Hello Everyone,
I was reading Soultrains question about the worst falls without injuries and it made me think about some of the other jobsite hazards we face every day.
What are some of the worst, or most interesting air nailer injuries you have experienced, seen or heard of.
I once shot a nail about 2 ” into the fleshy part of my hand while I was nailing a header joist to a floor joist. The nail broke out of the top 1/2″ of the joist (accidentally nailed too close to the top of the joist) and flew into my hand, I measured what was left of the 3 1/4″ nail sticking out my hand. Now I start nailing at the bottom of the joist so I can move my hand out of the way before I get to the top of the joist.
Replies
I've been on the other side of the table in the ER and OR...
Most of what I've seen have been folks who cut off their fingertips with circular saws or shot themselves with nailguns. The most interesting nailgun injury I saw was a guy who had nailed two of his fingers together, side to side. I ended up getting a sterile bolt cutter from the OR and cutting the nail in two between the fingers to take it out.
Interestingly, nails shot into the hand almost always seem to miss (or rather, to skirt) the bones. I suspect what happens is there's enough give in the tissues that the nail pushes the bone out of the way. But in this case, the guy luckily missed not only the bones, but the nerves and arteries at the sides of the fingers, as well.
I had one guy that fell some 30 feet off a water tower he was painting and broke his heel bone.
And another guy that accidentally shot himself at the base of the thumb with some kind of hydraulic fluid from a pressurized line. Now *that* was ugly. He was very lucky he didn't lose his hand. Needed extensive hand surgery, close monitoring, antibiotics, and months and months of rehab.
You may have known one of my fingers then
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Were you working in central Illinois between 1994 and 2000?Or in Queens or Norfolk Co. NY between 1989 and 1994?If not, then it's just been other guys just like you...Rebeccah
Coloradobut there is no-one else just like me;)but I'm sure there are similar fingers
yeah! That's all I am to you, just a finger. LOL
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Personally, lucky. Only nails I've been smacked with have been small. Couple of finish nails, brads, one staple. That one smarted pretty good.
But other stories from town. One guy up on a roof cutting sheathing with a skil saw doing the old "my foot is a sawhorse" trick. Femoral artery. His buddy on the ground heard him yelp. He was gone by the time the ambulance showed up.
I don't know who it was, but there's an infamous story around about someone one of the paint reps knew who had a line rupture on an airless and inject right through the tyvek suit, the jeans, the skin, right into the muscle on his leg. It's usually told as a warning to take care of your equipment and check you lines. That'll muss you up pretty quick.
When I was in the AF there was a guy running a table saw at the base hobby shop. Someone else walked in and said "Hey Bob!" he looked over and promptly ran his hand right through the blade. Don't bug people running a table saw.
Which reminds me - have you seen the navy film where the guy got sucked right into the intake on a jet? Talk about your jobsite hazards. There was a thing on TV about him that made me wonder how he survived. I remember saying to myself I'd take a brad in the finger any day over that.
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
I saw that bit on tv abought the navy jet ingestion. There is no way that guy survived. Heck I bet there was nothing left of him. The clip showing him bandaged up is bogus. I dont know why the Navy felt a need to try and cover up, accidents do happen on a carrier deck.
Re: "There is no way that guy survived."I always figured getting sucked into a running jet engine pretty much closed the deal on worrying about what your getting for Christmas. On the other hand the military is frightfully ineffective at covering anything much up for very long. People talk, records are kept and most folks leave at least one relative or concerned person behind. And there is a waiting list of people and organizations who make a sport of catching them in a falsehood.Also, as you note, there would be little motivation to cover it up. Most concerned people well understand that jet engines can inhale a person and that the result is likely terminal. This isn't exactly a national secret.
Do the guys call you Jesus now : )
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
also not a nailer injury, but I used to do a lot of metal roofing on big old 2 storey houses w/ steep pitch. There was a guy there trying to walk the screwheads over installed metal, slipped, about to fall off, grabbed his big rip-claw estwing out of his belt on his way down to drive through the metal and get something to hang onto, reached up, and drove the claw through the back of his other hand. no use, fell off anyway. ironically, landed on a sand pile and his only injury was the hole through his hand.
I have shot myself with a nailgun three times.
