:37
Yeah.
00:15:38
You know?
00:15:39
And I- Where do I go now?
00:15:39
What do I do?
00:15:40
Right.
00:15:40
So somebody else calls me, and then, like, shows up on my door because they already
00:15:47
knew about it and immediately drove to me.
00:15:50
Okay.
00:15:50
Forgot who it was.
00:15:52
Of course, you don't know that.
00:15:53
I was gonna ask but… But it was, like, somebody I think you grew up with, but
00:15:58
is also a lineman or something like that.
00:16:00
Okay, okay.
00:16:01
And they're like, "I can take you to him," because a- by, by the time he got
00:16:05
to me, he already knew where he was.
00:16:07
Okay.
00:16:08
But then I'm calling my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, 'cause they live
00:16:11
down the road from me and I was, like, truly the only family that we
00:16:14
had at the time that lived so close.
00:16:16
Everybody else is in a different state pretty much.
00:16:18
We're trying to figure out, like, where to go, where to stay.
00:16:22
The company's trying to put us all in a hotel because I can't just go and
00:16:26
take the kids because I can't take the kids to the hosp- you know what I mean?
00:16:30
Yeah.
00:16:30
So we had a troop rallying around us, thank goodness.
00:16:34
Um, I didn't have to drive because my brother-in-law drove us and the kids.
00:16:39
So, like, it was truly, like, pack as much as you can 'cause we don't
00:16:42
know how long we're gonna be gone.
00:16:44
And then we had friend/neighbor come in to be able to take care of the dogs.
00:16:49
And it was probably the lo- what's Lansing from here?
00:16:52
An hour and a half?
00:16:53
Hour and 45?
00:16:54
Two hours.
00:16:54
Two hours?
00:16:55
The longest two hours of my life up until that point.
00:17:00
'Cause at that point you still don't know his condition.
00:17:02
You just know where he's at- No … that's it.
00:17:03
I just know where he is.
00:17:04
He is at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing.
00:17:08
Here's the hotel that you guys are gonna be staying at because
00:17:10
it's five minutes away, and go.
00:17:15
Wow.
00:17:16
Yeah.
00:17:17
Okay.
00:17:17
So let's talk about you, two-hour drive, you get to the hospital.
00:17:21
Mm-hmm.
00:17:21
Walk in.
00:17:21
Do you get to see him?
00:17:24
Or do you wait longer?
00:17:25
Do you remember?
00:17:26
I don't even remember.
00:17:27
So it's a blur.
00:17:28
It is.
00:17:28
Okay.
00:17:29
Um, I think I did get to see him that night, and I'm pretty
00:17:32
sure I spent the night there.
00:17:34
Okay.
00:17:34
Yeah, I think that's what happened.
00:17:37
Okay.
00:17:37
I did get to see him, and by that point he had already been operated on.
00:17:43
Okay.
00:17:43
And his head was all wrapped up.
00:17:48
He had tubes coming out of everywhere, and he had more screens
00:17:54
surrounding him than a sports bar.
00:17:57
From all the machines he's hooked up to, yes.
00:17:58
From everything that he's hooked up to.
00:18:00
So it's all the beeping and machines moving.
00:18:01
It's beeping, it's going, things are moving.
00:18:04
He's got tubes in, in his mouth, in his nose, in his skull.
00:18:08
Like… Did it even seem real at that point?
00:18:10
No.
00:18:11
Like at that point I'm sure it's just like, "Th- this can't be
00:18:13
my husband. What's going on? This can't be real." Right.
00:18:15
Like, uh- Like it was weird 'cause he was… almost looked like he was
00:18:18
mummified, 'cause again, they like wrapped up his head from his injuries
00:18:22
and yeah, it was just, it was wild.
00:18:25
So looking back on it now, what would stick out as the worst part of that day?
00:18:29
Of that day?
00:18:29
That day.
00:18:30
The worst thing that, that day, what sticks out as being the worst thing?
00:18:33
Was it the phone call?
00:18:34
I think so, and not knowing his condition.
00:18:37
Yeah.
00:18:37
That time period right there of just, oh my gosh.
00:18:39
Oh, that was awful.
00:18:40
Okay.
00:18:40
That was awful because I'm like- I can imagine … you
00:18:42
don't know, like, do you scream?
00:18:43
Do you cry?
00:18:45
My kids are sleeping, can't really scream and cry.
00:18:46
I don't wanna scare them.
00:18:48
Right.
00:18:48
You know?
00:18:49
So- Right, 'cause they're not gonna understand it anyhow.
00:18:50
No, they have no idea.
00:18:52
Yeah.
00:18:52
Okay.
00:18:52
So, yeah.
00:18:53
So how long were you in the hospital, Dominic?
00:18:55
Do you know?
00:18:58
No.
00:18:58
How long was he in the hospital?
00:18:59
Weirdly enough, I think two to three weeks- Okay … before he moved into
00:19:05
inpatient rehab in Grand Rapids, so that was a little bit closer- Okay … to home.
00:19:09
Okay.
00:19:10
It was only an hour instead of two.
00:19:11
All right.
00:19:12
So what's the first thing you do remember after y- the accident?
00:19:16
It's so broken up, right?
00:19:17
Right.
00:19:18
I remember one day laying in, in the bed in inpatient rehab.
00:19:24
And I didn't have, um, I didn't have the wrap anymore.
00:19:29
And I remember picking, 'cause I have a gigantic dent now that
00:19:32
holds water in the back of my head.
00:19:33
Yeah.
00:19:34
And, um, I pulled this scab off the back of my head that was, like, crazy thick.
00:19:41
Yeah.
00:19:41
I was like, "Huh, where'd this come from?" Right?
00:19:44
Yeah.
00:19:45
Um, my memory is so broken.
00:19:50
You know, that's … Y- you know, even if it wasn't, you know, and now it's
00:19:54
been almost 11, over 11 years now.
00:19:56
Sure.
00:19:57
Right?
00:19:57
May 14th, 2015.
00:19:59
Yeah.
00:19:59
But I was in a… The inpatient rehab I was at, what was that, Hope Network?
00:20:04
Mm-hmm.
00:20:06
It was for, uh, very severe- Mentally handicapped
00:20:10
handicapped- Ah, okay … people.
00:20:12
Okay.
00:20:12
And I was like, "What am I doing here?" I was like, "'Cause there's
00:20:14
some weird things going on," right?
00:20:17
Yeah.
00:20:17
But he didn't know how handicapped he was.
00:20:20
Right.
00:20:20
Right.
00:20:20
'Cause, I- You know?
00:20:21
You know, I'm like- Well, did, did the doctors even know at that point?
00:20:24
No.
00:20:24
No.
00:20:25
Because a lot of that, you know, nerve damage and all that stuff- Yeah
00:20:27
they don't know that till after the fact.
00:20:29
We knew for a fact that a portion of his brain was dead, that was
00:20:35
not going to be coming back.
00:20:37
Okay.
00:20:38
So I'm a brain-dead lineman.
00:20:39
Yep.
00:20:39
Yep.
00:20:41
Fitting in with the crowd.
00:20:42
Yeah.
00:20:42
So I- So that much we knew … if you do a CAT scan, I always
00:20:47
hit my left hemianopsia.
00:20:48
Okay.
00:20:49
And there's, like, a dark gray matter, and that, that part's gone.
00:20:54
Okay.
00:20:55
That controls part of your vision cortex.
00:20:58
Mm. All right.
00:20:59
So I'm now, both eyes, I'm part blind.
00:21:02
There's nothing there.
00:21:03
Like, I have a, it's called a right field cut.
00:21:06
So if you cut your eye into, you know, four pies… And I've done multiple
00:21:10
vision studies- Mm-hmm … where you have, you gotta look at a
00:21:12
pen, and if you look outside of it when you click, it catches you.
00:21:15
So you can't cheat.
00:21:17
It's a perfect pie.
00:21:18
So if I'm looking at your eyes right now, like, I can see my hand.
00:21:21
Now it's gone.
00:21:22
Now it's back.
00:21:23
So, and they're like, "That's never gonna come back." And then, um, for
00:21:27
the longest time, I couldn't smell.
00:21:29
Mm. And it was her mom that caught it, 'cause I always had a very good
00:21:33
sense of smell, and I think her mom's the first one that noticed it.
00:21:36
Yeah, she was like, "Dominic always…" 'Cause this man, he might as well
00:21:40
been from the Caribbean, because he truly, like, showers for fun.
00:21:44
You know, it's a sport.
00:21:45
So, like, he'll get up and shower in the morning, and then the middle of the day he
00:21:48
got sweaty, he'll shower again, and before he goes to bed, well, gotta shower again.
