oh man. i fell 20 ft. off of a porch ceiling last tuesday. we were in the process of taking measurements to start cutting the rafters, and i lost my grip from the beam i was holding on to. evidently i was headed feet first, but my knee hit the scaffolding which turned me 90 degrees. so consequently i fell flat on my face. my eyes are severly damaged. my left eye socket was broken in 3 spots. which was one of the reasons i had to stay in the hospital for a week. now i have an eye socket full of metal plates and pins. i also had to get plastic surgery and all kinds of jazz. im slowly coming back around, and my company has been a lot of support, but hopefully nothing like this will ever happen again. i go tomorrow to get my remaining stitches taken out, and i start head and neck rehab in june. so i suppose once my eyes turn white again ill be back to normal. ive been ordered to take atleast 2 weeks off though, and also no driving until further notice.
anyways, enough about me. ill get back to the original question. have any of you guys ever been badly injured on the job site? and if so, did the company you worked for hold up their end and take care of the expexses?
Replies
Had a carpenter built scaffold collapse over 20 years ago. 28' up setting gutters with 2 others. Boss got hurt pretty badly, helper sprained ankle, I landed on my back and was unconscious. Had a back injury that healed, but started bothering me again this year, old age.
The longest lasting result, I've been afraid to climb ever since. I can't bring myself to trust unfinished structure. I still do climb when it's unavoidable, but I hate it.
I have been "hurt" on the job but not anything like that, so I just wanted to say.
Really sorry to hear about your fall, and hope you recover fully and quickly.
Hears to a speedy recovery.
Best Wishes
Neil
Always bad to hear one of us got hurt. I'm with Cag, never got hurt bad out of all these years doing this.
I hope you have a good recovery.
I've heard some horror stories about owners trying to fight the workmans comp claims and such, but I would hope most contractors aren't that ignorant.
Greg
Man shtick, Ouch!!!! Hope you get well soon. I'm self employed and it costs me $800. a month for health insurance so if your emlployer is picking up the expense he probably payes way more than that.
I fell 30' off of a roof head first and landed on a 2' high decorative brick wall. Shattered my left arm, $50,000. to get it fixed. Insurance payed 80 %.
I have 95% use of my hand today. I only eat and write with my left hand, I swing with the right.
Oh................., I'd rather not see any pictures, thank you.
Consider yourself blessed to be alive.
We'll pray for quick healing,
Bob
"Rather be a hammer than a nail"
Edited 4/2/2003 7:34:38 PM ET by Pro-Dek
Guard hung on a Skil saw I was trimming a gate with once. I had a bad habit of laying the motor against my thigh with the blade pointing out between cuts. I pulled the trigger, rolled the saw forward and stuck the blade right into my leg. Big mess but I healed up pretty well. That was 18 years ago and I'm still skittish around saw blades.
I was in high school working for my father at the time. My employer picked up all expenses.
Count my prayers among the others- Hope you are well again soon.
Kevin Halliburton
"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -Elbert Hubbard-
Kevin
That reminds of me of this new guy we got at work, No real experience to speak of.
He's binding up my saw cutting a 2x10 because he's pushing down in the middle, I see him lift the blade gaurd clear up to try to push it through, I screamed not to do that but he couldn't hear me. It kicked back at him but fortunetly he was so freaked he let go of the gaurd before it hit his leg. Think he learned his lessen, today we was showing the saw a little more respect and was ready to listen as to how not to cut something .View ImageGo Jayhawks
That's the sobering thing- I had plenty of experience and knew better. It was just one of those lazy habits I fell into over several thousand cuts that eventually reared its ugly head and tried to bite my leg off. Just because you get away with something a thousand times doesn't mean you will get away with it a thousand and one.
I try real hard to think safety first now days. Just because you can do something in your sleep doesn't mean you should.Kevin Halliburton
"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -Elbert Hubbard-
Man, sucks to be you. Here's hoping for something resembling recovery. 20 ft is a good distance, I fell about 15 and that did me in for two months. I heard about Pro Deks fall, sounds like he's lucky to still be here. Significant emotional experience, that. Plastic surgury is the bomb. All the celebrities and important construction types are doing it, I'm told. I busted my face up pretty good over ten years ago in a wreck. They moved my cheek back where it started and put my ear back on, can't even see the scars now.
" Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders" - Nietzsche
i seem to be getting a lot better pretty quickly. all im hoping is that im not scared to death of hieghts when i go back to work. im pretty sure my vision will be almost perfect when im all healed up. but i did wanna say thanks to all of you for all your kind words.
thanks again
shtick (joe)
shtick... thanks for sharing & good luck to you..
i've never had a lost -time injury since i started working in construction in '62
the closest i ever came was working with a homeowner whp had installed his own roof jack staging .. the nails pulled out . he went off the roof with a broken leg.. fell right between two 4' pieces of upright rebar in a footing below... me , i hopped onto the next plank..
your story helps to point out two things.. if you work for someone.. make sure they have Workmen's Comp policy IN EFFECT..
and two: if you are an employer, make sure you have Comp covering all of your employees..
if I had to pay for Pro-Deck's injury, i'd have to remortgage my house and spend most of my equity ..
most employers couldn't even cover that...
assuming you make a 100% recovery, then all you will need covering is your medical bills and your lost wages... i'm betting the bill for those two will exceed $20,000... but i could be low..
in the recent "Station House" fire in RI that claimed 99 lives and hospitalized 100 more.. it turns out the owners had let their WC policy lapse..so none of their employees had any coverage...
now suppose your injury were permanently disabling ? how could any employer support you for the rest of your life without Comp ?
I just don't understand why anyone would work or have employees without WC .Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Hang in there Joe and get well. Made chills when I read the post . This kinda thing scares all of us . I hope you are finding a way with out your income.
I was spraying cabinets and trim with an airless 25 yrs ago I guess now. I was trying to take the head off to start cleaning and pulled the trigger. The gun gave me a high pressure shot in the hand. I went to the emergency room and got a "kid". He sent me home with an ice pack. I woke up a 4 am and it was over double the size. I nearly lost my hand the surgeon said leaving that stuff in my hand. 6 days in ICU , as it posioned me also. 25000. I paid it of in payments. Pretty tough back then.
Tim Mooney
first of all shtick get well soon and have a speedy recovery, you know we are all wishing you well.
last time a got hurt on a job site was about four years ago, caught a couple of old nails in my wrist, got infected etc etc
during the time i was off work i wrote an article for fhb and it was published a year later., now its in the archives and the new kitchens book by fhb
so actually a great result of what could have been a disaster
steve
Grandpa died in fall from ladder while painting a house, was impetus for extensive thread (Pro-deck described his mishap in detail in that thread) a few years ago on "surviving falls" .
personal:
a. 157 stiches in left hand from broken chain saw bar while notching a post.
b. 16d thru left hand when putting up hand to stop swinging 2x4 with extended nail.
c. 2 weeks in hospital and 37 broken pieces of skull from dropping big beam on head (DW says its good that's where I was hit or I mighta gotten hurt)
d. innumerable other 'minor' cuts and bruises and close calls, such as cutting the end off a boot when a big log came up under the dozer and pushed the floor pan against the brake pedal, just curled back the toes enough to sav'em.
" 157 stitches in left hand..."
As I recall, you're an accomplished self-suturer....did you do those yourself? :-)
hound
remind me not to work around you :-}
Daniel
shtick,
Wow, are you gonna be in my prayers!
Worst ever for me was cracking 4 ribs falling from the third rung of a 4 foot ladder onto a decorative boulder.
It was on a hillside, and I had forbidden all of my guys to attempt this particular task, because I figured some idiot would fall, and get hurt.
I was right.
Hey people, let's be careful out there.
skipj
First of all, hope you are starting to feel better, and completely recover soon.
My most recent one (few years ago) was falling off a one step platform - one I had built my self, no less. I had been standing on it all day to reach wiring just above my head height, and got so used to the position that I took one step to the side and fell right to the ground. It just felt bad and I had the feeling it would be bad soon. I quickly cleaned up and dragged my self up the stairs, taking advantage of the numbness from the shock, and got ice on it. In an hour my foot swelled up like a balloon and turned black from my ankle down to my toenails. That night at the doctors I found out it was a "severe ligament/tendon sprain" which needed 6 weeks to heal.
Just goes to show that it's not just the height of the fall that can get you. Be careful out there. Rich.
EVER?
The average national rate for injuries in this industry is close to 20% meaning that you will have an injury that requires fileing a claim once every five years.
