Stupid injuries

[throbscottle]

But I can use right handed scissors with my left almost as effectively! (just not so accurately)
Garden tools - When I volunteered with the BTCV many moons ago, one of the first things they taught me was to always lay tools on the ground with the sticky-out bits downwards. Sage advice. Even so, I've forgotten and managed to whack (or nearly whack) myself with a spade handle a couple of times.
Stanley knife - you know you're supposed to hold the rounded end, right? Seriously though - I've managed to snag the blade with the holding-hand when I've shifted one around in my hand before - not enough to cut though. So maybe that's what you did.
Table saws / sleds - you can't use the guard with a sled. Well you /could/ - but you'd likely be adding new hazards to do it effectively. I always wait for mine to stop spinning before my fingers go anywhere near the blade. Also, if you use the saw to cut a groove, ie less than the thickness of the wood, you can't do that with the guard on, or the riving knife for that matter. Also in normal use the guard limits the width of the cut, so at some point it's in the way. Mine goes straight back on after if I have to do without it for some reason.
I learnt to be extra respectful of hand saws too a few years ago - as the blood dripped onto my bench!
Pocket knives. I must have been 6 or 7 when my parents gave me my first one. It had a spear blade, pen blade, corkscrew, bottle and can openers, screwdriver, and a device for getting boy-scouts out of horses hooves. About 2 years later I cut myself for the first time with it - doing something to an old dry and quite hard bit of rose stem. Chopped right into my upper right forefinger. Since I'd never cut myself before, I was quite upset about it, more because I was no longer pristine. than because it hurt.
Bicycles - thank the gods for derailleurs - even with one, it still hurts if you get your fingers in the chain. I'm guessing that was a 1 gear bike to do so much damage.
All the rest - owwwwwww I'm so glad I only do minor injuries...

 

[Beatsy]

My dad taught me to ALWAYS stand a rake up on it's handle - I still do!
I heard that Joseph stood on a rake, got smacked in the face, & let out a profamity 'J C!' - "Ooh, that's a good name for the baby!" ~ said Mary!

I thought that was *my* name until I was 10. My dad was always shouting, "Jesus Christ! What are you up to now?"

 

[Spectric]

The majority of injuries are the result of inexperience. They happen a lot in the early sstages

A lot of very experienced and qualified people still get injured because they become to casual, because they have done a job so many times before they go into a robotic mode and no longer fully comprehend the hazzards and even cut corners.

 

[Yorkieguy]

I'm left-handed, but have always used scissors in my right hand. I can't even use left-handed scissors in my left hand. Likewise, when using a knife and fork, I use the fork in my left hand and knife in my right hand, just as a right-handed person does, but a spoon in my left hand. Whenever I see a left-handed person, I always ask what they do, and invariably they do likewise. I'm fairly ambidextrous when woodturning, and being left-handed makes it much easier when parting off.

 

[flying haggis]

When I was about 10/11 i ran in the garden and didnt see the rake in the grass and my plimsoll (remember them?) clad foot was impaled by two tines. it was only later that evening when i said to my parents that my foot hurt and i had blood on my sock that I realised what i had done. didnt stop me playing for the afternnoon after i did it though.

 

[Jarno]

Accidentally stabbed myself with a chisel this morning, when cutting dovetails for a small box. Always fix your work....
Bled like a pig, it's a big gash, put a bandaid on it to push it shut, but it is a mess. Hopefully it's closed enough tonight to allow some cleaning up.

 

[clogs]

not quite a cut ....
was wearing leather gloves to unload a pile of euro pallets....
didn't notice the split wood.....dohhhh....
went to A+E here but to busy for nearly a week...they wanted surgery.....!!!!!.
hard to work with this in ur hand....so after a few days could wait no more....
a good push n sharp Stanley knife did it myself...
still got the offending piece in my wallet....hahaha....
ps. I had already pulled out more than 1/2 as much aging as soon as it happen'd...

 

[TRITON]

Oooooh are we showing off injury pics

A lot of very experienced and qualified people still get injured because they become to casual, because they have done a job so many times before they go into a robotic mode and no longer fully comprehend the hazzards

Exactly what happened here. I placed my hand in front of the chisel, pushing towards it and it slipped. Thankfully my index finger was there to stop the blade

 

[Ttrees]

Derek
I've seen some photos of bandsaw auxiliary table on the OWWM site.
(an extra bit of timber or a wrap around job for most of the table)
and wondering if you've thought about making one, should it be the case that the
table might be a bit small relative to the depth of cut on that machine.