00:21:51
So, like, he always smells good, and he has this weird missing gene that
00:21:55
doesn't allow him to have body odor.
00:21:57
I mean, one should be so lucky.
00:22:00
No, that's, that's a legit thing too.
00:22:01
So then it was something about him, I don't know if it was, like, his
00:22:04
beard or something on him, and my mom's like, "Dominic usually smells
00:22:08
really good, and there's no way he hasn't smelled himself yet."
00:22:12
So I was like, "Interesting." 'Cause, you know, h- the way he
00:22:15
smells is the last thing on my mind.
00:22:17
Right.
00:22:17
There's so much stuff going on- It's right … with you, like, that's the surface
00:22:19
… I'm like, "He's alive," you know?
00:22:21
Yeah.
00:22:21
And he's acting like a complete toddler.
00:22:22
Yeah.
00:22:22
And he has the memory of a fricking goldfish.
00:22:25
So, like…
00:22:28
But yeah, and then we're like, "Oh my gosh, you lost your sense of smell."
00:22:30
I'm like, "This is great, which means you're gonna change all of this
00:22:33
new baby's diaper." Oh my goodness.
00:22:37
Yeah, I lost that for a while.
00:22:38
I know it wasn't, like, a huge curse.
00:22:40
When I went back to work and you go to Port of John- Yeah … it's
00:22:42
100 degrees, I was like, "Eh."
00:22:45
Unless, then it came back.
00:22:47
Okay.
00:22:47
But I mean, there was years.
00:22:48
Okay.
00:22:49
Yeah.
00:22:49
You know, I've, I've been ab- able to smoke now maybe four years maybe.
00:22:53
Yeah.
00:22:53
And it's not as, as good as it was.
00:22:56
Right.
00:22:57
But I could at least walk in the house and be like, "Oh, I can smell food
00:22:59
cooking," or- Right, or a certain candle burning or something like that.
00:23:02
Yeah.
00:23:02
Okay.
00:23:03
Okay.
00:23:03
He used to say, "I miss being able to smell your hair." Right.
00:23:08
He's like, "I can't smell it anymore." He's like, "I know you smell good, but I
00:23:10
can't smell it." But, but it's, it's wild the stuff that we, we do every day- Yeah
00:23:14
… that we don't realize until it's gone that- Yeah … man, that's awesome, right?
00:23:19
Mm-hmm.
00:23:19
Um, yeah, I can, I can't imagine not being able to s- smell my wife's hair or the,
00:23:24
the lotion she uses or anything like that.
00:23:26
Or the food- Right.
00:23:26
Right … being cooked.
00:23:27
Sure.
00:23:27
'Cause forever he would get home from work and be like, "You haven't started
00:23:31
dinner yet?" And I'm like, "Yes, I have.
00:23:34
You can't smell it."
00:23:35
Yeah.
00:23:36
Okay.
00:23:36
So let's talk about the extremely pregnant Nyan and how-
00:23:41
Mm-hmm … all of that went down.
00:23:42
Yeah.
00:23:43
Was he recovered and good before you had the baby?
00:23:47
No.
00:23:48
So you h- you had the baby, he had no clue?
00:23:50
He did.
00:23:51
So the doctors were like, "At best, if he's even awake at that point,"
00:23:56
because he was in a coma, mostly I think medically induced- Sure
00:24:01
so he would be comfortable.
00:24:03
Yeah.
00:24:03
It would have to be, like, via Zoom or something 'cause there's no way he's gonna
00:24:07
heal enough to be able to be at the birth.
00:24:10
Oh, wow.
00:24:10
There's no way.
00:24:12
So and I mean, at one point he had no id- he forgot my name.
00:24:17
He forgot our daughter's name.
00:24:19
The only name he knew was my son's, and he would call my daughter Little Rascal.
00:24:23
He thought… So one of his… Like, his little brother had passed away,
00:24:28
so he would ask for his little brother and, "Is Luke, is Luke bringing Nyan
00:24:32
later?" Because he had a different, completely different accident when
00:24:35
I was pregnant with our first son.
00:24:38
Okay.
00:24:38
And Luke and I would go to the hospital and see him or go to the
00:24:41
rehab and see him all the time, so he was kinda still connecting that.
00:24:45
Okay.
00:24:45
Um, I was like, "Boy, we have a lot to tell you." And then he forgot
00:24:50
I was pregnant, and it was weird because he would come to and then
00:24:55
fall back, come to and then fall back.
00:24:57
I think the worst part for sure was the one day that I cho- not chose,
00:25:04
but everybody was like, "You need to rest. You need to go to the hotel
00:25:08
and, like, take a shower and sleep on a bed, not on the hospital cot."
00:25:13
Yeah.
00:25:13
Um, I did that, and he had a grand mal seizure.
00:25:17
It was, like, the worst thing ever, and we didn't know why he was having a seizure.
00:25:22
Was it because he got hit really, really hard on the head with something,
00:25:26
or is it because he's having a stroke and his brain is herniating and
00:25:31
he's not gonna come back from that?
00:25:32
You just don't come back from that.
00:25:33
So I watched this big confident guy, his neurosurgeon, go from, "Yeah, we got
00:25:40
this. He's on the road to recovery. We just gotta watch the next few days," to
00:25:45
he was wilting in the in the, um, waiting room at, like, 11 o'clock at night.
00:25:52
Like, I got jolted out of bed.
00:25:54
"Dominic had a seizure.
00:25:56
We have to go to the hospital." I'm looking for pants.
00:25:58
Right.
00:25:59
I mean, I had pants on- Right … but I was like, "Let
00:26:00
me put some jeans on." Right.
00:26:02
And they're like, "We don't have time for jeans. Like, whatever you
00:26:04
are wearing is how you have to show up to the hospital." So that became
00:26:08
the longest several hours- I bet
00:26:12
to wait and see did he herniate or was it he just got hit in
00:26:18
the head really, really hard.
00:26:19
And now you're thinking- And thankfully that's what that was.
00:26:21
Right.
00:26:22
Yeah.
00:26:22
And now you're thinking, "Wait, why wasn't I here?" Yes.
00:26:24
Right?
00:26:25
Yeah.
00:26:25
All that, all that guilt.
00:26:25
'Cause I'm like, I could have caught it earlier, 'cause his brother was with
00:26:28
him, his other brother was with him, and he was like, "Yo, all of a sudden he's,
00:26:31
like, blowing bubbles in his mouth."
00:26:33
And so there was no, like, great jolt, it was just like, "Hey
00:26:37
nurse, he's blowing bubbles in his mouth," and that was the seizure.
00:26:40
Oh, my.
00:26:40
But it was awful.
00:26:41
So it was just because we kept putting him up and down and up and down and that
00:26:45
built so much pressure in his brain.
00:26:47
Okay.
00:26:48
So I- And they were to stint, right?
00:26:50
They did one down below to keep the cr- the fluids draining.
00:26:56
Okay.
00:26:57
Um, they needed another one.
00:26:58
So when I get to the hospital- It wasn't doing enough … I'm running, me and
00:27:02
all of my pregnant self- … down the hall, and I was about to get in his
00:27:07
room, and then when I tell you there's people spilling out of his room, and
00:27:11
the nurse clocks me and she's like, "Uh-uh," 'cause that's when they were
00:27:15
drilling a hole in his skull- Oh, wow
00:27:17
right up here- I couldn't have- … to put another- I couldn't have
00:27:20
walked into the room for that … I would have b- honestly, the way
00:27:23
I was processing everything, I would have rather have been there.
00:27:26
Yeah.
00:27:27
But nope, I was… I had to sit in the waiting room.
00:27:29
I bet that was a conversation between you and the nurse at that point, right?
00:27:33
Like- Well, I know why she did it, right?
00:27:36
Like, I, at the end of the day, that not everybody can handle that.
00:27:39
Right.
00:27:39
And she was watching out for the fact that, "Hey, this lady is visibly
00:27:44
about to give birth at any second here." "And there's en- enough
00:27:48
stress," so obviously she's protecting my wellbeing, and I respect that.
00:27:51
Right.
00:27:52
You know?
00:27:52
Um, and at that point the nurses were pretty much the same, so weirdly
00:27:59
enough you build a relationship with them- Of course … in a very
00:28:01
short- Yeah … amount of time.
00:28:03
You basically lived with them, right?
00:28:04
You do.
00:28:04
They took care of him.
00:28:04
You do.
00:28:05
And they were so kind.
00:28:06
I mean, I cannot… I'm, they were angels, truly.
00:28:08
Okay.
00:28:09
I just can't wrap my head around some of that stuff, right?