I'm on track.
And that doesn't include all the splinters and cuts that I operate on myself. And the stupid things that I won't admitt to anyone - like the other day when I was on the floor and needed to move the stepladder over. I just scooted it without getting up but forgat that I had balanced a crowbar on top of it. You can guess where it landed. My head saved the floor from getting bruised though. LOL
Most companies take care of their people nowadays. It's the cool thing to do.
I had a hernia surgery maybe ten or twelve years ago and by the time I got the anesthesiologists bill, a year had passed and the case file was closed so the insurance CO denied it. I had to file a complaint with the state for a hearing, at which time the hearing officer lambasted the ins co rep and told them to reopen the damn file or she would make sure they never opened another one in the state. It was fun to watch but not worth the time off work and aggravation.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
Edited 4/2/2003 10:37:51 PM ET by piffin
short of a few bangs and scraps nothing that bad.
hope you be feeling better soon.
Daniel
26 years and nothing serious, minor stiches the worst. A few days before the start of my career I was playing hockey and caught a stick in the eye and had double vision. Well i got the call to come to work and was framing walls and I must have hit the wrong nail twenty times that first day,at least I got the guys on the crew to laugh. Get well soon Petey
Now that I've read the thread, I see how this is going. We get to entabulate all our interesting injuries! Even figuring that I'll forget a couple, I've got you all beat for quantity though maybe not for quality of injury!
shtick,
I stepped off my truck tailgate once with arms full and missed my step. Only two feet up and landing on my face was pretty brutal. I was seeing stars all day.
Keep in touch with you eye doctor as the swelling goes down an consider plastic surgery immediately if signs show you need it. My younger brother did one like you and his orbit changed enough that his eyes don't plane. If I put his glasses on, I see two separate scenes because one of his eyes looks out of his head at a different angle ever since then.
He went off a staging at a log home about twelve feet.
I took a good hit to the eye about twenty years ago (not on job - ran into a fist) and I was seeing occasional flashes of light for nearly two years after. They said it was from blod clots in or on the retina disolving and moving out and that I must've nearly ruptured the eye.
My first wife's uncle was a bricklayer - real stout dude. He fell backwards off a staging and landed on his back on the next set down - only six feet. He went home sore, ate a decent dinner and went to bed early, saying he felt tired.
He never woke up. Ruptured spleen was bleeding out all the time!
Let's see - what's hurt me?
Burned all skin off finger with hot asphalt. That's one that'll make you knee down and cry, no matter how tough you think you are. It is interesting to see all that meat and cartilage that's under the skin though.
Two ladder rides! They're more fun to remember than to experience!
One fall off roof when jacks gave way like Mike described. Managed to watch a lot of other guys fall off roofs.
Smashed finger under 700# trailer tongue. Broke one bone into five pieces and shredded the fingernail.
Cut same finger off with chop saw. Blade went right through the scar tissue from the smash job so when they sewed it back on, it ended up in better shape, if shorter. Just to keep the symetry, I cut the next finger off at the tip, just a little, on a tablesaw. Haven't played guitar since.
Heavy lifting and such work cost me three hernias, one hemeroidectomy, arthritis, degenerative disc disease, ...maybe Dad was right when he told me to stay in school....
There was the broken toe from the one day in my whole life that I thought I'd be cool and wear my mocassins to work - after all it was supposed to be an easy day.
There's the time I ripped open a finger because my chisle was too sharp, and the time that I ripped open a finger because my chisle was too dull.
The torn cartilage in my rib cage - they fix it the same way they do broken ribs - they do nothing until it heals and then send out a bill and take credit for healing you.
There's the tooth I broke falling on a roof...
I think there's only been two minor concussions, but sometimes I get confused and lose count of them...
I just figured out why I was able to ski down the stairs with wax on my feet and never get hurt a couple of weeks back - I've already used up my God-given allotment of injuries. I guess if I get hurt again, it'll be an injury I'm borrowing from sombody else.
BTW, Bobcat - are you sure that it's not all the typing you're doing lately that has your wrist hurting? LOL
Excellence is its own reward!
Geez piffin you should really be more careful at work, and I bet the story of your face running into a fist is a good one.View ImageGo Jayhawks
"I bet the story of your face running into a fist is a good one."
Not that good. I lost.
But I'll tell anyway.
