Morbid Fact Du Jour for February 8, 2015

Today’s Nearly-Headless Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Forthman Murff was a logger by trade, and in May of 1984 he was still going strong at the age of 74. On this particular day, Murff was cutting down a tree in Gattman, Mississippi when a branch eighty feet above him broke and fell, striking him in the shoulder and knocking him into a ten-foot-deep ditch. His bad luck didn’t end there, because on its way down, this branch knocked a branch off a nearby tree, which fell on Murff and broke his leg and foot. Murff passed out briefly but woke up to find that he’d fallen onto his chain saw, and the chain saw was still running. The saw sliced almost completely through Murff’s neck; literally the only things keeping his head attached to his body were his carotid arteries, his spine, and some skin and muscle at the back of his neck.

Murff managed to shut off the chain saw and get to his feet. Hobbling on a broken leg and foot, he made his way to his truck 150 feet away. As he struggled along, he could feel his blood pouring into his lungs and so was forced to bend over frequently and let the blood drain back out. This kept him from drowning in his own blood.

Once he’d made it to his truck, Murff drove a half mile to the home of a neighbor, who then drove him 17 miles to the nearest hospital. His injuries were too severe to be treated there so he was rushed by ambulance to a bigger hospital 30 miles away.

Miraculously, Forthman Murff made a full recovery after extensive surgery.

He continued to work cutting trees and lived another 19 years, dying in 2003 at the age of 92. He always said the three things he loved most in life were “Jesus, music and chain saws.”

Culled from: Mental Floss
Submitted by: Aimee

 

Morbid Art Du Jour!

Kathleen Sawyer is a fascinating South African artist who creates morbid masterpieces out of moleskine notebooks. Check out these beauties!  (Thanks to Anna for the link.)

Book Autopsy

The Little Book of Horrible Death

Necrophagous

One comment

  1. I’m pretty dubious about some aspects of this one. The operating switch on the handle of a chainsaw is a “deadman switch”. When the switch is released the engine goes to idle speed & the chain stops moving. It wouldn’t be possible to incur such serious injury by falling on a saw laying on the ground.

    It reminds me of the want ad:
    Lost dog – Has 3 legs, one eye, no tail & was recently castrated. Answers to the name of “Lucky”.

    Letterman told a version of the joke years ago. His following comment was:
    The dog isn’t lost . He escaped.

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