00:28:11
Until you go through it, you can't.
00:28:12
Yeah.
00:28:13
Okay.
00:28:13
And nobody should go through it.
00:28:14
No.
00:28:14
So d- did the accident change the way you look at life, Dominic?
00:28:17
Yeah.
00:28:17
I mean, I now look at it through, you know, three-quarters of a vision, right?
00:28:22
So.
00:28:22
Like, literally.
00:28:24
Um, I mean, your family's always first, and my family's always been first with me.
00:28:32
If you ask guys that worked with me pre and post- Sure … I was
00:28:38
the foreman, I was the lineman.
00:28:40
If you couldn't keep up with me, you're garbage, right?
00:28:43
Okay.
00:28:44
All right.
00:28:44
You know, if you were on my crew, you couldn't keep up with me- Yep
00:28:47
I'd lay you off, get somebody else.
00:28:48
Yep.
00:28:49
And I remember, uh, the guy that dropped the grip on me, we were on a
00:28:51
transmission job, you know, it was only like two years later, and I apprentice
00:28:56
up the chainsaw on the back of my crumbing and it snowed And he looks at
00:29:01
me, "Dominic, you've, you've changed. Like, if that was you two years ago,
00:29:03
you would chew that person's ass and-"
00:29:05
and now you just shrug your shoulders." I looked at him, I was
00:29:08
like, "It's just a chainsaw." Yeah.
00:29:11
And I was like, "You don't need to blow up at every little thing anymore," you know?
00:29:14
And once you get that perspective- Sure.
00:29:16
Sure … and mosey out, um, I think being on the field, being
00:29:20
on the crew, you know, I've really mellowed out compared to where I was.
00:29:23
Yeah.
00:29:23
And some of that happens over time anyhow.
00:29:25
Mm-hmm.
00:29:25
But some of it happens from- It sped up … maturity too.
00:29:28
Oh, I m- well, the, it sped that point up in my career, right- … to slow me down.
00:29:33
I bet.
00:29:34
But I mean- Slow you- … you could still go out there and ra- I was a
00:29:36
lineman that would, you know, if, if you're gonna clip, I'm gonna clip faster.
00:29:39
Oh, yeah.
00:29:39
You know?
00:29:39
If you're gonna climb, I'm gonna climb fa- you know?
00:29:40
Yep.
00:29:40
Oh, yeah … That's the mentality that I was raised with.
00:29:42
Yeah, yeah.
00:29:43
Set that standard.
00:29:44
Yeah.
00:29:44
Just go.
00:29:44
You're not working hard enough, kid.
00:29:45
Yeah.
00:29:45
Yeah.
00:29:46
Yeah, I- You know?
00:29:47
I can relate to that.
00:29:48
That's how it was when, when you started at the truck.
00:29:50
Yeah.
00:29:50
It was just that way.
00:29:51
What would you say matters more today than it did before the accident?
00:29:55
Is there something that, that you're like, "Man, I, I focus on
00:29:59
this way more. This matters way more to me now than it did before"?
00:30:02
I spend a lot more time with my family more now than I used to.
00:30:05
Sure.
00:30:05
And I'm not gonna say that to ch- I just, I've been in management now for- Okay
00:30:09
you know, years since the accident.
00:30:12
Okay.
00:30:12
So it gives me more time.
00:30:14
Like, now if I leave on a storm and I'm gone for, like, three
00:30:17
days- Yeah … like, "I miss you so much. Miss your kids." Yeah.
00:30:20
Where, like, I was in Puerto Rico when she was pregnant with baby
00:30:23
number four at the whole time.
00:30:24
Again.
00:30:25
I was gone for eight months to Puerto Rico.
00:30:26
Wow.
00:30:27
You know, I flew home for a week and a half, and then eight months.
00:30:30
Yeah.
00:30:31
And I don't know if I could do that again.
00:30:33
I'm sure I can.
00:30:34
Sure.
00:30:34
'Cause, you know, that's what we're bred to do, right?
00:30:36
Is lineman.
00:30:37
Right.
00:30:38
But it gets harder, right?
00:30:39
Well, and a lot of people don't realize, i- in our industry, that
00:30:43
work/life balance is hard to do.
00:30:46
If you want to be good at your job and do what you think you're supposed
00:30:50
to do as a lineman and all of that stuff, you've gotta make some hard
00:30:54
choices, and a lot of times work gets picked over family, unfortunately.
00:30:58
Yeah.
00:30:59
Right.
00:31:00
And that's every time… Like, when I said I was, like, a hardcore tramp, like,
00:31:04
the whole time we've been married she's never said no to anything, and- Of course
00:31:08
it's- I had to say it one time … One time I was, uh- … I'd literally
00:31:11
just come from Puerto Rico, I was GFing it in the end, I get
00:31:13
a phone call to go to Saipan.
00:31:15
Okay.
00:31:16
And we just had baby number four, like, couple months prior.
00:31:19
Yeah.
00:31:19
And, uh, I asked her jokingly, "Nick, again?" So I said, "No."
00:31:22
I was like, "Sure, you can go," and then I'm on the phone.
00:31:25
She's like, "Who are you on the phone with?" I was like, "My buddy." I was
00:31:27
like, "I gotta be in Colorado in two days to go clear out of the books to
00:31:30
go to Saipan." She's like, "No, we just had baby number four." She's like,
00:31:35
"You were just gone for eight months.
00:31:36
You're not going." I was like- That was the only time.
00:31:38
That's the line.
00:31:39
Yeah.
00:31:39
Yeah, that's the, that was the only time.
00:31:40
Saipan.
00:31:41
I'm like, you know, she's been great with that part of it.
00:31:44
Like, I was GFing a job in New York, and I got pissed and
00:31:47
I laid off, laid myself off.
00:31:48
I've done that a few different GF jobs.
00:31:50
Right.
00:31:50
And, uh, I was like, "I'm gonna just ride the books for a week.
00:31:53
If I don't get a good call in a week, I'm going California."
00:31:57
I'm a very impatient guy, so a week turned into like three days.
00:31:59
"Okay, I got a foreman's job out in California." Yeah.
00:32:02
She's like, "When are you leaving?" I was like, "Tomorrow morning,
00:32:04
5:00 AM, gone." And she's like, "Okay." So, so let's circle back
00:32:09
to the, to the accident, right?
00:32:10
You, you went back to do line work after the accident.
00:32:12
Yeah, I was off work for five months.
00:32:14
So you were, you were off work for five months in between there.
00:32:16
What was that first day back like?
00:32:18
Were you hesitant to go back?
00:32:19
Were you nervous?
00:32:21
I went back to a crew for the company I was working for, and I was out
00:32:25
local, so I didn't have to travel.
00:32:27
And I can't make this up.
00:32:28
They were up in the air.
00:32:29
I was on the ground, and they dropped a grip.
00:32:31
Oh, man.
00:32:33
And, um, me with my- Flashback.
00:32:35
Yeah.
00:32:36
And w- me with my, uh- Dark sense of humor … my sarcasm.
00:32:40
Yep.
00:32:41
I was like, "Flashbacks." So I took off running.
00:32:43
Ran away.
00:32:46
And, uh, the one thing to get used to was, um, being part blind, right?
00:32:52
If you're up in a hot pole, like a triple buck And it was weird for me too.
00:32:56
Uh, the whole back of my head now is all, my whole back of my head is all titanium.
00:32:59
It's bunched up.
00:33:00
It looks like a jigsaw puzzle of titanium plates.
00:33:03
And I always remember, I was up working a triple buck somewhere, double buck,
00:33:07
whatever it was, and the gut slid.
00:33:10
And you're taught as a lineman to trust your tools.
00:33:12
And anyway, I bumped the face with the back of my head.
00:33:14
I'm like, "Oh, sh- shoot." Yep.
00:33:16
I'm like, "Buckets good." And the guy's like, "You said like…" "No,"
00:33:20
I was like, "I'm half blind, man.
00:33:21
Like, it slid on me.
00:33:22
I didn't see it." Yep.
00:33:23
Yep.
00:33:23
I was like, um, so you gotta adjust to that, right?
00:33:27
But- Well, not only that, your crew has to adjust to that, right?
00:33:29
Yeah.
00:33:29
They, that's communication.
00:33:31
You've gotta talk to your guys.
00:33:32
Right.
00:33:32
They've gotta talk to you.
00:33:33
You guys have to understand where you're at and what, what's going on.
00:33:36
Yeah.
00:33:36
So no, it took a while to get used to that.
00:33:38
I'm sure.
00:33:39
Um, like I was doing a flag job a few years later with a guy.