I was on a condo job in about '81. I started as just one of the carps but within a week or so, I was put in charge of the backup crew and raised 20% in wages. One guy on the job seemed a little jealous but I didn't have to work with him so I ignored his problem. He was a slug anyway that would never have a job on one of my crews. I was only there for winter work with the slow economy back then.
One day at the coffee wagon, he was ahead of me in line and while I was filling my cup he had something to say like that the reason I was getting ahead so quickly was that I was [___perverse behaviour__] with the job supervisor. Before I thpought about it, my hand threw my hot coffee in the guys face. Once I started to think, I realized that it probably wasn't the wisest move since he outweighed my by a good fifty pounds and I was standing at a lower position on the side of the road, so I followed the coffee with several jabs as I backed him out into the road.
My cheering section kicked in just about then and distracted me so I only saw thew knuckles once thay were a few inches away from my head. I remember seeing my glasses fly through the air while my head spun around. Then I couldn't see anything at all for a few.
The next week the job super asked me at the plans table about the eye. He said, " I heard that you and sluggo had a problem last week while I was gone?" I answered that we had a couple things to iron out is all..
Excellence is its own reward!
shtick, I hope all goes well for you.
Piffin's "My first wife's uncle was a bricklayer - real stout dude. He fell backwards off a staging and landed on his back on the next set down - only six feet. He went home sore, ate a decent dinner and went to bed early, saying he felt tired. He never woke up. Ruptured spleen was bleeding out all the time!"
Well, that sounds too much like DW's dad. He was a pro firefighter, one day the second floor of a house on fire partly collapsed beneath him. He didn't go down to next floor, kinda got stuck in the hole. His buddies pulled him out, I'm told they were laughing about how that was a close one. He kept going strong. Fire out, back in the station, he wasn't feeling quite right and layed down. Next call came in, they went to get him, and never did revive him. Don't know if it was his spleen, or what. Happened shortly before I met her, and this is how I was told it happened.If everything seems to be going well, you've obviously overlooked something.
Like everyone here, best of health & speedy recovery Shtick.
Most of my injuries self inflicted. Only I have more pride than piffin, so I'll keep them to myself.
One thing I learned in the taxi business (20 years). The second you loose concentration, you will have an accident. Almost every post here bears it out.
That's why I often ask what my co-workers believe in. When I hear "Zen" I work close to him/her. They concentrate completely on the immediate job at hand and rarely get injured IMHO.Quality repairs for your home.
Aaron the HandymanVancouver, Canada
Slightly OT, but has anyone ever repeatedly injured the same part? I sliced the knuckle of my left index finger when I was about 10 with an x-acto knife, sliced it again about 10 years later with a filleting knife trying to retrieve a lure from a tree, then about 10 years later sliced it again with an olfa trimming peel-n-stick tile. All stupid injuries.
Peter
P.S. Ask KYT about the stapler.
I've skinned the tip of the thumb of my left hand, 4 times.
1st time was 15 not paying attention to my finger with a miter saw, same thing a few years later
3rd time was an exacto knife freshmen year of college working on an architecture project, To little sleep and to much caffeine.
4 th time was last summer using one of those vegetable slicers, pushed the green pepper through, and my thumb slipped right through the blade.
I figure it can not happen again, because it now has a nice taper to it from the point down to the fingerView ImageGo Jayhawks
Come to think of it, my left thumb IS quite accident prone...
High school, putting carpets in a guys 70 skylark convertible.. 2am and I go to make a last cut... THWACK!!! right through the thumb... first time and only time I ever almost passed out from an injury....
High school, auto body.... taking the side sheetmetal off a mini van... I get the metal off, and go to put the pneumatic chisel inside(through the frame and inside the van) and I jammed said left thumb down on the frame.. nice big slit halfway through the nail and out the other side.... kinda funny watching me suck my thumb to the nurses office....
Last wednesday, got in a fight with my tablesaw... took a nice big chunk out of my thumb... This time I think I cut a nerve... weirdest thing.. it doesnt really hurt, but if I like just rub the wound wrong all of a sudden I get a shooting pain from said wound...
