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Diver's leg broken by whale's tail


Owlscrying

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Mar. 15

SANDY, Utah - A 50-year-old man said his femur broke "like a twig" when a humpback whale whipped her tail during an excursion in the Dominican Republic. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Randy Thornton said at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Sandy.

Thornton said he was in shallow reefs called the Silver Banks, an area where divers are allowed to swim with humpback whales, on March 1.

The whales "slow down and let you catch up with them," said Thornton, the owner of a dive shop, Dive Addicts, in Draper.

But there was nothing playful about a mother who had a calf on her back.

"The calf woke up and got spooked and that startled the mother, who swished her big tail twice," Thornton said.

He was hit and his femur broke "like a twig."

Thornton's diving buddies made a splint out of fins and a weight belt. He said he had a nine-hour ride to shore, followed by surgery in a "prehistoric" hospital, where doctors used a sledgehammer and other tools to insert a steel rod.

"That's where the real adventure began," Thornton said

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Ow, ow, ow....I don't know which sounds worse, the accident or the hospital!!!

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where doctors used a sledgehammer and other tools to insert a steel rod.

ya know.. I'd have preferred them to use the sledgehammer on my head at that point... gawd... :blink:

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What's crazy is a man in Japan was killed while trying to help a whale back out to sea just 2 days previous! It tipped his boat over! I guess whales are kinda on a rampage right now from the sounds of it. Those be big creatures, give them plenty of space!!! :blink:

Man drowns trying to save whale

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From that chart you can see how big the Humpback whale is so its its no wonder his leg broke

Have ever seen doco where they show the whales slapping the tail against the water it sounds like a dang gun. Its extremely powerful

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If only a whale could capsize those huge whaling boats

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If only a whale could capsize those huge whaling boats

yeah....... but only if a ton of whales got together........... the sledge hammer part sounds scary.... but it must hurt to be slapped on the leg by a huge creature under water.

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OWN'D back to being serious, he shouldn't ever screw with a whale with a baby near it. It leads to bad things.

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