Birdman's misadventure with a machete

[Eo_Echo]

Yesterday (November 6, 2001) I got seven stitches in my left shin to close a gash I sustained at work, inflicted by myself. It all started so innocently, as such things often do…I’m a land surveyor, and I was clearing some brush on a piece of property my crew was staking out. I was using the usual tool for such a task, in this case a 12" machete. Stupidly, I inadverdently hacked at a small tree with the blunt side of the blade, which immediately rebounded from the trunk and struck me in the shin. I thought I had hit the tree with the sharp edge of the blade, so I assumed I had hit myself with the blunt side. Then I noticed the hole in my pants, and the hole in my longjohns, then the hole in my shin which was bleeding at an alarming rate. I was taken to the hospital where my wound was closed and bandaged. I was released, feeling like an uncoordinated clod. Now I must walk gingerly for fear of opening up my cut and bleeding some more. Fortunately the guys on my crew are cool and are taking it easy on me.

That’s the story I needed to get out. If anyone who reads this has a similar story of a (sorta) humorous work-related injury, please feel free to share it here. Otherwise, go ahead and laugh at me. The people at my office already are. In fact, they’re calling me “Rambo.”

[Gut]

About a month ago I got seven stitches on the back of my left hand between the index finger and thumb. I was installing a tek panel like I always do and like a good lad put my little four dollar level on top of it to make sure it was going to be level.

I get the first screw in with no problem and begin to start the second screw. This does not go so well and the panel is starting to pivot on the one screw I already drilled in. Now of course the precious four dollar level is starting to slide off. OH NO! SAVE THE LEVEL! Screams my brain. So of course I make a grab for it and promptly rip open the back of my hand on a sharp part of the panel door.

I left a nice blood trail all the way out of the house and out to my truck. I also left a nice pool of blood on the street as I fiddled with my first aid kit with one hand.

The level was unscathed. From now on it hits the ground without so much as a blink from me.

Good luck trying not to scratch, my stitches itched like a bugger. The scar still itches.

[MikeG]

Save the level!!! Hee! I managed to drop a 200# door on my toe once doing just that [sub]of course it was a $150 German level[/sub]

Hmm, I also once was installing storm windows on the second floor of a house. I was leaning backwards out the window, had centered the storm in place and had set the first screw when I shifted and simultaneously 1) lost grip on my expensive cordless drill and 2) saw that the screw holding the storm in place had pulled out!

So what do I do? Of course! I reach for the drill :rolleyes:

The storm catches me on the corner of my eyebrow, slices a nice little gash through my EYELID!!! and falls to the ground.

I reached in calmly, got my 1st aid kit, started to clean my eye and realized I was seeing daylight with my EYE CLOSED. This is not a sign of good health in medical circles.

So I go to the hospital, get my eyelid stiched up ( oh man did that shot hurt), and am forced to endure all the docs looking at how close I was to losing my eye - the doc said the sharp edge actually touched my eye but did no damage he said it was the closest call he had ever seen.

I’ve got lots more where those came from but doesn’t every carpenter?

[Palve]

This thread is making me squeamish. Especially that eyelid thing. I’m just glad my worst work-related injuries involve tripping over something (usually without blood). Then again, my only work experience is a paper boy, because I’m only 16.

Not to disappoint, I have a story of a non-work related injury. It was about 1 a.m. I had been working on a school project for a while (it was due the next day, well, technically that day, of course). Eventually I considered my project worthy of being handed in to the teacher. So I figured I’d get ready to go to bed. Well, I really needed to go to the bathroom, so I walked down the stairs (quietly as to not wake my parents up). I gently tip-toed to the bathroom door. The door was open for me, so I didn’t need to make any unnecessary door-opening noise.

Problem was, I didn’t know how far the door was open. It wasn’t open very much, and so as I tried to walk into the bathroom, my foot hit the door about 3/4 of the way between the doorknob and the floor. Surprised, my first reaction (and probably stupidest possible reaction) was to bring my foot to the floor quickly. This was an old door, so it had cracks and splinters everywhere. Well, there was one crack at just the right angle in just the right place so a chunk of the door went into my heel and out the side of my foot.

The silence of the night which I had so well maintained was interrupted by a scream of pain. My parents woke up and got out of their room to see what was the matter. They saw blood, so they told me to get a bandage, put it on and go to bed. I guess the piece of wood was lodged into my foot so that they couldn’t see it. I not so pleasantly reminded them that there was a piece of wood in my foot that needed to be removed.

After several very painful attempts to dislodge the wood from my foot, my father drove me to the hospital, where we entered the emergency room (why that emergency room had a keyhole was beyond my comprehension). There, the wood was removed.

On the bright side, however, I got out of gym class for the remainder of the school year by exaggerating my injury and limping around whenever the gym teacher was looking, even tho it was pretty much healed a week after the incident.

[mmmiiikkkeee]

When I was working in a warehouse many years ago, we had to move some carts on wheels over to the building next door… and had to take them out through the snow-covered parking lot. These things were loaded up with around 150lbs of medical supplies, and were made of metal bringing the total to around 200lbs. I was pulling the thing behind me; you know- the face and lean forward with one arm pulling the cart behind you thing. At times before I had sometimes looked back at my feet and how close they got to the rolling carts just before I took another step forward. This day as I was pulling I was thinking "hmmmm, ya know it’s probly not a good idea to pull anything behind you that’s not at least 10 feet back since you can’t see where it is and might leave your trailing foot there a little too… CRUNCH!!! God Damn!! just as I was thinking about it the cart caught up to my foot, jammed into it, and forced my heel forward and off the ground while my toes were stuck in place, ran over my foot and up my ankle, and forced me down onto that knee like I was about to be knighted. YEOW!!! "Oh my god did I just break my ankle???

Phew, no; it just hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, that’s all. Ended up with only a little skin off the back of my heel, not even any blood. I was just lucky that cart was the number of inches off the ground as it was… shudder… don’t like to think about any alternatives.
From then on, I have and never will pull anything behind me, whether I’m facing it or not. The Hell with it being easier to pull (or push… I don’t even know which) something - you trip or leave a foot there 0.5 seconds too long and whatever you’re pulling will steamroll you. I sometimes get nervous when I see other people pulling things; they seem absolutely oblivious to the possibility. Then again, it’s not me, so I don’t take too much notice :).