CRESCENT, Iowa — A Council Bluffs man was seriously injured Friday when he accidentally shot himself in the leg while hunting.
Michael Lee, 45, was taken by medical helicopter to the Nebraska Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his left leg.
His father, George Lee, said his son dropped a single-shot 12-guage shotgun, and the gun fired. The Michael and George Lee and two other relatives were hunting in a field east of Crescent when the accident occurred shortly before 10 a.m.
“He was in pretty bad shape,” George Lee said shortly after Michael was taken from the scene.
George Lee, said he was pheasant hunting with Michael, as well as another son, Matt, and a grandson, when the incident occurred.
“I heard the shot right behind me,” George Lee said.
George Lee said they used a sweater as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding and loaded Michael into the back of a pickup truck before driving to the intersection of 210th Street and Magnolia Road to meet rescue crews.
George Lee said his son was conscious when he was flown from the scene.
“He was hurting pretty bad; they gave him a shot to calm him down,” he said.
George Lee said he hunts and fishes with his sons regularly, and they practice hunting safety.
“It was just one of those things, I guess,” he said. “It was just an accident.”
Kevin Baskins, a spokesman for Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said Friday that the state averages seven or eight firearms-related accidents per year from hunting. At least 225,000 people in Iowa hunt every year, he added.
There were no hunting fatalities in Iowa in 2007, 2008 and 2009. But this year a 32-year-old Omaha man died in a hunting accident at DeSoto Bend National Wildlife Refuge near Missouri Valley.
Justin C. Wichman died Oct. 31 when he was hit by a gunshot while participating in an early deer season black powder hunt.
With the first two weeks in December being the two biggest hunting weeks of the year, Baskins offered these reminders to avoid firearms accidents:
* Always keep the muzzle pointed in safe direction.
* Know where other hunters are.
* Don't jump a ditch or climb a tree or fence with a loaded firearm.
* Don't put the muzzle in ground.
* When you are done hunting, unload the gun properly.
— World-Herald staff writer Andrew J. Nelson contributed to this report.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the victim's name was incorrect.
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