I am a computer geek by trade, so you would think I would be MOST careful with my money makers(fingers)... but I am not... their(my fingers) only saving grace is that I have that bad habit of chewing/biting/picking at my nails/skin around nails... and my fingers are constantly in a rebuild-quick mode.... the most recent tablesaw wound is healing very nicely... my wife is astounded how fast my finger wounds heal....
but I am accident prone anyways, usually just minor stuff though... my wife can tell too... I can be like working on something, and she is in a totally different room... THWACK.. and she yells from other room.. "YOU CUT/HURT/MANGLED YOURSELF DIDNT YOU!!?!".... she must be psychic..
repeated to same body part - that would be the two chisle gashes, the broken finger that I later cut off and sewed back on, and I just remembered another one, all to the same left index finger.
I was cutting cedar shingles and hilding the bevel square across one for giude while drawing my utility knife along. For some reason, the knife jumped up over the metal edge and right across my fingernail. For the next six months, I had two fingernails and could point at two things at once.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin: Are you related on my mother's side? Anytime the cousins are together, it's another accident story (we all have a common Grandpa who died falling off a ladder in 1926).
Latest one -- youngest cousin is a geoloist, was working an earthfill dam out out West (back East to me) and parked his 'new, no less' $x$ truck on a berm to pickup a core sample. Lots of noise from lots of heavy machinery. Big slow Cat dump came up the berm loaded, never saw the pickup, all cousin could do was run when he finally saw it, but it literally flattened his truck, said he was just glad he wasn't reading an elevation map in the truck when the Cat came.
"I have more pride than piffin, so I'll keep them to myself. "
Oh come on now - entertain us!
;)
I got to thinking after I posted that one that if anyone out there wanted to grow up to be just like piffin, he probably has changed his mind by now. LOL
I'm really not accident prone - but I did come into this trade ata time when only "sissies" used sfety equipment. Now that I'm 'mature', I love to be safe. It's cheaper than hospiotal and doctor bills. Even whern comp pays for it, the wage replacement factor is only 2/3rds of average income..
Excellence is its own reward!
Entertain you? Heck, you want to laugh at stupidity, have fun.
Filleting a salmon with my new fish gutting knife. DW said something to in-laws, I looked up and sliced my left thumb @ the knuckle. Bled a while.
Picked up a Japanese suitcase. It's what tourists bring to Vancouver when they are not sure they can get proper food away from home. Lifted it into the back of the car, had to weigh 100 lb. Hernia.
Wasn't looking, wearing runners, someone had left a board with nails up. I got a 3 1/4" through the sole.
Started erecting my Krause folding 16' ladder, got distracted. Didn't notice I did not hear the "click" as it locked. I was 10' up when the ladder re-folded. I tried to hold on the gutter, but was'nt fast enough. Friend asked if I was joining a parachute club.
Helping change a tire on a hoist, dropped the tire, tried to grab as it bounced, broke 2 fingers.
Slipped down some new stairs under construction, no rails. Sat down hard, Sprained ankle, dislocated 3rd finger, righ hand.
I'm not going on.Quality repairs for your home.
Aaron the HandymanVancouver, Canada
I was just getting started in the biz about 12 years ago and ran a circular saw across the palm of my left hand. Was at home, not at work, so no comp. At least I had good health insurance. Nearly lost the opposability in my left thumb. Still numb on face of the left thumb and up the side of the index finger, and I never did get full muscle control of the thumb back. It kind of sticks out at a more acute angle than my right thumb does. Cramps up when I have to grip things hard for too long.
Several stabs to my left hand with chisels that used poorly. One that cut a tendon and was sewed up by a drunk doc in the ER that they pulled off in the middle of surgery. I watched recovery on that one real closely to see if I would have a lawsuit or not, but it seems ok. All the chisel stabs would have been avoided if I was not too cheap to by a nice Lie-Nielson chisel plane...
Went 8 feet face-first down a ladder carrying another ladder on my shoulder. The feet slipped out as I planted my first foot on the top wrung still face outward. 10 degress less rotation and I think I would have snapped my head off my shoulders. Walked away from that one.
Been pretty good the last few years though. Older and more cautious I guess.
Steve
shtick, really sorry like everyone else and prayers for your full recovery.
I remember one time I was carrying plywood pretty high out over frosty joists back in early 60's, slipped and went straight down straddling a joist.
I fell off a deck and landed with my hammer handle in my ribs, making funny noises with air. My partner laughed then repeated the whole act within a couple of hours.
