Like he hasn't got enough scars. He is covered in them.
Anyway, thank you all so much for your kind words and support. I spoke to him at length today and he has already escaped from hospital (he really hates them). He told me to post this up on here as some of you have these parangs on test or something.
In short, the tang that was stuck in with epoxy had come unglued from the wooden handle and had slowly worked forward without him noticing. He was only flicking small vines out of the way when it happened and clearing a small animal trail when the blade flicked completely out backwards towards his face. It all happened quite slowly but as he threw himself back to avoid it hitting his enormous conk on the way up, it came down and the blade sliced across his side and rib cage cutting some intercostal muscles and obviously the flesh there. He says it looked awful when it started gushing and from the angle of the cut looked like it had gone between the ribs quite deeply. When they got back to base camp, he had covered himself in claret and everyone thought his chest had been ripped open really badly and major panic happened. He was air lifted out, but he says it had been stemmed by then and the hospital just cleaned and stitched it. It's uncomfortable breathing sometimes and it hurts when he lifts his arm, but apart from that he is fine. He will be coming home though, which is great news for me.
Ged, he says he owes you a parang. It is very bloody and just a little bit broken. He apologises profusely and will replace it. He says you may need to get your others pinned just in case.