sorry to hear about your fall, and hope you recover as fast as possible
BUT I have to ask, why woudl you leave a stand up for that long?
I mean, NOT to bash on you
but the MGF"s suggest NOT leaving a stand up for more than a few weeks?
18 yr?
WOW
I don't even keep metal ladderstands that long, after 10 yrs, I cut em down and scrap them
a growing tree has unreal power to stress welds,nuts and bolts and what not's
its one of the reason, so many folks stopped making there own wooden stands, like yrs ago, most hunters did(or up my way)
the growing tree would tear them apart in time, long with the wind moving them, swaying back and forth
and it caused a ton of falls
safe today, bad tomorrow!


I hope maybe your fall will , make other re think things about leaving stands up long periods of time!
as again, its really NOT a good idea to leave stands up for long periods of time!