I shut my chevy 2 station wagon rear door realizing at the last second my finger was going to be in it, pulled back and tore the nail from back to front clear off.
None of this begins to measure up to the posts I've read here. It's been a good sobering read. Thanks guys-I'm going to try to work safe.
The only thing I have really done was already mentioned. I was walking across some joists and found a joist hanger that was only nailed on one side. That was fun, the next joist broke 3 rigs and collapsed a lung.
But the very worst injury I have heard was to a site guy that jumped off the back off a truck and landed on a road stake. Yeps, right in the very last place you would want to land, right in the jewels. I think I heard he ended up with less parts than he started with.
Another was to a drywaller. He was handsanding a wall and fell down a fireplace hole 2 floors to the slab. You could see the sandpaper mark curve down the wall.
A sorta funny one, the framers were shoveling snow off the roof of some condos. Every once in a while you would see one of them fly by a window, climb back up and shovel some more. One time as one was flying I heard "you're fired!". Sorry, I cracked up.
haha, that last one is a funny one. it reminds me of my first day ever in construction when i had to carry a bundle shingles up a 40 ft. ladder. the boss looks at me and say "if you fall youre fired as soon as your feet leave the roof." i think thats one of the first lines that all of us hear on a job site.
i also wanted to say thanks again to everyone for all your kind words. according to the doc im healing very well. i got the last of my stitches out yesterday, but he still gave me orders to stay out of work until atleast may 6th. thank goodness my company is being so good about it. ive only worked there a little over a month, im quite suprised at how much they are looking out for me. its funny because a lot of bosses will do almost anything to try and keep a guy from drawing workmans comp. its just nice to know that my boss really cares (even though i hate how they make me frame walls, grrrrr.... sorry, i guess that belongs in a different topic). anyways, thanks again guys, i really appreciate it.
Glad to hear you are doing well, Shtick.
If you like funny, I have another. I was building a house for myself and was siding over the garage doors. Well it was a weekend and my brother and dad both stopped up to "help" me. Brother showed up first, and I figured he could hand me shingles, or something, so we go up on this wooden plank that is all of maybe 5 or 6 feet off the ground. Brother freezes, he is scared mindless. Hmm I go, just stand over there and hold onto the (whatever I was on, ladder, trestle, ?). So he is hating life and dad drives up. Now dad ain't scared of no 5 ft staging so he climbs up to say hi. Just as I go "dad, I don't think we need anyone else up here", he walks out to test the plank. Now before I go on, let me tell you that the both of them of them are gravitationally challenged. So you guessed it, the plank breaks and down we go, with me on the bottom of the idiot pile. Don't worry, they were ok, I broke their fall, and I was laughing so hard I couldn't yell at him. Needless to say brother didn't leave the ground again, probably ever.
Edited 4/4/2003 4:57:10 PM ET by Qtrmeg
Glad to hear yer healing. You may want to stay out of work for 3 weeks. First time I wacked off my thumb, I was reaching under 2x8 to keep it from hitting someone crawling underneath with an 8' offcut. Sewed back up , 2 weeks later insurance company calls me, says you're probably ok to go back to work. Doc had said 3 weeks. Things were still hurting, so I called the doc, he said stay out. Workman's comp wouldn't kick in until I was out for 21 days.
Repeat injuries... stuck same thumb and opposing forefinger into a router on a job that was in a hurry...insurance company tried the same scam! This time I got some some disability 'cause I knew how to deal with the scumbuckets.
I've been doing this stuff since '64, I buy bandaids by the the 100 pack. Remember Mr. Merriwether in "Little Big Man"? Danged if I don't feel like him sometimes. EliphIno!
While you are waitng out the Doc's orders and takin' it easy, you could write your memoirs or something to keep out of trouble.
LOL
Or you could work out a little to keep in shape. My first back injury came the first day back to work after a surgery for two hernieas. I had been off too long and my back muscles softened up but I didn't know it. So I was off again for another three weeks and therapy.
I stepped in once to stop a guy from drawing comp. He was a fraud from the word go.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
So whats the status report?
Just checking to see if all is well
Hope your healing quickly...
NeilView ImageGo Jayhawks..............Next Year
You know something- this formerly disdainful office chair I have wrapped around my hind cheeks is gettin' more comfortable by the post. Much harder to injure yourself designing a structure than erecting one. I'm feeling like a very wise man for making the transition right about now... be back in a second, I've got to go adjust the air conditioner.
