John Waddell is a retired Army Veteran. He has spent the last 18 years of his life working in mine shafts. Now he is filing a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the very equipment that he has used for years to keep him safe.
The accident happened close to 18 months ago, but if you ask Waddell, he will tell you it feels like yesterday. He was working in a mine shaft in Aguila when an important piece of equipment meant to keep him safe, gave out from under him.
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This has completely changed his life in more ways than one. He thinks about what happened every day. He gets to live with the physical reminders of the accident.
Waddell ended up using a stick to splint his broken leg. He even had to use the stick to defend himself.
Waddell describes feeling the rattle of the snake’s tail under his arm. He knew that it was the snake or him, so he killed it. He also killed two more over the course of three days he spent at the bottom of the shaft.
By the third day without food and water, he began losing hope that he would make it out alive. He snapped a picture of himself so that one day it may make it’s way back to his daughter.
Then a neighbor checked on Waddell and that was when the Maricopa County Sheriff’s rescue team lifted him from the shaft. He then spent two weeks in the hospital. His ankle was completely destroyed in the fall.
His lawsuit points the finger at the manufacturers faulty equipment for being the reason he has suffered every day since the accident.
Waddell now has a permanent limp and is in constant pain. More updates will be made available when the lawsuit moves forward.