00:33:44
We're doing skid transfers.
00:33:45
He's like, "Hey, dude, if it looks like I'm gonna miss the tower, let
00:33:47
me know." I was like, "Why?" I was like- 'Cause I'm gonna miss the tower.
00:33:49
… I'm half blind, man.
00:33:51
He's like, "What?" I was like, "Yeah, right.
00:33:54
If it looks like I'm gonna miss this, let me know, please." He's
00:33:56
like, "What the hell, man?" He's like, "Why are you doing this?"
00:33:57
I was like, "'Cause they're paying us." Yep.
00:33:59
Like, duh.
00:34:00
But it gets in your blood.
00:34:01
Yeah.
00:34:01
Once you start doing line work- Yeah … you just love doing it, right?
00:34:04
Well, and if you wanna go back to, like, inpatient rehab, I, I had a
00:34:06
neuros- um, psychiatrist, uh, Dr. Martin, and the, that whole network
00:34:11
was like, Nan said, people that were severely traumatized, which I was.
00:34:15
H- the mentally handicapped- But I didn't- … for whatever reason.
00:34:18
Right … but I didn't realize it, right?
00:34:21
And I remember telling him, I was like, it's like you're
00:34:23
never gonna do line work again.
00:34:24
Yeah, you have to, you're gonna have to reinvent yourself.
00:34:26
I was like, you have to use- You're gonna have to find something else
00:34:27
go back to your, finish your college degree, 'cause I had one semester left.
00:34:31
Like, you're not gonna be able to operate at that capacity.
00:34:33
There's no way you're ever gonna go back to that.
00:34:35
And I- How'd that feel?
00:34:37
Oh, I, I was like, I know how to do two things well.
00:34:40
I was like, I know how to build power, uh, build power lines, love my wife.
00:34:44
Like, that's what I'm gonna do.
00:34:45
And you know, we had a bunch of naysayers, like- Yeah … you know- Right … people
00:34:50
would, correct me if I'm wrong, like, you know, Nan, you know, and they telling her,
00:34:52
"What are you gonna do with him anymore?" You know, "Why you gonna stick with him?
00:34:54
'Cause now he's- Yeah … this capacity." Mm-hmm.
00:34:57
You know, "Go find a new husband. You're young." Yep.
00:35:00
Right?
00:35:00
Yeah.
00:35:02
And then, uh, y- you know, I had my neuropsychiatrist tell me
00:35:04
I was never gonna do it again.
00:35:06
And you know, just like any lineman, I'm stubborn.
00:35:08
Yeah.
00:35:09
So- So that fueled your fire a little more.
00:35:10
Yeah.
00:35:10
Right?
00:35:10
Yeah, and then I went on to bigger, better things, right?
00:35:13
Yeah.
00:35:13
So let's talk about that, because, because Nan's me- mentioned a couple
00:35:17
times that you're, you're pretty confident and pretty driven, right?
00:35:20
So how'd it feel when they're telling you that you're not gonna be able
00:35:23
to do what you love doing anymore?
00:35:25
Did you just immediately be like, "Watch this"?
00:35:27
Yeah.
00:35:27
Yeah, basically, right?
00:35:28
I was like, you know, the guy's telling me- I'm pretty sure he laughed, 'cause
00:35:31
I was there for that conversation.
00:35:32
I'm pretty sure he laughed at him.
00:35:34
Yeah.
00:35:34
He was like, "Oh, that's funny." And mind you, you know, this conversation's being
00:35:39
had very much still in inpatient rehab.
00:35:42
There's no end in sight of when he's gonna leave.
00:35:45
He still has his neck brace on.
00:35:47
Right.
00:35:48
And my- And he's like, "Yeah, okay." My memory at inpatient rehab, like-
00:35:53
If you came in that day to see me, I'd be like- Mm-hmm … "Come.
00:35:57
Thanks for seeing me.
00:35:57
I haven't seen you all day.
00:35:59
I haven't seen you in a long time." You're like, "Yeah, I've
00:36:00
been here twice today." Yeah.
00:36:02
I, I can remember- He would call me every single day and say, "Why aren't
00:36:06
you co- why don't you come to see me?
00:36:07
You haven't been here in weeks." And I said, "Honey, I was there
00:36:10
yesterday." Oh my goodness.
00:36:12
That breaks your heart.
00:36:13
Yeah.
00:36:13
But I knew- Right … you know, what was going on.
00:36:15
Right.
00:36:15
So I just made sure he was calm, 'cause the last thing you want
00:36:19
for somebody with a head injury is to raise his blood pressure.
00:36:24
Right.
00:36:24
You know, and in the hospital when he had, like, he would get so worked up
00:36:29
depending on what was going on, the nurses would call me in so I can calm him down.
00:36:34
And I didn't have to say anything, I just had to touch him and say,
00:36:37
"Hey, I'm here," and then you can watch all his numbers roll back down.
00:36:40
You know?
00:36:41
And sometimes it would be like, "She's the only one that can
00:36:43
go in." You're his person.
00:36:44
Yeah.
00:36:45
Right.
00:36:45
Every single time.
00:36:46
So I'm like, "You know, it's okay. Um, I'll be right there."
00:36:49
And I think it was… Was it Caleb's birthday?
00:36:53
'Cause both of our boys are in June.
00:36:55
So Caleb wanted enchiladas for his birthday, so I was like, "All right.
00:36:59
We're gonna go celebrate with Dad." So I spent all morning cooking, and
00:37:05
I bought a cake and I did all the things, and I packed everything up
00:37:08
and I took it down to Grand Rapids.
00:37:10
Drove r- down and I was so tired.
00:37:13
But I was like, "We're having a birthday with your dad." Yeah.
00:37:16
You know?
00:37:17
And we brought him down, and then the next day, "You haven't been here in a couple
00:37:22
of weeks." And I was like, "Oh, I know.
00:37:24
I've just been so busy." I, I don't remember that part.
00:37:28
You just had to entertain- Sure … the fact that he had no concept.
00:37:32
He's like, "I think I'm ready to leave." I'm like, "Oh, what makes you think that?"
00:37:36
I'm like, "Well, how about we see how we're like, where your vision's gonna go,
00:37:39
how your memory's gonna go, and I would love to have, you know, bring you back
00:37:43
home." And he was like, "Oh, my vision is just fine." I was like, "Oh, really?
00:37:48
What time is it?"
00:37:49
And there was a clock on the opposite side of his room, and- Anybody
00:37:54
could, like, see and read it, right?
00:37:56
He was like, "Well, it's 879." And I was like, "Really?" That's awesome.
00:38:03
879. I'll be darned.
00:38:05
I'm like, "That's new." Yep.
00:38:07
I'm like, "Okay." I was like, "I think, you know, we'll keep visiting you and
00:38:10
it's gonna be fine." Um, but yeah, it was just- So what, what ran through-
00:38:16
adventures … what ran through your mind when they're telling
00:38:18
him he can't go back to line work?
00:38:20
Were you on the, "Oh, yeah," watching side of it?
00:38:23
Mm-hmm.
00:38:23
Or were you on the, "Oh, my gosh, what are we gonna do," side of it?
00:38:25
I was half and half.
00:38:26
'Cause he didn't know how bad he was hurt at that point still.
00:38:28
No.
00:38:28
No.
00:38:29
No.
00:38:29
And you, you watched the whole thing.
00:38:31
Correct.
00:38:31
So, yeah.
00:38:32
Yeah.
00:38:32
I had no idea.
00:38:33
You know, I started looking for jobs, but I'm like, "Who's gonna hire a
00:38:37
37-week-old pregnant lady?" And then, like, whatever jobs I'm gonna do, I have
00:38:42
to take into consideration that I don't know how handicapped he's gonna be.
00:38:45
Right.
00:38:46
How much care that's gonna take.
00:38:47
Like, is he gonna be able…
00:38:48
Like, can I work and have… Is he going to be stable enough
00:38:52
that he can stay with the kids?
00:38:53
Yeah.
00:38:54
I, I didn't mind doing that.
00:38:55
Yep.
00:38:55
But I need to know that he was gonna be able to successfully take care of our
00:38:58
children, especially, like, a newborn.
00:39:00
Yeah.
00:39:01
Right?
00:39:01
So, um, then I'm looking for stay-at-home jobs, and those are hard to come by.
00:39:05
That's it.
00:39:06
So yeah, I did find one, not that it was gonna support us by any means.
00:39:10
Our lives were going to be drastically changed financially.
00:39:14
Of course.
00:39:14
But I don't know, I never really lost hope, which is weird to say because
00:39:18
you, you feel like your whole life is crumbling, but not at the same
00:39:22
time, just because, I don't know, I just didn't despair at the time.