Ah, that's better... You boys be careful out there!
Kevin Halliburton
"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -Elbert Hubbard-
Burned all skin off finger with hot asphalt.
Piffin: Forgot that one - taring edge of a roof, turned corner and mistook bucket of hot tar for bucket of nails and put whole hand in. Took all the skin off back of all LH fingers, barely burnt the front where there were lotsa calluses. Also tried the "pour hot lead over a hand soaked in ammomia stunt" when I was a kid and didn't realize it was 'anhydrous' that does the trick for Liedenhoff (sp) effect. Still didn't do more than 1st degree burn even with household ammonia/water.
Frank: Aw, I had to have a Doc sew up the hand, couldn't work both the needle and pliers with just one hand <G>
Also forgot the first and only time I tried freehand carving on a table saw at 15 YO, just after pop let me start using it -- just a 3/4" "notch" in end of one thumb - hey, could that be the start of a moniker for someone else here?
'bout 3 yrs ago working on ceiling joists, stepped on joist that others failed to nail. all was going well on the way down till the next joist, which was nailed by the way, caught under my armpit and projected my arm upward quite violently, tearing major muscles from their origin. i guess you could say that my "pec(k)" is now a "pint".
shtick,
Best of luck & a speedy recovery, and may the Good Lord watch over the rest of us! After reading all ya'lls stories I'm too scared to go to work in the morning. LOL
I framed for about 12 years, had enough accidents I started to scare myself! I never felt like I was careless but for some reason I kept having a lot of close calls.
When I was 13, was on the job with Dad (come on boy, bring them 2x10's here) and somehow fell 15' off of the second floor into the garage which was about 5' lower than first floor. Hit my head on block wall, fractured my skull. Nobody knows what happened cause no one saw me fall. I didn't holler. Later, they missed me & found me laying on the garage floor. I didn't remember much of anything for quite a while. Never did gain my memory on what happened.
At 17 I shorted one index finger by an inch with a Makita miter saw.
At 18 I volunteered to go up on the roof & put the flashing boots on the vent pipes for the plumber who was to scared to. 10/12 pitch. Was walking along the bottom edge on single 2x4 toeboard. Came to a vent pipe drilled up through the same 2x4. Didn't think about it. Stepped over it & the 2x4 promptly broke where it was drilled. That left the short piece I was standing on swing down from the 1 nail still in the end. 33' to the ground. Fortunately I didn't land on any debris. I remember the falling sensation but not actually hitting. Again no one saw it happen, but all said it sounded lack a sack of feed hitting the ground. Took me to the hospital on a back-board. Doctor sent me home. Didn't even x-ray. No broken bones. A little blood in my urine for a couple of days. I felt like one lucky dude!!
Amazingly, I never have minded heights either before or after. Believe me, I think about the danger more than I used too. Dream about falling a lot. Scares me more in my sleep than when I'm awake.
I'm 33 now & about 60 pounds heavier. If I fell that far now, it would just be SPLAT!
Ya'll be careful!
"It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept."
Shtick first of all hope you heal up good. Be CAREFUL out there!
Bout 2 years ago I fell though a hole in a floor to a concrete basement slab. A GC had stopped work on a huge house (bigger than Bill Gates) House was almost framed but no windows. Sat for at least a year, maybe a little more. Client buys a house in Vegas so he doesn't need the mansion. Decide to sell it. We go in to sweep up the floors, pressure wash some stuff, etc. I'm sweeping on first floor and lift up the ONLY piece of loose plywood anywhere in the house. Step into and under the plywood and to my surprise it was covering a hole. I fell about 10-12 feet to a concrete slab.
Laid there while my employees stood around wondering how they could help me. Staggered to my truck and drove home. Told my wife to get a couple of aspirin. (I'm a tuff guy... not) Decided that it might be best to go let the doc have a look see. Just bruises. but gave some me some Vicadin to take the edge off. Took about 6 months to feel better. Couldn't hardly dispatch for a while.
shtick
Hope you have full recovery
God I'm not sure that most of us shouldn't be working in an office someplace, Piffin, Junkhound, and there was a couple others, is this our passage to machismo or what, anyhow.