First time was the second nail out of a brand new paslode it double tapped and the second nail went into the back of my hand above the knuckles the full 3 inches I pulled it out and it didn't cut tendon vain or bones how I do not know.
Second time I had been up for 48 hrs straight and was trying to fix my Impulse and shot a nail thru the meaty part of my thumb had to put my hand around a tree and pull the nail with the hammer.
Third time I was on a ladder holding on to a joist while nailing in some blocking when I shot the gun it recoiled back hit the joist behind me and came forward with momentum and shot a nail into my thumb and pinned my first finger so that it kept my hand spread open.Went to E-ROOM for that 4hrs later looked at the xrays no damage point was stuck in bone 12hrs later they took me into surgery and 24 stitches later [ I should have pulled this one myself but thought I had insurance turns out my wife's boss had not been sending in the premiums his employees had been paying].
But if you think hammers are any safer I had a pair of guys working for me who were brothers and the smart one was nailing something on one side of the house and let the hammer slip and went 20 plus feet and hit his brother square in the mouth knocking out 4-5 front teeth.
I have tons more stories but I strained my finger typing this reply ;>)
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout
>>thought I had insurance turns out my wife's boss had not been sending in the premiums his employees had been payingI want to know more about how this turned out. The employees were doing their part paying the premiums in good faith... who paid for the claims?
I was the first person I guess to file a claim and was told that the Insurance package had been dropped 6 months before for lack of payment.Funny thing is the human resources guy wouldn't believe me because the boss had assured him it was taken care of so I told him to call his # on his card and man did he freak he probably quit that day.
Within a couple of weeks the FBI came in and arrested the owner, apparently he had been filing bogus medicaid claims to the tune of millions.
Between the government and the creditors I was told I would get a penny on the dollar.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout
random question from a non-trades person...are nailgun accidents (aside from ricochets, obviously) generally caused by contact-mode trigger use? do guns have a habit of double-firing or dangerously misfiring, even using a restrictive trigger?
Yes if the recoil pops back and you reset your finger on the trigger it happens.Then there's the miss and the shear stupidity.
What scares me the most [although I have never seen an accident from this] is one guy nailing while the other guy is standing on the other side of the board holding while in direct path of nail.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout
A long time ago, I worked for a small contractor whose son would join the crew for the summer. Let's just say the boy had a bit of an attitude. After lifting the walls on a house, he went out to place the missing sheathing on the corners. I guess he was wrestling with a top corner while on a step ladder. Somehow, he managed to shoot an 8d through the plywood and pin the palm of his hand to the back side with his arm over the top plate. Of course he kicked the step ladder out from under him and hung himself by his arm. Lucky for him, the nail missed any important parts. There was a noticeable change in his attitude after that.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
That's got to be one of the strrangest I've heard.One of my weirest, is when I was cutting and fitting gravel stop edge metal for a BUR roof. It was a bit windy and somehow the ten foot piece ended up heading off the roof with the sharp edge of it sliding along my right little finger, right above the knuckle.It felt like a combination of hat seariong pain and hitting you funny bone, and fingernails on the chaulkboard. I don't know how I kept from wetting my pants! I thought I had cut the tnedons in the back of my finger, but a couple quick flex tests and a good look under the flap of skin let me know that Alll I had lost was blood, so I tapped it up and got back to work.
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I don't know how you wrote about this one, I was literally squirming just by reading it. A year ago February, I was doing some setup on my TS extension table and installed my router in it, so I could rout longer/bigger pieces. Decided to try out my new T&G bit and underestimated how much the bit would grab the wood. It kicked the wood out of the way and flicked my left index finger when it hit. Beautiful sunny, warm day in the middle of a long, drab winter. I went to the hospital ER(should have gone to a clinic near my house instead) and walked out 5-1/2 hours later(most of the time, I was sitting and waiting) with my prescriptions for anti-biotics and Vicodin. Never took the Vicodin (never really hurt much) since the biggest pain was from trying to unstick the "non-stick" pad they put on at the hospital and, after losing the bandage in the shower about a week later, smacking the same finger on the toilet paper dispenser, right on the wound. I almost took a knee on that one. It healed pretty well/fast, but I should have kept a bandage on it instead of letting it dry overnight. The scar tissue has a lot less feeling that the original and it's annoying. The hospital charged $595 for "outpatient surgery" for snipping off a flap of skin. The only thing I really couldn't have done is stick the needle in and inject Lidocaine. Anything else that they did, I could have done at home. The first person I saw after being admitted was a fat little dork who had me sign a waiver, saying that I wouldn't sue the hospital if something goes wrong. "I don't care if the guy does bleed to death, just get him to sign this!".