00:39:27
You kinda lean on your faith a little bit, right?
00:39:28
Oh, 100%.
00:39:29
Something just- If we- Something just tells you it's gonna work.
00:39:31
Right.
00:39:31
I would say we never lost hope, but people around us did, I think.
00:39:34
Did, you know?
00:39:34
Yeah.
00:39:34
And, like, if I ever- Like, saw everything.
00:39:36
Yeah … if I ever despaired was because of… And again, most of the people
00:39:40
around us were absolutely magnificent.
00:39:43
Yeah.
00:39:43
You know, we had our close friends that whatever we wanted- Yeah … they
00:39:47
would've been there, you know?
00:39:49
Um, I came home to a, a spotless house.
00:39:52
My sister-in-law cleaned my entire house, did all of my laundry, and I was so
00:39:56
looking forward to coming home and doing that- Right … because that would've
00:39:59
meant- Yeah … I could escape from- Right
00:40:02
all that was going on.
00:40:04
And be normal.
00:40:04
And I was like, "Great, now I have to sit on the couch." You
00:40:06
can be normal for a minute, right?
00:40:07
Yeah.
00:40:08
So, um- But I did have, you know, "What do you… You should get rid
00:40:12
of his truck. You should…" Like, why are we talking about his truck?
00:40:16
"You should get rid of his dog." I'm like, this man comes home
00:40:19
with no truck and no dog- Yeah
00:40:22
we're gonna have a problem.
00:40:24
Yeah.
00:40:24
No boat.
00:40:25
Yeah.
00:40:25
No boat, no nothing.
00:40:27
Like, just hold on a minute.
00:40:29
Like, let's pump the brakes and, you know, see what we can do.
00:40:33
Our community, like here in Big Rapids, were amazing.
00:40:36
That's awesome.
00:40:36
Um, again, between… Definitely our faith kept us going.
00:40:41
Boy did we pray over this man.
00:40:42
Oh, I can see it.
00:40:42
Like every waking second of the day.
00:40:46
Yeah.
00:40:47
You know, we had so many people praying for him, but for our family, for me.
00:40:51
I mean, I was, you know, could have delivered at any point with the
00:40:55
stress, and thankfully, like, we held it together until our due date.
00:40:59
But yeah, our community was absolutely amazing, and I can't imagine what
00:41:04
we would have done without our family, our, definitely our faith,
00:41:09
but our community was incredible.
00:41:11
You asked about that, about the due date.
00:41:13
Yeah.
00:41:13
I, I didn't make it.
00:41:14
He didn't make it.
00:41:15
They, they- Yes … did me out of inpatient rehab.
00:41:16
They drove me up there.
00:41:17
Yeah.
00:41:18
Had the baby, then they put me back in inpatient rehab.
00:41:19
Yeah, we just needed a person that was designated just for him.
00:41:22
Okay.
00:41:22
I had a C-section- Yep … so that could sit with him, because if
00:41:25
something happened to him- Right
00:41:26
the crew that was there, the medical crew that was there, was for me.
00:41:29
Right.
00:41:29
So somebody else- Okay … had to be responsible for him.
00:41:32
And, and you remember it?
00:41:33
No.
00:41:34
So you were there, you just- I was there, um- You do look at pictures and people
00:41:36
tell you- I mostly got photos, yeah.
00:41:38
Yeah.
00:41:38
Okay.
00:41:38
Yeah.
00:41:38
Yeah.
00:41:38
I don't remember any of it, though.
00:41:39
That's wild.
00:41:40
But he didn't make it.
00:41:41
But I made it.
00:41:41
We snuck him out for- He got to miss photos … I think 48 hours.
00:41:44
That's… Okay.
00:41:46
So how, how old are your other two kids at this point?
00:41:48
One and a half- And three Do they remember … three or four.
00:41:54
Oh, yeah So how did they handle all that not seeing Dad and
00:41:58
what happens or- Um- How do you explain that to a three-year-old?
00:42:02
Right.
00:42:02
If I remember, it was one of those, like, you know, Dad got hurt and
00:42:07
he's in the hospital getting better.
00:42:08
So the kids were not able to see him at all- Oh, because of the vents … for
00:42:12
probably, like, three weeks.
00:42:13
Okay Until he went to inpatient rehab, and it was a lot more kid-friendly.
00:42:20
Gotcha And he had his own room.
00:42:21
I mean, I- everywhere he went he had his own room, but it was a lot
00:42:25
less, um, hospital-y Yeah, less machines, less tubes … yeah.
00:42:30
Right, right, right.
00:42:31
There's no way I was gonna let my babies- Yeah … see their dad-
00:42:35
Yeah … hooked u- I mean, that was traumatizing enough for- And he
00:42:40
wouldn't want it either … an adult.
00:42:41
No.
00:42:41
No.
00:42:41
Not at all.
00:42:41
No, no, no.
00:42:42
No.
00:42:42
Nobody wants to be seen in that state any more than they have to be, right?
00:42:45
Correct.
00:42:46
He did look really good once he, they took the wrap off his head.
00:42:49
I was like, "Oh my gosh." Surprisingly good?
00:42:51
Yes.
00:42:52
I was like, "That's attractive." And then his, his mom was so funny.
00:42:56
She was like, "Diane, only you would look at your comatose
00:43:00
husband and say how sexy he looks."
00:43:04
Feeding tubes.
00:43:04
I'm like, "I'm sorry." That's awesome.
00:43:06
For better or for worse, right?
00:43:08
That's awesome.
00:43:09
She said I was great at pulling the feeding tubes out.
00:43:10
There you go.
00:43:11
There you go.
00:43:13
Oh, man.
00:43:14
Oh.
00:43:14
I, I love that you guys can, can laugh about it and make jokes about it, right?
00:43:17
Because it is part of your life at this point.
00:43:19
I mean, no matter- Yeah … if you wanted it to be or not, it's there.
00:43:21
Right Right?
00:43:21
So you said it was five months before you went back to work, right?
00:43:24
Yep.
00:43:24
Mm-hmm.
00:43:24
And after that, did you continue traveling or did you stay pretty local after that?
00:43:28
Oh, I was, I was gone.
00:43:29
Yep.
00:43:29
Yeah.
00:43:30
So you kept traveling.
00:43:30
Yeah, I went back to the company I was working at and then, um-
00:43:35
Like I said, I was, you know, a hardcore tramp.
00:43:37
Yeah.
00:43:38
You know, I- Did you go back?
00:43:39
I thought you went back to a different- I went to Chicago … with the same company?
00:43:42
No, different.
00:43:43
I went back to where- Oh … I was, the company I was working at, and then I
00:43:45
got pissed and I drove, went to Chicago.
00:43:47
Um.
00:43:48
Yep.
00:43:48
And then after Chicago I came back up here to Michigan, and after Michigan
00:43:50
I went to Ca- you know, California.
00:43:52
I thought you were going to go because you were like, "Yes, yes, CES will take you,"
00:43:56
and- I did … and then they're like- No … "Nope, too much of a liability."
00:44:00
No, I d- I went back to work there.
00:44:01
That's when I got- Did you?
00:44:02
… yeah.
00:44:03
Yep, and then I got pissed and drove.
00:44:04
No, after?
00:44:05
Yes.
00:44:06
After your accident?
00:44:06
Yeah, right here in Reach City.
00:44:08
Ugh.
00:44:09
I- Yeah.
00:44:10
Yeah.
00:44:10
Well, he's no longer allowed to work for that company for multiple reasons.
00:44:13
Yeah.
00:44:13
One of them is the one reason I was like, "If you ever work for them
00:44:16
again, I will divorce you." Yeah.
00:44:17
So.
00:44:18
And he's like, "What?" I'm like, "Yep, I'm not doing that." Yeah.
00:44:21
They treated us- Another one … like absolute trash.
00:44:23
Yeah.
00:44:23
And that's horrible.
00:44:24
Yeah.
00:44:24
That's horrible.
00:44:25
Yeah.
00:44:25
And you hear that a lot when you talk to people who have been through some, some
00:44:28
hard situations in, in the industry, really a- in any industry probably, right?
00:44:32
Mm-hmm.
00:44:33
But all of the legal stuff kinda takes over and- Mm-hmm … they
00:44:35
kinda quit treating you like a human being and that- Oh, yes.
00:44:38
And it was from the very beginning unfortunately.
00:44:40
Like, I shouldn't be chased around in the hospital- Yeah, no.
00:44:43
No, you- … by someb- Nothing from me … no.
00:44:45
No, no, no.
00:44:46
Yeah.
