heard an ugly story this evening...

In the blink of an eye.
I can't imagine.

 

OOOUUCCH!

 

Always good to remember the danger any power saw poses. Complacency equals injury.

On Friday one of the seasoned guys on our framing crew cut his palm on his circular saw. He was adjusting the table depth with the blade spinning. Saw was on a bevel so the blade wasn't exactly where he expected.

He got away with only stitches. The blade went into his palm right between the bones leading to the pinky and ring fingers. Missed everything but a little flesh. Very lucky he wasn't on the trigger, the saw was winding down.

Careful guys, and best wishes to the girls brother.

 

Sorry to hear about that. As much as we would like to think so, we are not invincible.

 

Really good advice. I "talk" to myself all the time while working. (People have said I sound like I'm losing it… )

I'll bet every Hoarder clenched just a little reading this poor guy's story… how many close calls…

 

I wish we could let that guy know that everyone on this site is thinking about him and wishing him a speedy recovery. If he lives close to any of us we could help him out.

 

Yuck.

Must have been torn up pretty bad.


I've extracted fingers from equipment to send to the hospital packed on ice after an ambulance has left to be reattached
amazing what they can do
too many times
one of those things you just do and then hours later go in the bathroom and puke, or wish you could.

 

Ehhh..thats terrible . One definetly has to be aware . Imagine how bad that guy hurts...in the hand..and the brain .

 

I was also thinking… if he still wants to… that using a chainsaw later will be very difficult. I'm pretty sure he couldn't care less right now. It's a terrible lesson in how fast a life can change. One blink…

 

A few years back... late 70s early 80s, my next door neighbor was the head doctor at the local emergency room. Wood burning had exploded back then after the first oil crisis. Everyone was putting in Defiants and Jotuls etc, and buying chainsaws and starting to burn. Lot's of beginners. ...

He told me one day that the number one serious ER cause was chainsaws. He hated them.

The town I lived in growing up, one town down, Fitchburg Mass, there was a big GE plant where they made submarine turbines. Lot's of machinist. The town was also full of papermills. It was common to shake someones hand and notice a couple digits missing. My good friends' nickname was lefty. His right hand only had a thumb and forefinger, he was lucky to have that.

I don't do anywhere near the cutting that you guys do, but I can tell you this, I have a healthy fear of that freakin' bar.

 

Wow that is horrible and I feel awful for that guy! If he is anything like me I would beat myself up pretty badly about it so I hop he recovers quickly and as fully as possible.

 

I try to stay a little nervous about the chainsaw, so I don't get complacent. Stories like this one help. I hope you didn't hear it right and he will still have use of his hand.

 

"I have a healthy fear of that freakin' bar"… That can't be a bad thing…

 

I wish a speedy recovery to him.

 

speedy recovery to him, ouch. With the things we do burning wood, jobs etc. if you die with all your fingers you did good. still have all mine, but did stall a circular saw with my index and middle finger once. Have 2 little scars luckily.

 

A very good & old friend, who has cut wood for a living his entire life, had a very close call years ago. First, you gotta know this guy did everything by the book. All of the safety gear, etc. And, he has been in incredible shape all of those years. Always a very hard working man. He's 79 now… still cuts a little wood.

He said he'd gone into the lot early and had started clipping a few small 2"-3" trees that were in his way. One was pinned behind the one he was cutting and he didn't notice it. When he cut the first one, the second snapped toward him and instantly drove the top of his saw bar deep into his left shoulder/neck/upper chest area. His father had butchered their own hogs years before and, and he knew from watching hogs bleed out that he was in trouble. Said blood was flowing out of his left neck area badly. Again, from butchering hogs, he knew what to do (at this point, I'd have passed out)… reached in and pinched off the major artery. Said it was too far to walk out, so he got on his skidder and drove it to the landing where he got in his truck and drove like a wild man to the first house, all while pinching that artery… got off an emergency call and someone there jumped in his truck and drove the 20 minute drive to the hospital. The ambulance met them about 1/2 way and they got him in. Told me, he'd wished they'd never stopped. Said they kept looking him over, asking questions, before rolling, etc… said he knew he was going to die, right there. Well, he didn't. He made it. He was a long time though doing rehab (it really tore up a lot of muscle tissue) and never got enough painfree/motion in his left arm to ride motorcycles or snosleds again. He did however go back to work again in the woods. Unreal.

He blamed the whole thing on being tired first thing in the morning and just not paying attention.