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
I'd never REALLY whacked any of my fingers until earlier this summer. We were working in a bonus room built into the trusses and I was putting in some blocking. It was the last piece and it was a bit snug so I smacked it a couple times. I had my hand way clear of where I was driving, but my hammer glanced off of my foot, which was sticking into the joist bay, and smashed my middle finger. That finger is still flatter and fatter. I did praise myself for only having the smooth-faced Stiletto that day.And just as that nail had started to grow back...I was shooting a piece of base into an inside corner and was pushing with my left hand (it wouldn't stay b/c the wall was bowed out) and shooting with my right. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I confirmed the presence of a hurricane strap on that stud. The nail turned back to me after bouncing off the strap and found it's way into my ring finger. But I can now say that shooting oneself with a 15 ga. nail isn't as bad as smashing a finger with a hammer!
They say you shouldnt hit 2 hammers together cuzz they are both hardened steel. I knew that, so I wore safety glasses just in case. Needed to enlarge an eyebolt just a bit and that welding slag hammer looked like just the ticket. Pointy end into the eyebolt and whack. Piece of the slag hammer buried itself in my hand. ER doc made a small incision (after x rays) and tried to grab it...many times. He finally called down to opthmology and got their ELECTROMAGNET. Turned that puppy on and bingo..got it out
every time I do something major to one of my fingers, I have learend to get a movie or two, because I know I will be up all night holding the thing straight up in the air to quell the throbbing.0
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Some hot slag from a cutting touch landed on the top of my workboot and caught a cuff of my jeans on fire. I threw off my googles, and went over my options: 1. Put out fire with gloved hands. 2. Take off jacket and put out fire. 3. Take off pants Options one and two were out because I was not wearing any leathers, so I quickly disrobed. My buddy Pat walks over to find the source of all the black smoke, and I am standing there in my skivvies with my pants burning in a pile in front of me.
I was amazed that my finger didn't hurt very much. Hitting it with a hammer hurts a lot more than narfing it with the router. If I had fed it into the bit, it would be a different story. In another incident, this past April, I was working in an attic, running A/V cabling and instead of going in forward, I backed in. When I stood up, I stepped onto a board that was laid in there for, I assume, setting things on. When I put my weight on it, it teeter-tottered and I lost my balance. I ended up falling backward and landed on a joist, dead center. I landed and my head snapped back, hitting the corner of a rafter. Not the new fangled kind with the rounded corners, the old ones with nice, crisp corners. My first thought was that I busted my tailbone. No pain, so that was out. Then, I reached up and felt the valley in my skull. It was awfully deep!. I thought I probably fractured my skull, then figured that I hadn't since I was actually thinking about it and hadn't lost consciousness. I looked at my hand and the corresponding blood, and started to crawl out of the space. The guy I was working with stumbled backward when he saw my head. We went to the clinic where I should have gone for my finger and they cleaned it up, then installed 9 nice, shiney staples. The staples were the worst part of the whole deal. It didn't hurt very much, either.For those of you who know about Blue Collar Comedy and their segment called "Here's your sign!", when I was going to leave and the doctor said they would clean my head again, the girl came in, looked at it and said, "Awww, did you hit your head?". "Here's your sign!"
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
I was nailing studs and the gun double popped. I was holding the stud a foot back from where I was nailing and the nail stuck in my thumbnail. I looked at my thumb and decided I couldn't look at it and stuck it between my knees.
Why do we do that? There is no reason putting your injured thumb between your knees should make a bit of difference, but I would alternate between looking at this nail sticking out of my thumb and holding it between my knees and cussing.
Finally, I got it together enough to realize the nail couldn't be deep enough to be in the bone, so I gave the nail a yank and took a deep breath to get ready to let loose some serious profanity.