00:44:46
And that's the part that a lot of people don't understand, too.
00:44:50
Um, when this kinda stuff happens The insurance companies, the, the
00:44:56
lawyers, they will come to the hospital and they will find the
00:44:59
spouse of whoever got hurt- Mm-hmm
00:45:01
and they will say, "Oh yeah, it's fine. Just sign this piece of paper." Mm-mm.
00:45:04
"Oh yeah, let's, let's talk about this right now." Yep.
00:45:06
And from the human factor of it- Mm-hmm … that just drives me insane.
00:45:10
Yep.
00:45:11
Like, step back, take a break.
00:45:13
Mm-hmm.
00:45:13
Know, know your boundaries.
00:45:14
Yep.
00:45:14
Not the time, not the place.
00:45:15
Nope.
00:45:16
Right?
00:45:16
Um- Not at all
00:45:17
I, I wish hospitals make rules where that couldn't happen or something.
00:45:20
Oh, I made a rule.
00:45:21
Good.
00:45:21
I was like, "This individual, he can come here all he wants. He is not
00:45:25
allowed to go into Dominic's room- Good for you … at all." Yeah.
00:45:29
Because just the thought of his name made my… N- not a whole lot raises
00:45:34
my blood pressure, but the fact that he was just trailing me around in the
00:45:38
hospital, and I'm pretty, like, laid back for the most part, trailing me in the
00:45:42
hospital and wanting to chase doctors to give him some sort of a timeline.
00:45:46
I'm like, "I'm sorry, what?" Yeah.
00:45:48
Like, be human for like a split second here.
00:45:51
I'm like, "I'm… Listen, my husband is in a coma.
00:45:55
I don't know if he's going to live or die.
00:45:56
I'm gonna need you to get out of my face." Then I told every single nurse, I
00:46:00
was like, "You need to put in his chart, 'If this man steps foot in here, he is
00:46:04
not to come to Dominic's room at all.'"
00:46:07
Like, he wants to sit in the waiting room, by all means.
00:46:10
Nobody's to talk to him, give him any information.
00:46:13
First of all, they can't anyway, but nothing.
00:46:15
How is he doing?
00:46:16
Don't worry about it.
00:46:17
It sucks you have to be that way.
00:46:19
It does.
00:46:19
So did you have anybody to lean on or talk to through that?
00:46:23
Because in that moment you have two things going on, I, I feel like.
00:46:27
I've never been in that situation, so don't let me put
00:46:29
words in your mouth, right?
00:46:30
Yep.
00:46:30
But in my mind, you have two things going on.
00:46:32
It's the, "I know in my gut this isn't right. I'm not talking to them." Mm-hmm.
00:46:36
And then you have the, "Oh man, should I be looking at that? Should
00:46:39
I be signing that paper?" Did you have both sides of that, or were you
00:46:42
just dead set from the beginning?
00:46:43
Oh, I was dead set from the beginning because- You knew it wasn't- No.
00:46:46
Okay.
00:46:46
I, I knew it wasn't coming from a genuine place.
00:46:48
Good for you.
00:46:48
Like, even him being there, I knew it wasn't coming from a genuine place.
00:46:52
Yeah.
00:46:52
Um, it was a place that he was just watching out for his own company,
00:46:55
which I can understand that from a business perspective, right?
00:46:58
But at some point, morals over money has got to rule, right?
00:47:03
And I, I just couldn't put up with that.
00:47:06
There's some young apprentices out there listening to this podcast right now.
00:47:11
What's one thing you, you'd tell them?
00:47:12
You only get so many chances, right?
00:47:14
Okay.
00:47:15
Right.
00:47:15
Uh, this should have been it.
00:47:16
Yeah.
00:47:17
Yeah.
00:47:18
So I mean, take everything for granted.
00:47:21
We just onboarded some new guys, book four groundmen-
00:47:26
And our safety lady's giving the spiel.
00:47:30
This is on Monday, just, you know, the other day.
00:47:32
I was like, "Go to Diamond Dushan GoFundMe." And she kinda looks
00:47:35
at me funny, I was like, "Go." I was like… She pulls it up.
00:47:38
I was like, "That's me 11 years ago." So she literally pulled up your GoFundMe
00:47:41
page from when you had your accident?
00:47:42
Yeah.
00:47:43
Oh, wow.
00:47:43
And I showed this brand-new, brand-new in the trade.
00:47:45
Yeah.
00:47:45
Right off the book for- Yeah … never seen a bucket truck in their
00:47:47
life besides going down the road.
00:47:49
I think my wife got a phone call 11 years ago saying I was dead.
00:47:52
I was like, "That's me right there." I was like, "Nobody's gonna push
00:47:55
you this hard to have an accident."
00:47:57
And there's preventable accidents, which we're all trained on, and then there's,
00:48:00
you know, freak accidents like mine was.
00:48:02
'Cause I don't… You know, the guy that dropped it on me, I don't blame him.
00:48:04
Yeah.
00:48:05
You know, I don't blame me for being in the hole.
00:48:06
Like, when I… I remember when I came back and I went back to that, you
00:48:09
know, that company I was working for.
00:48:12
There's a lineman on the crew saying, "It's, is, is your fault. You're in
00:48:14
the hole." And we're on the ground and the guy's up right now, and there
00:48:18
he is at the bottom of the hand line.
00:48:19
He's like, "Look where you're standing, dude." I was like, "You're
00:48:20
at the bottom of a hand line.
00:48:22
You're in the hole." "Well, I have to be here."
00:48:24
I was like- And I had to be there … I was like, "What, what's the hole? 120-foot
00:48:27
pole or 110-foot pole?" Whatever it was.
00:48:29
Right.
00:48:29
Yeah.
00:48:30
More distance than what you actually had to do the job.
00:48:32
Right.
00:48:32
Right.
00:48:32
Like, you know, the job I told you I was on was Jersey, and I got pissed.
00:48:36
Those were 250-foot lattice towers.
00:48:38
Yeah.
00:48:39
You drop a three-inch splice pole, it, that hole is 200 feet.
00:48:42
Yeah.
00:48:42
Mm-hmm.
00:48:43
Yeah, it could bounce anywhere.
00:48:44
You know?
00:48:44
Yeah.
00:48:44
Yeah.
00:48:44
So, I mean, there's… We try to mitigate the risk the best we can.
00:48:49
But you know, you get one chance, so you know, ease your head.
00:48:53
Right.
00:48:53
And I, and I told those new guys, like, "Listen," I was like, "You
00:48:56
don't do or touch or do anything without talking to your foreman
00:48:59
or li- I'm- I'm another crew."
00:49:02
I was like, "If you wanna take a step, you ask them first." Like, I
00:49:05
was like, "You know, it's real." Yeah.
00:49:06
Yeah.
00:49:07
Um, 'cause, you know, not only didn't they get the call on me,
00:49:10
I had to call a wife one time.
00:49:12
Mm. Okay.
00:49:13
And tell her her husband was getting airlifted off the job.
00:49:16
Oh, man.
00:49:17
And she's like, "Is he alive or dead?" I was like, "I don't know."
00:49:19
Like, when we put him on the chopper, he was still alive.
00:49:21
This was after you had had your accident?
00:49:22
After I had my accident.
00:49:23
Four years later, I had to make the same phone call.
00:49:25
Oh my goodness.
00:49:26
And I was sobbing, right?
00:49:27
Right.
00:49:27
Oh.
00:49:27
'Cause she knew me from Bluetooth, 'cause y- linemen are very private people.
00:49:32
No.
00:49:32
We got on Bluetooth, everybody's gonna listen to the wife talk.
00:49:35
Yep.
00:49:35
Yeah.
00:49:35
100%. You know, and she knew me, right?
00:49:38
You know, my wife got the call, I had to make the call.
00:49:40
That's one thing I'll never do again.
00:49:41
Yeah.
00:49:42
That's rough.
00:49:42
Same kind of question, different, different angle for you, right?
00:49:45
Okay.
00:49:45
So if you could give advice to any line wife out there- Okay … that
00:49:51
is in the industry- Mm-hmm
00:49:52
what, what would it be?
00:49:53
Trust your instinct.
00:49:55
Um, keep a good relationship with, I mean, but feel like that's marriage-
00:50:01
Sure … advice across the board, right?
00:50:02
Sure.
00:50:03
Um, talking is super important.
00:50:06
Communicating is super important.
00:50:09
And it's more so for, like, the lineman if anything.
00:50:12
Like, let us know what you're doing, you know?
00:50:14
Like, so we know where to start looking.
00:50:16
Yeah.
