There is really no way to protect your self from something like this. The only prevention I can think of is to inspect fittings and hoses for wear and tear. Absolutely, do not risk your eyes without protection to look at something close that is pressurized. Some of the guys on the forum have been sprayed with hydraulic fluid from burst pipes or hoses. If it get under the skin, in your eyes or ingested, that is not a good thing. Used fluid also probably has some chemicals that have carcinogens mixed in .
To be precise, sprayed hydraulic fluid can inject, and be an amputation situation... not something to mess around with.
I wear welders gloves as my tractor gloves (cheapie Harbor Freight ones - one of the few things there worth owning... ). I did have a hose blow from a kink on my TnT, which if I'd been by it would have injured me severely at BEST - it trashed the sheet metal on the back of the tractor
I am thinking that a lot of that damage is tissue that was saturated with hyd oil, and had to be removed. They thought they would have to amputate, but I guess they saved what they could. . He had 5 operations.