The Time to Start A Fall Protection Plan is Now

My two teenage daughters have dragged procrastination from the dungeons of my past to the front lines of the present. They wait to do their homework. They wait to clean their room. They even wait to brush their teeth before going to bed. Of course, they are young and have lessons to learn. Like all of us, they tend to do things later rather than sooner.

We all have heard the saying “why put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” In the safety world, it is better stated as “you must do it today, as tomorrow devastatingly could be too late.”

My business partner, Damian Lang, tells a story about a lesson he learned the hard way by waiting to start a diet program for himself.

During his yearly medical checkup, Damian learned he had high cholesterol and was prescribed medicine to control it. Over the years, the doctor steadily increased his dosage. Finally, Damian started to get concerned about the impact the medicine would have on his liver and expressed this to his doctor, who said his only other option was to lose most of the extra 35 pounds he was carrying. He even said he might be able to quit the medicine if he shed his weight.

Still, Damian ignored the many warnings by his doctor, never giving a lot of thought or attention to the issues.

Then, he suffered a life changing event. After doing a safety presentation for a group of contractors in Kansas City last May, Damian flew back to Ohio to watch his daughter Amy compete in the district track meet. Little did he know, it would be the last time he would watch Amy compete, with two good eyes.

Damian stayed over to work in Columbus the next day. When he woke early the next morning, his vision was blurry. While trying to work on his laptop, he closed his left eye and found he could not see the writing on the screen at all. Most of the sight in his dominant right eye was gone.

Damian said it was both strange and difficult walking to his SUV, so his wife Rachelle rushed him to the hospital to see what was going on. After 18 hours in the hospital and several rounds of testing, the doctors said he suffered a stroke of the right eye and that most of the sight in that eye would be gone forever, most likely.

During his final briefing at the hospitals, the doctors advised Damian again that he needed to lose some weight. This time he listened.

He signed up for a seminar held by Dr. Alok Kalia on dieting and, using Kalia’s advice, Damian developed a diet program for himself. After following the program for 10 months, he dropped the extra 35 pounds. At a recent medical checkup, Damian improved in virtually every health category. His triglycerides went from a baseline 296 to 52 without taking any medicine. He obliterated his target of 150. His cholesterol improved so much his daily prescription was cut in half. He lost four inches in the waistline and says he can once again bend over and tie his shoes easily. He says he sleeps better and snores less. He is also not tired throughout the day like before, which has improved his productivity.

I share this story with you because, as Damian puts it, he had a choice to start the program five years earlier. Had he done so instead of waiting, he most likely would not have lost most of the sight in his right eye.

You have a choice when to start your fall protection program. You can start now or wait until an incident occurs. I can assure you it is much more painful to wait. And, if you do wait, it can be harmful to you, your company, your co-workers, and your family and friends.

I am here to help you do it, and so is Malta Dynamics. We have training videos on our websites as well as classes you can attend. You can contact me or the engineers anytime for advice. The time to start is—drum roll please—now.

Ken Hebert Bio

Ken Hebert is the Co-Founder and National Sales Manager of Malta Dynamics and a customer-focused professional who has spent over 20 years in the safety and training industry. To view the safety products his company has created to help keep people safe, visit Malta Dynamics’ website at maltadynamics.com. To receive his free e-newsletter or to speak with Ken about technical safety issues or about Malta Dynamics products, Ken can be reached at khebert@maltadynamics.com or call 832-683-6218.