Just then I turn to see the plumbers five-year old daughter. "Mister, why are you red in the face and what were those words you were saying when we drove up?" I had to stifle my rant and calmy explain to the little girl what happened in a way that wouldn't scare her.
That is why kids should be banned from jobsites. Sometimes a good stream of profanity is theraputic.
First time I cut my finger off, I grabbed quick and held tight, thinking"I couldn't have...It doesn't really feel like I did...All I have to do is look...I don't really want to look, I'm sure it isn't...but what if it really is - there's blood on the wall over there...maybe just one little peak...GAWD, It IS!OK let's be calm and wrap it up..."I was working alone and didn't quite trust myself to drive the 18 miles to the hospital, so i walked three blocks to the Sheriff's office where I had friends - was a reserve officer at the time. Caught a ride with one.Then when I got to that little local hospital, they didn't have a qualified bone guy, so they rewrapped and had me go another fifty miles to the next ski town, where bone guys are abundant. My wife still tells the tale of the phjone call she got in the middle of the day, "Honey, how would you like to drive me and my finger over to Steamboat Springs?"
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Was once nailing subfascia on an addition and the gun slipped as I pulled the trigger. Next thing I knew I was on the ground (had been on planked ladders) and DAD was standing on my unshot arm saying, "leave it alone till we get to the hospital"
A bit of morphine and a pair of vice grips helped remove it. No serious damage, but have a bone chip that I feel from time to time.
The other time I was on a roof and kicked someone elses gun. He happened to be the kind that never lets go of the trigger. BAM, in the toes. He said it was my fault, since i kicked his gun.
Thats all my bad luck with nail guns, but the best one I witnessed was...... A guy is nailing blocking in between joist. The recoil bounces the gun of his forehead, then he shoots a nail, then the recoil of the head, then a nail. Five time he hit himself in the head with the butt end of the gun, in less the 5 seconds i think. He was bloddy and a little "headache" but was all right.An inch to short. That's the story of my life !
bstcrpntr --- I hope to grow into this name.
I'm actually kind of embarrassed at how many times I've been punctured by gun nails. Here are a couple of highlights:
One time I was nailing off the sheathing on an exterior wall prior to standing it up. We were rockin' and rollin' and I was running up and down the wall machine gunning the nails into the studs. I got to one end and got the gun a little too close to the top edge of the wall. The nail missed the wall, went the 4" to the floor, bounced straight back at my face and hit me DIRECTLY IN THE EYEBALL!!!! It was the most frightening thing that has ever happened to me. I was terrified to even feel to see if the nail was still sticking in my eye. When I finally had the nerve to timidly explore, I was able to ascertain that there was no nail present. There also did not appear to be any blood in the vicinity. And after getting my nerve up, I was able to open my eye and determine that I actually still had vision in that eye.
Later, in the doctor's office, The doctor and I decided that the nail must have been tumbling when it hit me and I didn't actually get the pointy end. All I know is, that was 15 years ago and I now always wear safety glasses when anywhere near any type of power tools.
Then there was the time I was nailing kickers into sub-facia up on a ladder 30' off the ground. the gun mis-shot (I'll never use another dou-fast P.O.S. again for this reason) the nail came out just below the "rifle barrel" and nailed my first three fingers together on my other hand where I was holding the kicker block. One through the knuckle, the other two through the meat just behind the knuckle. Fortunately no bones were hit. I climbed down the ladder after lowering the gun by the hose. (why in the heck didn't I just throw that piece of cr** down as hard as I could?) Once on the ground, I got out my pliers and pulled it out. (oh boy, that felt good!) That time I didn't even go to the doctor. But I did at least have the nerve to tell my boss that I was never going to use his junk nail gun again.
Now... Let's talk about table saws...... " If I were a carpenter"
Mine wasn't serious, but it was stupid.
I keep an old Stanley 3/4" chisel in my pouch while I'm doing finish work and the night before I had just finished sharpening this thing to a razor edge with my new diamond stone. I planned to use it a lot that day and even showed my boss (with whom I was working and was hoping to impress) the chisel. He marveled at the work I did on it and we went back to work.