I might PM one of the mods as see if I can link the post, and edit this later
if I can find it.

Just wondering if this may be partly the reason why your hand got so close?
Love to know more, should it be possible, as we all know how thoroughly you document your work.


I fell sidewards on my uncoiled bandsaw blade a month ago, as it was hung on a stack of lengths which was progressively becoming more horizontal, as me garden tools were tucked in behind.
The 3TPI blade left a few pricks on me little finger, glad I didn't get a face full of them.
Nearly out the door by now, cannot wait until me shed is clean again.

 

[picsnbits]

Worked all afternoon in the garden. Tired & but fed up. Finally quit for a break & a brew. Stuck the fork upright in the ground with some force- straight through wellie & foot. A& E. Wounds (2) cleaned & closed. Further puncture wound in left buttock for tetanus shot. Learned!!

 

[Kittyhawk]

A few years ago I was descending a stairway a bit rapidly with a marine gearbox in my hands - not a big one, about the size of a shoe box and weighing 8 -9 kg and I had a grade 3 ankle inversion sprain. This ruptured a whole bunch of ligaments which meant that the correct foot alignment was disturbed which in turn led to the gradual disintegration of the tib, fib and talus cartilage. As expected this ultimately led to that evil beggar Arthur Rightus making himself at home in the ankle which further compounded the injury necessitating the permanent use of a cane if walking more than a few dozen metres.
I call this a stupid accident because I knew full well how dangerous stairs can be. In my career as an Ambo I have attended numerous descending stair ankle accidents, ice packing sprains, splinting breaks...
The ankle is an incredibly complex joint and the shock loads imposed on it when going down stairs are massive and increased further should you be carrying something - and at the same time also depriving you acces to the hand rail should you suddenly need it.
The only reason for telling you this is that from my experience stair mishaps are very common and although they are accidents without blood and gore they can have long term consequences. So please be careful on stairs and if you can't, I do a nice line in hand crafted bespoke walking sticks in Kwila..

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

I remember as a kid at junior school dropping some papers in the playground. They were blowing around in the wind as I tried to pick them up. Technique was to put a foot on one then pick it up. Running around I managed to stamp on one finger as I did so. Vocabulary wasn't as fruity as it is now. Probably just as well.

A couple of years ago I was ripping a small csa piece of wood a foot or so long on the bandsaw. Push sticks? You've got to be joking. Halfway through I thought "must remember to move my thumb out of the way at the end". Did I? Did I heck! Two plasters over the end of thumb to quench the blood and carry on.

What did I learn?
1. Use push sticks.
2. Vocabulary has improved no end in the previous 60 years.
3. Time to go for memory lessons.

 

[stuart little]

I'm left-handed, but have always used scissors in my right hand. I can't even use left-handed scissors in my left hand. Likewise, when using a knife and fork, I use the fork in my left hand and knife in my right hand, just as a right-handed person does, but a spoon in my left hand. Whenever I see a left-handed person, I always ask what they do, and invariably they do likewise. I'm fairly ambidextrous when woodturning, and being left-handed makes it much easier when parting off.

Same with me; I use a fork & spoon in my right hand because I'm right handed! But I'm left handed if I were to use a bat or an axe or a Colt .45 single acction! {blank firer - from the '70's when they could be bough easily M/O)

 

[Spectric]

Stuck the fork upright in the ground with some force- straight through wellie & foot. A& E.

I rest my case, these incidents are just acts of stupidity. You need to be extra careful in Cumbria because we don't have the best NHS services, I am having to travel to Sunderland for an eye inspection because it cannot be done local

 

[Cheetahmoon]

Last night I cut the end off the little finger of my dominant (left) hand. I did this using the only tool which I can use well with my right hand - scissors. I was anonymising a small bit of paper with my name and address on it. The scissors are very sharp. My finger was hidden by the paper. I am stupid.

It may have only been the outer skin I cut off but it bled a lot and still hurts a lot and I think it still might be bleeding under the fat dressing my wife put on. Definitely worse than the last time I cut the end off a finger (1984 I think) and I went to A&E for that one, which at least was my right hand (kitchen knife, sweet potato, middle finger).