00:50:17
Um, granted, his accident was different and there's no way he was gonna
00:50:20
call me, but, like, like he said, linemen are very private people, so
00:50:25
I can't tell you how many times I've talked to a truck full of linemen.
00:50:29
So, like, names come to you, but don't be a snot, I guess.
00:50:34
Okay.
00:50:34
Like, talk to the guys, you know?
00:50:36
Because you never know if one of those guys are gonna be
00:50:39
the ones that are calling you.
00:50:40
So now you built a relationship with the guys in the truck.
00:50:43
Okay.
00:50:43
Or, you know, that's the guy that's like, "Oh, I gotta call Diane and
00:50:48
let her know X, Y, and Z." So you know, just be present, I guess.
00:50:53
And it's hard, right?
00:50:54
Because m- so many of us, we do, we have jobs, we have children, and we
00:51:00
have our own crap we're doing, and then they have their stuff, you guys' stuff.
00:51:05
Yeah.
00:51:06
Um, I don't know, be, I don't know, communication is key, I think.
00:51:10
And we're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
00:51:13
There are days, you know, you just…
00:51:16
But- Well, you kinda looked at him out of the corner of your eye when you did that.
00:51:20
I don't see it.
00:51:20
She's on my blind side.
00:51:21
She can't, he can't see me.
00:51:24
That's why I'm sitting here.
00:51:27
Oh, str- strategic.
00:51:28
I didn't even know it at the time.
00:51:29
Yeah.
00:51:30
That's awesome.
00:51:30
Oh.
00:51:31
That's awesome.
00:51:32
Everybody in this industry always see that close call, and you talk about near misses
00:51:37
You don't wanna be part of it, right?
00:51:39
You don't wanna be, and I, I'm lucky, blessed.
00:51:43
Not many people get to come back.
00:51:45
No kidding, man.
00:51:46
You know what I mean?
00:51:46
You're probably one of the luckiest people I've ever been around, honest.
00:51:48
Right.
00:51:49
And then I've been lucky to go from dying to where I'm never gonna do
00:51:54
line work again, where I've climbed the ladder at numerous companies.
00:51:59
Yeah.
00:51:59
Where I've been able to still operate, I think, at a decent capacity, right?
00:52:03
Sure.
00:52:05
At least I don't wanna sit on my blind side.
00:52:07
But, um, you know, I was very lucky, very fortunate.
00:52:10
You know, and this, you know, these younger kids now,
00:52:13
you know, you, you gotta be
00:52:17
You gotta stay humble no matter how good you think you are.
00:52:21
'Cause I thought I was great, right?
00:52:24
freak accident.
00:52:26
I got the hard hat at home, it's in a box, still full of blood.
00:52:30
No, I can't.
00:52:31
Yeah.
00:52:31
You'll have it forever.
00:52:33
Yeah, and that says, "In case of emergency" wherever.
00:52:35
It's on my hard hat, it's always right, you know, ice.
00:52:37
Yep.
00:52:37
And I am, with their phone number, that's in that hard hat.
00:52:39
Yeah.
00:52:40
Wow.
00:52:40
I put that on all my hard hats.
00:52:41
That's- You know, with a Sharpie.
00:52:43
So that's still there covering, but I still got it at home.
00:52:45
I need to f- you know, put it in like a glass box, but the one
00:52:48
side's still covered with blood.
00:52:49
Um, there's a, the hole in the back of it, if I put it on, I take a ink pen,
00:52:53
and it goes right to where the- It's so bizarre because the hard hat, it doesn't
00:52:58
look like there was that much damage.
00:53:01
You know what I mean?
00:53:01
Like, there's a little bit of a, in, like an indent it made, a crack.
00:53:05
But it completely crushed the back of his skull.
00:53:10
The impact radiated- Two broken vertebrae in my neck … to
00:53:12
the top of h- both of his ears.
00:53:15
So he basically almost took completely the top off.
00:53:18
Um- Two broken vertebrae in my neck.
00:53:21
Yeah.
00:53:21
And now I have a scar here on my neck somewhere.
00:53:23
Um, I had to have surfa- arthroplasty done.
00:53:25
Yeah.
00:53:25
'Cause my vertebrae were gone.
00:53:27
Yeah.
00:53:28
Yeah.
00:53:28
And I didn't find that out later till I was doing another highline job, 'cause
00:53:30
you know, why not go back to highline?
00:53:32
Yeah.
00:53:33
And, uh, I'd call her up.
00:53:34
I was like, you know, my wrist would lock up, like when you dehydrate your
00:53:36
hand, and it'd be so painful it'd put me down on my knees in the right of way.
00:53:40
And then, you know, I was a foreman and my crew's like, "What's wrong with
00:53:42
you?" I was like, I was like, "I can't move." I was like, I was in so much pain.
00:53:46
And then I'd go back to Dr. Bill, the guy that did my operation, and he's
00:53:49
like, "This, either you gotta do this or, you know, a fusion." I was like,
00:53:53
"Well, I'll do the surfacarthroplasty," so now I still got full range.
00:53:56
Yeah.
00:53:57
But now, you know, my… There's nothing really physically holding my- Your spine
00:54:02
together … my spine together anymore.
00:54:03
You have a, like a- It's, it's a rubber desk.
00:54:05
It looks like, uh, two timber connectors of- Okay … with a
00:54:08
rubber desk between my vertebrae.
00:54:10
It's so wild.
00:54:12
That's crazy.
00:54:12
And like, I have a photo of it somewhere.
00:54:14
Yeah.
00:54:14
Yeah.
00:54:14
Yeah.
00:54:14
You gotta do everything the hard way, don't you?
00:54:16
Yeah, right?
00:54:16
Yeah.
00:54:18
That's what I think.
00:54:18
So much so that when we were pregnant, so every time he's had a bad accident,
00:54:21
I was pregnant with one of the boys, and wanted to make them tough-
00:54:25
Oh, boy … from the womb, right?
00:54:26
Sounds like it.
00:54:27
So then when I was pregnant with our youngest, and he was like,
00:54:33
"Oh, I'm, I wanna go to Puerto Rico," I was like, "Oh, no.
00:54:37
We're going to see your cousin who does, like, 4D ultrasound." And I said, "We're
00:54:41
gonna find out what this baby's gender is first, because if it's a boy, I am
00:54:45
going to wrap you up in bubble wrap and put you in a zero gravity chamber until
00:54:51
this child comes out." Like, "I'm not doing this yet." Because you're not going
00:54:54
anywhere, and you know, it was a girl.
00:54:56
And- And then I- I was like, "All right, you may go." And then I
00:55:00
would video call her from on the long line or the skid on the 500.
00:55:03
Of course you would.
00:55:03
Yeah.
00:55:04
Yeah.
00:55:04
Hey.
00:55:04
That, that's good for her stress level at that point.
00:55:06
Yes.
00:55:07
Right?
00:55:08
Then, you know, but like, y- you know, you think lavender tough.
00:55:11
She, she's tougher, right?
00:55:12
Oh, I guarantee you.
00:55:13
She went through that with me.
00:55:15
The whole time in Puerto Rico I left- She was pregnant.
00:55:19
I came back like three weeks later.
00:55:20
We had a baby number four.
00:55:22
So the dead of winter- Oh man, that was just fighting … so she's
00:55:25
pregnant the whole time with horses and chickens in wintertime in Michigan.
00:55:29
Yeah.
00:55:29
I finally had to call somebody to plow my driveway because my
00:55:33
my snow pants wouldn't shut.
00:55:36
And my neighbors would drive by and be like, "Nyanne, why are you doing
00:55:39
that?" I'm like, "Because I have a four-wheeler- Yeah … with a plow.
00:55:42
Why am I gonna call anybody?" You know?
00:55:44
Of course.
00:55:45
Until, yeah, I couldn't wear pants.
00:55:48
And then I was like, "Okay, we need help." Yep.
00:55:51
Yep.
00:55:52
I feel like you guys are pretty similar in that, right?
00:55:55
Oh.
00:55:55
Yeah.
00:55:55
Like hard-headed, stubborn?
00:55:57
Independent, stubborn.
00:55:57
Yeah.
00:55:58
Yeah.
00:55:58
It's pretty much a lineman thing for us anyhow, but- Yeah, right … for,
00:56:01
for it to, for it to line for, for you like that, it's pretty cool.
00:56:03
It's a South American thing for me.
00:56:05
Yeah.
00:56:05
Okay.
00:56:07
That, that's pretty awesome how, how you both are that
00:56:09
independent and that stubborn.
00:56:10
Yeah.
00:56:11
So, so you mentioned being humble, and, and I wanna touch back on
00:56:14
that for a minute because I feel like our trade's getting to a
00:56:17
point where that's disappearing.