Like some of the others I have had numerous mishaps but the worst on the job injury was while working road construction during summer break, I was jackhammering cracks in the road and the JH got away from me and bounced on my foot a few times, damn near cut the big toe off and broke two more. I was back at work that afternoon, I needed the money, not the workmans comp, that didn't pay squat. Plus I was younger and stupider!
Doug
Was offloading rafters from truck and standing on a footstool to reach the midloaded ones , stool kicked back and I landed on my feet, however my lower back was bounced against a low level trailer...blew my sacro iliac joint out of kilter , was off for 6 months (self employed to self unemployed.....lol) back now but real real careful about safety first, worth taking that extra time to do things carefully. Hope you have a full and speedy recovery.
Dang I think I'll go sell girl scout cookies.
I had some stab wounds needing stiches cutting meat, strained back once or twice in construction, only time I collected WC was an injury delivering auto parts, "Thul's", in NJ. They had five stores, and I ran parts between 'em in three counties. 55 gallon drum of paint thinner fell on my foot out at some body shop. Out three weeks.
Once when I was working in a boat repair shop in Key West, I was fitting Teak gunnel planks on the side of a sailboat. The scaffold was 2 55gal drums on end with a 2x12 plank. No big deal. Well, the phone starts to ring in the shop, and nobody would answer it, and it really started to annoy me. I turn away from the boat to jump off the plank, and as I jump, I twist my bad ankle. Down I fall, right into a 12" or higher curb for the boat crane, and twist the other ankle(or so I thought). By the way, I was holding an extremely sharp chisel which I didn't want to hit the ground. So I'm in a wheel chair for a week till my ankles swell down far enough for them to X-ray. Turns out I broke my Tibia Minor and had to have a cast for several weeks. I got a walking cast, and a week later I was bored out of my mind so I went back to limited light work(read-stay in the shop).
I know it doesn't compare to your injuries, but for me, that's the worst in 30 years of building houses and doing millwork. That is, other than spraining my ankles to the point where I couldn't work on framing jobs anymore.
Shtick-- I really feel for you. 20 years ago, I was working with my dad and brother in the family business. We were doing a reroof [ two layers asphalt and one wood shakes], and had set up pump jacks with aluminum kickers as a work platform. Well, we had just finished the tear off and my brother and I were putting the first sheet of plywood on when the pump jack pole broke, throwing me off. Long story short, I ended up breaking my back in two places, had two surgeries, hospital and rehab for about six months, out of work for a year. I was able to return to work, I've recovered probably about 90-95% , but I don't like to do heights any more. I figure I got lucky once, why push it! BTW, my brother has able to jump to a porch roof we were working over. My dad was on the ground watching the whole thing. My expenses were covered by workers' comp. We found out about the aluminum poles shotly after my accident, and invested in them. Best wishes for a complete and speedy recovery!!
I think this will out things into perspective... Had a general contractor/landscaper friend that was working on a job in Laguna Niguel Calif. He fell from some scaffolding and on top of a piece of rebar sticking straight up. From what I was told later, it killed him instantly. He was the type of contractor that ever homeowner liked. It really put his family through some hard times. Really depressing to write about this. I haven't thought about him in quite a while.
So far, I've only had minor injuries. Every time I start to do something with a power tool or up high, etc, I always ask myself, "Is this the time I'm going to get hurt?" If the answer is maybe, I stop and figure out a better way to do what really needs to be done.
For my roof job, I bought a 5/8" safety rope, rope grab, and body harness from VER safety. There's lots of interesting stuff on their web site:
http://www.versafety.com/
-- J.S.
Sorry to hear about your injury. Best wishes for your recovery!
I fell when a porch roof collapsed as I climbed onto it. We were tearing it off and there was that nail that I couldn't reach from the ladder..... I fell about ten feet headfirst, but put my arm up and landed on my left elbow. I was very lucky! The job was in Puget Sound area, deck was old semi-rotten fir that bounced like a trampoline. Still broke my elbow. No insurance.
Doc said I couldn't work for two months. After a week I used tin snips to cut the cast off and went back to work. It was probably stupid, but I don't have any lasting effects.
I've read that the table saw is the most common tool to injure yourself with. Oddly, I've never cut myself with any power tool but gave myself a good one with a brand new deep tooth hand saw. Mostly just looked bad.
Now I just injure myself slowly by spending too much time on the phone and computer!
Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.