So, it's a well known fact that there's nothing worse than paper cuts. right? Nothing! Well, since for comparison I did get a paper cut earlier in the evening, I can now refute this! Injuries obtained whilst cutting paper, can potentially be actually worse than paper cuts.

Anyone else care to share stupid injuries?

Sorry to hear about your injury and I hope that you recover. You'd think 35 years in construction, a period in which so many improvements have been made, would have given me helpful experience and perspective. I still managed to cut my index finger completely off, and I count myself lucky that Salisbury hospital saved my thumb and middle finger. There is no way of explaining it, I don't think it matters how it happened, all accidents are avoidable, as was this one, and perhaps my perceived experience bread complacency. There are no sensible reasons for cutting a finger off; they are all "idiotic". I can now confirm that there are no complacent 9 fingered people! That morning I was in a rush, my approach was unplanned, unsystematic and lacked the calm systematic presence of mind that working with machinery demands, and when I reflect, I knew that. I should have had the strength to walk away and return in a better frame of mind. The accident was my fault and the consequences deserved, the gap in my hand, serves as a useful and permanent prompt to think things through, calmly and carefully. As it happens the physical effects have been minimal...I can't use chopsticks, nor play it on the piano, but it took some time to overcome completely unexpected mental health impacts. So in summary, take the time to take care of yourselves....you deserve that time to think things through, and you owe it to yourselves.

 

[johna.clements]

Sorry to hear about your injury and I hope that you recover. You'd think 35 years in construction, a period in which so many improvements have been made, would have given me helpful experience and perspective. I still managed to cut my index finger completely off, and I count myself lucky that Salisbury hospital saved my thumb and middle finger. There is no way of explaining it, I don't think it matters how it happened, all accidents are avoidable, as was this one, and perhaps my perceived experience bread complacency. There are no sensible reasons for cutting a finger off; they are all "idiotic". I can now confirm that there are no complacent 9 fingered people! That morning I was in a rush, my approach was unplanned, unsystematic and lacked the calm systematic presence of mind that working with machinery demands, and when I reflect, I knew that. I should have had the strength to walk away and return in a better frame of mind. The accident was my fault and the consequences deserved, the gap in my hand, serves as a useful and permanent prompt to think things through, calmly and carefully. As it happens the physical effects have been minimal...I can't use chopsticks, nor play it on the piano, but it took some time to overcome completely unexpected mental health impacts. So in summary, take the time to take care of yourselves....you deserve that time to think things through, and you owe it to yourselves.

The number of deaths and serious injuries have halved since I started in construction in the 80s.

Whilst many accident are caused by stupidity they are also caused by a lack of appreciation of the risks.

 

[flying haggis]

At least this guy saw the funny side....................

 

[Cheetahmoon]

At least this guy saw the funny side....................View attachment 142114

 

[Cheetahmoon]

Mine gets thirsty....

 

[Stuart Moffat]

Maybe because I started making stuff early… I was given some real woodworking tools when I was seven and allowed/helped to use them. I’m now 68 and still have all my digits, despite having and using lots of dangerous stuff. I’ve never really hit myself in the workshop.
But in the kitchen some years ago proved I have my full share of stupidity. We’ve got a tiled kitchen floor, and if you drop something on the floor, it can break what you drop, or worse break what would be an irreplaceable tile. Instinctively I always put my foot out to try and break the fall of something going down. Might hurt a bit but saves the day. One morning, mu turn to go down in dressing gown to make drinks and back to bed. I had a big heavy mug for myself that had about a pint of tea in it. I picked up that mug in my left hand, my wife’s daintier one in the right hand and stepped back from the worktop. then the mug started it’s downward fall. out went my left foot to break its fall. Most of the mugs handle was still in my hand and had separated from the mug. The glazing on the mug was razor edge. The amount of blood was truly shocking. My wife drove me very quickly to A&E my leg in a washing up bowl and me trying to stem it as best I could. Who knew there is a significant artery just between/behind the gap between big toe and next toe. I was told another 1mm and I’d have struggled to stem it for long enough.
But the really stoopied stupid thing, is my instincts have changed if my eye catches something falling!