Finally it came time to use it so I pulled it out of my pouch with my right hand and was handing it to my left hand, except I wasn't looking and the tip of the blade plunged about 3/4" into my palm. I didn't even feel it cut, I just knew from where I grabbed it that this was going to be ugly. Yep, blood everywhere, so I quickly went to my truck and found a rag to put pressure on it. The boss came out, looked at it and just smiled.
He knew I was going to receive more my share of crap from the forman (who was going to drive me to the Prompt Care) than he could give me! He was right.
Uggh.
Tim
I think I've already told this here sometime, but I'm gettin' old, so I'm allowed to repeat myself.
years ago, I was fabricating a Formica countertop. I was routing the extra laminate, and the bit was getting gummed up with the cement. So I sorta tucked the router under my arm and started peeling off the glue.
the router my dad had at the time was this old B&D that had no safety guard around the switch. As I cleaned glue, I bumped the switch.
the bit took off a chunk of my left thumb.
after wrapping my thumb, UNPLUGGING and cleaning the bit, I finished the counter.
a router does an amazing job of removing flesh.
'member it every time you pick up a router, don't you?The way I learned to ALWAYS check the switch before plugging i tin was when i had one setting on a door over benches and ti nicked the door on the way to running across the floor before I got it unplugged.
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I guess I've been lucky.
I did scratch myself once with a saw blade. I've had a few close calls.
blue
2 fridays ago my helper shot himself in the thigh. he was kneeling at the time, and apparently was putting the nailer down (with his finger still on the trigger), and brushed his leg. the (3") nail went completely into his femur--i saw the x-ray. the crazy thing is that it essentially nailed his leg into the kneeling position, but he managed to climb down a ladder and into, then out of, the back of the truck. he was in surgery for the entire afternoon since he's a borderline hemophiliac.anyway, the doctors said he'd be out 6 weeks because of the bone damage. 3 days later he was at the jobsite saying hello, and he's coming back to work tomorrow! i'm pretty impressed.
That's a funny one bstcrptnr!
blue
It is really amazing what goes through your mind at a time like that.Did they get your finger fixed up?I had my hand on the inside of an opening my co-worker Bill decided to plunge cut out with a circular saw. It took off the tip of my finger. I could feel every individual saw tooth. I let out a holler and really freaked out. It just caught the flesh and missed the bone, so it really wasn't that bad.Bill drove me to the ER and apologized constantly even though I told him it was an easy mistake, I should have told him I was inside and not to worry.In the ER, the nurse was asking me what happened while Bill sat in a chair, feeling so guilty he looked sick. I told the nurse the first cut wasn't bad, but Bill thought it he needed to square it up and the second cut hurt like heck.I thought it was a pretty fair joke under the circumstances, but the nurse just gave me a blank look and Bill went from sorry to fightin mad in a few seconds. I thought I was going to get whipped in the ER.
it was across the end joint jusat about where the cuticle lies. Still held on by a flap of skin. interesting part is that I haad crushed that same finger tip a few years previous, so having broke the bone into at least five pieces, the thing was pretty big, insensitive, and ugly, but this saw kerf took most of the scar tissue right out. When they flipped the end back on and sewed it up, it healed clean and works far better now than it did then. It just about an eighth inch shorter than the other one.I have another finger similar to your tipped one.
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"First time I cut my finger off "
how many times have you done that?
previous post -I nicked a thuimb with mitresawI landed a trailer tongue on my right index finger, crushing the end of itThen I surgically removed a saw kerf that took the scar tissue from that away.Then I caught my middle finger tip in a table saw blade. That fingernail doesn't grow much anymore. I burned all the skin off my right index finger. That was interesting. new skin growing over muscle and cartilage is like saran wrap, see thru, except that to endure therapy to restore it you have to learn to like pain.Then there was the time I was shoveling stone with a D-style shovel handle and ran it up against a piece of roof edge. That cut between right thumb and first finger way deep into the meaty part of the hand. Weird looking but not much for blood vessels or tendons and nerves right there, but couldn't move thumb for awhile.Still got ten digits operable, but five have battle scars
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i can beat your horror stories. i now have no skin on my backside.(it all crawled off after reading about your fingers . . .)EEEEAAAUUUGGGGGHHH (shiver)Sometimes i get a little jealous reading about you guys being outside, building things, etc., while i sit in at a desk drawing pretty pictures. Not so sure that's a problem anymore. now let's never talk of this subject again . . . :)
Just slam your thumb in th edesk drawer a couple of times so you won't feel so guilty
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Have the usual collection of bloody and not-so-bloody stories but the strangest was a nail in the ear. We were working under some roofers that were laying down with guns. There must have been a space or knot or something because one of the guys near me put his hand up and said "sh**" like he was slapping a bee or something. When he turned around he had a roofing nail stuck through his ear. A little ahead of his time I guess. Anyway, it hardly even bled and after he got back from ReadyCare he said it didn't even really hurt.
