Gordon Hill and Tony Punzet.
Local Heinz Goldmann is grateful for the mateship he’s received from being a member of the Copper City Men’s Shed.
It’s that mateship that helped to save his life.
Men’s Sheds are a place to go for men who have spare time on their hands, a place where they can work on community projects, make and restore furniture, fix bikes or lawn mowers, make toys or just pass on their knowledge to other men.
The Men’s Shed movement has also become a powerful tool in addressing men’s health and wellbeing and the mateship that’s developed from men spending time in Men’s Sheds has been an added bonus.
Heinz will be forever grateful for that mateship after he had an accident last week.
Around lunchtime last Thursday the 82 year old decided he would get out and mow his yard.
“I had a fairly big job and I felt good,” Heinz told The Cobar Weekly.
It took him about an hour.
“But instead of having a rest and a drink every now and then, I just kept pushing along,” he said.
Heinz said he ran into trouble when he went to put the mower away in the shed.
“I bent down to pick up the fuel can and sort of keeled over and couldn’t get up,” he said.
Heinz said he tried a few times to pull himself up using a limb on a nearby tree but he just didn’t have the strength.
He lives alone and ended up spending an uncomfortable night outside.
Heinz had landed in the garden on the roots of a tree and a few pieces of timber and while he was lucky to have some shade in the afternoon, he said it did however start to get a bit hot when the sun came over the next morning.
“It wasn’t very comfortable.
“I’ve got a lot of abrasions and skin off.
“The worst part was the mosquitos, I only had a singlet on. I had no way to drink anything. I was starting to feel very dehydrated,” Heinz said.
He was very happy to see his mates from the Men’s Shed, Gordon Hill and Tony Punzet, who turned up at his house around 11am on Friday.
They’d been concerned when Heinz didn’t show up to the shed that morning and he wasn’t answering his phone. They gave him a drink and contacted the ambulance who took Heinz to Cobar Hospital and got him checked out.
“I started to come good after they got some fluids into me,” Heinz said.
Hospital staff were concerned Heinz may have had a heart attack and he was flown to Dubbo for further tests, however the doctors told him they didn’t find any “conclusive evidence” of a heart attack.
“I must have just over done it and dehydrated. I feel silly doing things like that.
“You don’t think when you’re doing it, and then it’s too late.”
Heinz said it’s a lesson for him to be more responsible in future.
Gordon said Heinz’s accident is an important reminder to us all that we need to check up on each other.
Heinz said he’s very grateful that the Copper City Men’s Shed’s motto is: “When somebody doesn’t turn up, we go looking for them.”