00:56:19
A lot of guys, especially early in the trade, think that they know it all,
00:56:24
think that they're the best lineman out there, think they can do anything.
00:56:26
They're Superman, right?
00:56:28
And I know complacency is a, is a big thing, too, and everybody kinda gets so
00:56:33
used to doing things that they keep taking shortcuts and it gets worse and worse.
00:56:37
So what would you tell these younger linemen to kinda keep them humble?
00:56:42
'Cause they need it.
00:56:43
You don't wanna be on the rece- receiving end of that phone call, right?
00:56:46
And you don't wanna be the guy making that phone call.
00:56:48
Yeah.
00:56:49
'Cause now I've ex- you know, she experienced and I
00:56:51
experienced giving the call.
00:56:54
You know-
00:56:56
If you practice the seven Ps, right?
00:57:00
Plan your work, work your plan.
00:57:01
Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance.
00:57:04
Yep And you have a good safety huddle with your guys, and you work your plan, every
00:57:10
day you should go home But you've gotta do that every day But you gotta do that plan
00:57:14
And you can't just check the box on it.
00:57:16
You've gotta actually- Mm-hmm … make sure everybody understands the job-
00:57:19
Right … understands what their role is.
00:57:21
If you don't know your role, you've gotta ask a question.
00:57:23
Right.
00:57:23
That kind of stuff, right?
00:57:23
Don't be, don't be scared to ask a question.
00:57:25
Yeah.
00:57:25
Like, you know, I mean, I'd give you examples, but, like, just
00:57:30
don't be scared to ask a question.
00:57:32
Right.
00:57:32
'Cause the only dumb one you don't wanna ask is that one.
00:57:35
No matter if somebody's gonna jump down your throat or call you an
00:57:37
idiot or whatever, it doesn't matter.
00:57:38
Yeah.
00:57:38
That's way better than someone- At least you asked … asking about it, your wife.
00:57:41
Right.
00:57:41
Right.
00:57:42
You know?
00:57:43
All right.
00:57:43
So I've got one question left for both of you.
00:57:46
It's gonna be… Let's, let's do Diane first, and then we'll do you, okay?
00:57:50
So when people finish listening to this episode- Yep … and they're on their way
00:57:54
home in their vehicle, what's one thought or one lesson you'd like to leave it with?
00:58:02
One thought.
00:58:03
My gosh.
00:58:04
That's pretty deep, Diane.
00:58:06
It is.
00:58:09
Honestly, 'cause for me that was the hardest part, take
00:58:13
care of your mental health.
00:58:15
Whether you're the wife, whether you're the lineman, truly take
00:58:19
care of your mental health.
00:58:20
Day in, day out.
00:58:21
Day in and day wa- day out because throughout the whole process, right,
00:58:26
I kept… I'm a very logical person, so, like, I can go through a stressful
00:58:32
situation and, like, "Okay, this is what we're doing." Like, always choose the next
00:58:36
best step, the next best option, and then you're literally taking it a minute at a
00:58:41
time, an hour at a time, a day at a time.
00:58:44
But The Body Keeps Score.
00:58:45
Actually, it's a great book, by the way.
00:58:47
Okay.
00:58:47
Uh, The Body Keeps Score, and if you don't address those stressful situations,
00:58:52
whether it be with your spouse or the stress you just went through at 35
00:58:57
weeks pregnant with two toddlers and not knowing if you're gonna be able to put
00:59:00
food on the table and a roof over your head, it's going to drive you bonkers.
00:59:06
You know?
00:59:06
So the stress of it didn't come until after he went back
00:59:11
to work, and then PTSD set in.
00:59:16
And then now I'm a person that I cannot not be busy because I cannot give myself
00:59:24
the space to think because thinking hurts.
00:59:28
So I have to be absolutely exhausted so I don't feel anything.
00:59:34
So whether you address it when it happens or you address it later,
00:59:39
your body is keeping track of that.
00:59:41
That's trauma, you know?
00:59:43
And it, maybe it's, it's harsh to call it PTSD, but it is.
00:59:46
Well, it is, yeah.
00:59:47
It's a sh- extremely traumatic event.
00:59:49
And whether it's that or quite literally anything, it could be something
00:59:52
simpler than that, um, but taking care of your mental health, I think it's
00:59:56
super, super important, and keeping good communication with your partner.
01:00:01
Um, is key, and being honest with each other.
01:00:05
Okay.
01:00:05
For sure.
01:00:06
That's awesome.
01:00:06
I like that.
01:00:07
Let's have, let's her to follow up.
01:00:09
Yeah, no kidding.
01:00:09
Right?
01:00:09
That's, that's why I've let her go first.
01:00:11
Right.
01:00:11
We put the impossible dream- So now you have no name to work,
01:00:13
nothing to work with actually.
01:00:15
So same question, Dominic, people are driving home, they just got done listening
01:00:18
to this episode, what's one th- one thought you wanna leave them with or
01:00:21
one thing you want them to remember?
01:00:22
Stay out of the hole.
01:00:23
Yeah.
01:00:25
Right?
01:00:25
Don't die.
01:00:26
Right.
01:00:27
Uh, yeah.
01:00:29
I don't know.
01:00:29
I mean, this trade's already tough enough, right?
01:00:32
And then you have lawyers rewriting our safety books, and they're
01:00:37
taking the trade out of the trade.
01:00:38
Taking the skill out of it.
01:00:39
100%. Yeah.
01:00:41
And that's where I think a lot of our accidents are now stemming from,
01:00:44
where people don't, you know, "I got gloves on, I can go touch anything."
01:00:48
Where like when we came up, you, you know, I came up glove and 4K VFL leather,
01:00:52
you know, dry co and suffle ball.
01:00:54
But now you can't touch 120, 240 without class twos.
01:00:57
Yep.
01:00:58
I feel like they're training the industry for liability and
01:01:01
litigation- Mm-hmm … instead of training it for skill and knowledge.
01:01:03
They're taking the skill and the knowledge out.
01:01:05
Yeah.
01:01:05
You know, 'cause when you came up, you could grab 480 and energize it.
01:01:09
You ended up with yourself in series.
01:01:10
Yep.
01:01:11
You know, there's the younger lineman and younger apprentice.
01:01:13
Now, when I say younger, I mean like five-year topped out lineman probably.
01:01:17
Don't know how to deal with that in leathers.
01:01:20
So… But then again, they're probably being taught that because, you know,
01:01:27
like liability and the way the rules are being written and- Well, and a lot of
01:01:31
these linemen these days, they don't have someone with 20, 25 years teaching them.
01:01:36
They've got someone else that's got one year more experience
01:01:38
than them teaching them.
01:01:38
Right.
01:01:38
Than they do.
01:01:39
Right.
01:01:39
Right.
01:01:40
So basically it's like peers teaching each other.
01:01:42
Right.
01:01:42
Right?
01:01:43
Um, I mean, when I hired in, all of my foremen had 25 to 30 years experience.
01:01:47
Yeah.
01:01:47
Right.
01:01:47
Every one of them.
01:01:48
Right.
01:01:49
There's a huge age gap on our trade, right?
01:01:50
And- Huge … I think it was at the conference I met you,
01:01:53
I'd say there's already a 30% deficiency in linemen in the US.
01:01:57
That's a scary number.
01:01:58
And it's gonna keep getting worse.
01:01:59
Yeah.
01:02:00
So I mean, you know, just stay humble and follow the rules, right?
01:02:04
That's it.
01:02:05
And ask.
01:02:06
Ask for help.
01:02:07
Ask.
01:02:08
Perfect.
01:02:09
I like it.
01:02:10
So that's…
01:02:11
I can go on days and day about our trade.
01:02:14
That's a whole different podcast.
01:02:15
I'm there.
01:02:16
Do you, that'll be our next episode.
01:02:17
We'll- … we'll do a round two.
01:02:18
How about that?
01:02:19
Yeah, that's fine.
01:02:19
Perfect.
01:02:20
Guys, I appreciate your time.
01:02:21
Thank you.
01:02:22
Yeah, absolutely.
01:02:22
Thanks so much for meeting up with me and letting me come down here and talk.
01:02:24
Oh, absolutely.
01:02:25
That's it for today's episode of Power Grid Talks: From the
01:02:28
Bucket Trucks to the Boardrooms.
01:02:30
I'm your host, Tom Williamson.
01:02:32
I wanna thank you for joining me as we talk to the people behind the
01:02:35
scenes who keep our grid strong.
01:02:38
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01:02:46
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01:02:49
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01:02:52
Until next time, stay safe and keep the power flowing.