The pictures in the paper of XRays with a nail in a guys skull always give me the chills I especially liked the one where the guy said "Ow, Dude, you just shot me in the head!" Ya gotta love that guy. Should be on MaxX or something.
T.
Not really anything construction-related, but ... I've had 13 confirmed fractures (of bones) to date. Fear? Four-letter word. Stupid? No comment. :)
When I was three years old I was throwing what we called 'helicopter' leaves off of a 40' cliff. We sent them over the perfectly vertical cliff edge as the cliff was formed when man cut out of a hill a space for 4-story aparments. Well, one day I threw a handful of these leaves over and was amazed when they twirled in the air for longer than usual.
Hehe, I was in-flight with them and on my way down 40' to a paved bottom surface. As I laid there staring back up at my friends, I wondered how I got down here. Broke the right femur. Was in the hospital for a couple of weeks, and in a body cast from the waist-down for another month. It tickled me when they took the cast off.
No, this was only bone-break #1. It just was a que to my parents that I was going to be trouble, unlike my 10 brothers and sisters.
Edited 10/21/2005 11:42 am ET by Nuke
So are you guys up to date on First Aid and CPR? Do you have serious bandages, gloves, and a pocket mask on your job site or in your truck? It isn't fun planning for bad things to happen but nice to be prepaired. Back when I was on commercial construction sites most folks were carrying a ziplock bag with bandages and gloves in the top of their hard hats.
Me? No. I'm always on the receiving end. Never been fortunate to be in a situation where I could help someone else.
General comment to all-
EMS protocol says that when treating a puncture injury with a foreign object where the object is still "in there" (ie:nails, knives, etc.) the object should always be left in place until examined by doctor. Object will prevent some blood loss in event of major punture to artery, etc.
fyi
Bing
Don't know if it's interestin or not, but took a real short very painful fall this morn. I came over the ridge ona roof, as soon as I got both feet on the side with felt only, I was flat on my back. I hit harder than I ever have. Feet just came out from under me. Made for a long painful day. Be careful on roofs the morning after a good rain, and while it is still drizzleing(sp).An inch to short. That's the story of my life !
bstcrpntr --- I hope to grow into this name.
we had a guy cut thru half of his finger the other day. He was changing a blade on his utility knife and was using a cordless drill to tighten the screw.You can figure out the rest.
Of all the injury posts, yours made me laugh. I wonder if his brain was having one of those "I know this is probably a stupid idea but for some reason I'm now commited to seeing it through" moments. I've had a few of those but for some lucky reason they have all resulted in only minor injuries..
T.
this is one of those guys that when you work with him, you end up shaking your head at some of his decisions.
But, he shows up every day, ready to go.
reminds me of the one I forgot. Sliced my left index finger right thru the fingernail to the bone, lengthwise with a new utility blade. That's the same finger that had so many other injuries. It's a wonder it isn't a cloven hoof by now!
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I have a trick that makes broken or missing finger nails much more bearable. Go get a fake nail installed at a salon. At least in the Seattle area there are little nail salons all over the place. Replacement nails cost about $2 per finger without polish and function like the real thing. I usually had to get a new one about every two or three weeks until the nail grew back out.
Heard about a guy here that cut one of his fingers off........before they could get it gathered up for the trip to the hospital his frickin dog grabbed it and took off ..never did find that digit.
Man, you and your fingers! I don't guess you play the guitar or piano much.
I gave that up when I cut the end of the middle finger off
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"...the object should always be left in place until examined by doctor"
I've said it before here, but it bears repeating.
If you go to the ER with a puncture wound, you sit with everyone else and wait your turn.
