All your lovely stories remind me of my father-in-law;
As he put down his circular saw on his bench it dropped and in a reflex he tried to catch it. For some reason the guard didn't close and the bugger caught him straight across his arm. So he wrapped his arm in a towel and ran into the house. He asked the cleaner to call an ambulance and she fainted when she saw him. So he called the ambulance himself. 20 minutes later the ambulance arrives with two paramedics, they look at the cut and they say: sorry sir, that's nothing for us, you'll need a surgeon for that. So they drove off!!
In the mean time mother-in-law came home and she drove him to the local hospital. They got to a surgeon and he said straight away: we'll have to amputate your arm. MIL told him to shove his scalpel where the sun doesn't shine. She then drove 2 hours to a university hospital. A plastic surgeon reattached all the nerves, blood vessels, tendons, muscles and whatever else was ripped apart.
The day he got home he sold all his woodworking machinery. It took about 6 months to recover and now, 15 years later he still has limited power, motion and sensation in his hand.
It didn't stop him to build a restaurant, 6 flats and most of my sister-in-law's house. He's still extremely sloppy with drills and angle grinders but he certainly is very cautious with a circular saw.
. Just been doing all the non-construction jobs that were at the bottom of the list that suddenly found themselves at the top! Like refurbing the Nokia handset prior to giving it to Wifey (quite chuffed considering it involved a bit of soldering - and all 1 handed) when I get my new one in a bit & upgrading the maps on my GPS without getting fleeced. :wink: I was getting sick of driving thru what the TomTom said were fields!
