4-Wheeler Driver Speared By Stick

Scott Kuhn, of Locust Grove, never dreamed that driving less than 5 mph across a pasture on a 4-wheeler would turn into a bizarre, life-threatening accident.

On Saturday, Sept. 30, Scott, 27, had taken the hide from a deer he had killed Friday to dispose of it at the back of a pasture behind his home. His 13-year-old brother, Christopher, was riding on the back of the 4-wheeler.

“There was an old pine-top laying out there, and when I rode over it, the stick came up between the gas tank and the fender well and into my leg,” said Scott.

The “trunk” of the small pine tree had apparently caught under the 4-wheeler, bent under the pressure of the tire, then snapped, rocketing the stick upward. The 1 1/2-inch diameter shaft of pine pierced Scott’s left leg just behind the knee and drove 10-inches into his thigh, pulling two inches of the fabric of a brand-new pair of camo britches into the wound with it.

This reprint of a hospital photograph shows the back of Scott Kuhn’s leg with the end of the 1 1/2-inch diameter pine top protruding. The stick entered just behind his knee and penetrated 10 inches up into his thigh.

“At first I didn’t really feel anything,” said Scott. “But about a minute later I was really in pain.”

The 4- or 5-foot long stick was still wedged through the 4-wheeler, effectively pinning Scott in place. Christopher jumped off the machine and ran a quarter mile away to Scott’s mother’s house to get Scott’s wife Christy.

“He was hysterical and crying and just yelling what he could get out, and that was, ‘Scott has a stick in his leg,’” said Christy. “All he could tell me was that Scott was behind the house. I ran down there to where he was and I could hear Scott yelling, but at first I couldn’t find him,” she said. “That was the worst feeling.”

Scott, sitting uncomfortably on the 4-wheeler, tried to pull himself off the stick, not believing the stick could have gone in very far, but then he realized how deeply he had been speared. Because the wound was effectively plugged by the stick, there was almost no bleeding. With the realization of how deeply the stick had gone, Scott was terrified and in intense pain, but he remained conscious.

EMT personnel were on the scene within 15 minutes, and they used a Sawzall to cut the branch just under Scott’s leg so that he could be removed from the 4-wheeler. Inadvertently, they also cut the plastic gas tank, spilling gas.

By the time Scott was freed, a Life-Flight helicopter had arrived. Scott was flown to Atlanta Medical Center.

Scott Kuhn (left) and cousin Michael Dodson, of Locust Grove, 14 at the time, with Michael’s first buck in a photo taken before the accident with a 4-wheeler and a pine-top.

Doctors noted that the stick was pushed up against Scott’s femoral artery. Had the artery been cut, Scott would likely have bled to death or lost his leg. The pine top in Scott’s leg was removed surgically. Surgeons made an incision down toward his knee and were then able to back the stick out without damaging tendons. Another surgery was required two days later to re-clean the wound, and a drainage tube was required for a week as the hole healed.

Scott still walks with a limp, but is recovering.

“He won’t be running in any races,” said Christy.

Some superficial nerve damage may be permanent, but Scott is glad it wasn’t worse.

Amazingly, one of Scott’s distant relatives endured a similar ordeal. Scott’s cousin’s husband, Woody Rogers, was deer hunting in Butts County and fell on a set of rattling horns, impaling himself on the tines (see the January 1994 issue of GON).