Go in with something sticking out of your body somewhere, and you're a novelty - You get LOTS more attention. The woman at the admitting desk doesn't want you sitting there filling our forms. You get to go straight to the ER right past the waiting room.
Too bad stupidity isn't painful.
I've found that showing up with your shirt drenched in blood gets you in quickly.
Andy Engel
Senior editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what I have to say has more lasting value. --Robert M. Pirsig
None of this matters in geological time.
I guess that would be true, if the ER you go to doesn't know how to triage their patients.In addition, if you hit a femoral artery or the like with a nail, it probably won't bleed much, till ya pull the nail out. In that case, you'll deffinetly get right in, cause you'll have about bled to death by the time you get to the hospital.So...........roll the dice if you want, but I don't think they make this stuff up for #### and giggles. Reading what you said makes me think of the other fallacy: "Oh, go in the rescue, you'll get seen right away!" I love that one. Yeah, you'll get seen, and then, if there are more important cases in front of you, you'll get pushed into a hallway till it's your turn. Course, the guy you rolled by in the entrance sits there and stews thinking, "I've been here for two hours, and that guy with the nosebleed just blew by me, cause he came in on the rescue!" Fact is, they treat in order of importance.I swung a hammer for 19 years b4 I became a firefighter, and I thought the same bs too. Just because someone goes behind the swinging doors before you, doesn't mean they'll leave before you.
Bing
I've been in the right place at the right/wrong time and ended up taking several guys to the ER. What I said is based on those experiences, not just something I've heard.
Alimony, n.: Disinterest, compounded annually. [Walter McDonald]
I was constantly in situations on job and off where I needed the first aid training I'd haad when younger, so I decided to take an EMT course when I became a resserve cop.Dealt with a stabbing while taking the course, but haven't ever needed ti since then. Must've been good insurance.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Where I work the company rules are, less than a pint of blood is a minor injury!
Working on a wall about 8 feet up on a plank that was between two ladders inside an office warehouse work area. There was me and my helper. The plank snapped from under us, broke clean in half and we both went straight down like lead balloons. He got banged up a little (thank God), I on the other hand caught my right eye on the corner of a steel filing cabinet on the way down and it ripped my face open starting with my lower eye lid.
At the ER the Dr. brought all his interns over to look at this as he made me look up, down and sideways. The muscles were all intact and moving in coordination with one another and you could see this happening. He decided to hold a mini seminar till he saw how pissed I was getting. I had to have plastic surgery, and I was very lucky not to lose the eye. Today it's nothing but a wrinkle with the rest .
Coming out of my shop one summer night, a moth flew up and burrowed its way into my middle ear. Had to go and lay in the ER for 5 hours till they got to me. It was alive for about 2 hours and when it fluttered, it was like nothing you had ever felt before. Like a drum going off in the middle of your head and when that happened I would flop around like I was possessed....and you could feel the crawly little feet. Very funny now, but not then.
Ya should have just shone a flashlight in the other ear- he woulda passed right thru getting to the light
You know...I didn't think of that, (how could I?), but that's a damned good idea.
I've got my fair share of scars including two gunshots (one through left knee, one in the chest), whacked off my left index fingertip (reattached beautifully by a PA) but here's my wierdest:
Was chiseling out some mortices on a project and lay a chisel on my workbench. While I'm doing something else it rolls off the table and comes down like a guillotine onto the bottom knuckle of my left big toe, cutting a nice slit in a brand new sneaker. I'm grumbling about the ruined sneaker when it dawns on me - "heyyyyy wait a secondddddd... it probably didn't stop at the sneaker". So I take off the sneaker and there's this tiny thin red line on my sock. "Oh ohhhhh... I have a bad feeling about this". Take off the sock and squirttttttttt... nice little blood geyser goes shooting up. The sock had gotten pressed tightly into the slit. Wrapped it in paper towels and tape and hobbled to the quicky clinic, the nurses were calling each other in to see it and hear the story. Six stitches, lucky it wasn't a heavier chisel.
That was weird, almost like mine when I fell two feet off the deck and somehow got my circ saw cord wrapped on my foot in the process. So it yanked the saw off the deck and down on top of my toe. Took over a year for that toenail to grow out right
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!