Terry Hughes does not have any letters behind his name. However, what Hughs lacks in alphabet credentials, he makes up for in fervor–and this passion is saving people’s lives.
Hugh’s safety message is about the “human element side,” he told OSH professionals in Chicago on March 16 at Safety in Action, Dekra Insight’s annual conference.
“My definition of safety is the elimination of human suffering,” he said. “We have to make the right choices so that we do our job the right way every time. We have to make safety a full-time job and not a part-time practice,” he said.
This passion, Hughes said, is due to several incidents he experienced in the 40 years he worked in the oil industry. One such incident involved a man who fell into high-temperature oil and water after a cable broke.
“The man stumbled backward and then forward, down into 193-degree oil and water. He’s screaming, ‘Help! Help!’ and his coworkers come rushing to his aid,” he said.
“Don’t we want to help our coworkers in their time of need?” he asks. Then he asked his workers, “Where were you when he was straining and why was that 193-degree fluid there? Where were you when he was straining above that fluid when someone needed to tell him he needed fall protection? That was a hazard. Nobody went to his aid then.”
Hughes saw the worker’s fingerprints from where he tried to get out of the oil bank. “That fluid was soaking through his clothes into his skin,” he said. “And he’s screaming. And then I could see another set of his fingerprints, but this time from when he slipped back down into the oil and water, this time up to his neck.”
That’s when his coworkers arrived, Hughes said. They pulled him out and called for help. EMTs cut his clothes off, then the ambulance arrived. The site was nearly an hour away from the hospital, and they were told the most important thing they could do was to not let him slip into unconsciousness.
“I could hear the sounds of him screaming,” Hughes said. He’s in the ambulance laying on that gurney screaming that he is burning up, then he would feel like he was freezing. “All the way to the hospital I’m telling him, ‘Hang in there, buddy, hang in there. You’re going to make it.’”
According to Hughes, the worker had maybe 45 seconds of mental clarity during the 55-minute ride to the hospital. In those 45 seconds of clarity, “he looked up at me and said, ‘my wife is eight months pregnant. Will I live to see my baby born?’,” Hughes said after a long pause.
“He looked up at me and said, ‘my wife is eight months pregnant. Will I live to see my baby born?’.”
“Here is a man who fell in 193-degree oil and water—his nerves are going from fire to cold, fire to cold,” Hughes said. “But when he gets a little bit of [mental] clarity—he doesn’t blame anyone else. His first thought was, ‘What’s my wife gonna do?’”
Hughes said he still sees the worker’s pleading eyes looking up at him some days.
Read the full article on the American Society of Safety Engineers’ website.
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