What happened
An employee was wearing his safety harness too loose. At the time of the fall, it took some time to rescue him from his fallen position.

Due to the fact his harness was not tight fitted to the body, he was hanging in his leg supports which was squeezing his scrotum resulting his testicles were pushed out.

It took a 4 hour surgery to close the wound. Less visible on the pictures are two (on both sides) of the scrotum horizontal lacerations of the straps.

Unknown at this point of time whether the damage is irreversible, but you can imagine the pain he was going thru while hanging in his “too loose” fitting harness.

This is not the perfect way to end a day

Lessons to learn

• Require in the HSE-plan that users of Safety Harnesses are properly trained for how to wear and use a harness.
• Test users in their first period on site about their knowledge on use and risks of safety harnesses. And take appropriate actions if needed. When in doubt, do not allow them to continue their use of the harness until instruction is understood.
• Use your inspections to specifically focus on the use of harnesses.
• Demand/provide a toolbox “how to wear, use and inspect Safety harnesses” for the first use by the worker on a project.
• Always require 100% tie off.
• Think about and discuss rescue possibilities during LMRA/SPA preparation to increase the awareness for the users, when something might go wrong.

Important
Please don't finger point, laugh and/or make up crude rumors about anybody who might be limping around your work place.