OT: Battle Scars

[hillbilly]

July 4th, a year ago, working by myself, everyone else (including my wife) was on vacation or sitting at home cooking BBQ.
I was cutting grooves in a wood beam to make a wireway (log cabin), and I had just sharpened my wood chisel...like a razor.
The chisel hit a pine knot as I was shaving a groove, so I drew back and hit it really hard to try to drive it thru the knot.
I was holding the log with the other hand, the chisel flew out and sliced a 1 1/2" long gash in my left palm.
I looked the cut......can I patch this myself?.....super glue maybe?......
No too deep....can see strange parts not normally seen on most cuts......time for stitches.

It's not easy to find someone to sew you up on a holiday, except for the emergency room, and I'd stitch it myself before going there.
Finally found (after 2 hours) a walk in clinic.

The doctor laid my hand palm up on the table and poured Betadine solution in the cut.......EEEEOwwwwEEEE!!!!!!.......d### that hurts!.....Bad!!!!

He then said...."here comes the painful part".....numbing the hand with Novocaine.
I told him that we'd already had the painful part and anything else was gonna be easy.
I was right, the needle hurt, but nothing like the antiseptic.
It seems that a clean cut hurts worse than jagged edge when the antiseptic is poured on.

Anyway, I cut the fingers out of a leather glove and wore it to work the next day.
I'm not that tough, but the show must go on, cause the bills sure do.

steve

 

[kkwong]

George- sorry to hear about your accident and I hope you heal up fast. My story is from a few years ago: I was on a residential service call with a new helper and we were installing a spa. I made the first mistake that day by telling him to shut off the power to the spa we were replacing the disco and whip on. I thought it was off cause he told me so, and after fishing my metal tape (mistake 2) in to the panel ended up about 6' away on my back.

Mistake 3 was the best: rerunning the feed to the spa panel my helper moved the ladder while I was in the attic. Not knowing this and not checking, I fell roughly thirteen feet severly spraining my ankle. My boss thought this was an absolute gas and after he had a good laugh at my expense sent me to the ER after I got back to the shop.

Hope that helps

 

[earshavewalls]

I had one experience once where I was installing new speakers in a car dealership service department. I had to use a 20' extension ladder to reach the height for the speaker installation. The area I was in was the transmission section of the service bays and the floor had a slight film of oil on it. So, I had one of the mechanic's helpers stand at the base of the ladder while I was on it. Problem was that one of the service technicians yelled over to the helper securing the base of the ladder that he had a phone call. Well, I guess this guy didn't get many phone calls because he was in such a hurry to get to the phone that he forgot WHY he was standing at the base of my ladder.
Well, it took about 5 seconds after he walked away and the ladder started it's slide. The ladder slid right down the wall, with me hanging on for life. Just below the ladder was a work table of heavy gage steel with side winds to hold parts on the table. Luckily, the side wings were rounded and not left with the pointy corner, plus I was wearing a thick sweatshirt, because that wing went right under my right arm and sliced up into my arm pit.
After going to the hospital and getting about 8 stitches, I came back and finished the job (with my own helper holding the ladder). The owner of the dealership paid my hospital bill and also paid me 3 times the amount of my bill for the installation. I never filed a claim for it, and am still friends with the owner of the dealership, but MAN was that one scary!

 

[andinator]

Just got home from the hospital... The guy I work with and I were in the CEO of a large multinational corps office today. He was replacing the ballast in a can when the millwork WHICH WASN'T ATTACHED!!! fell slicing two of his fingers, severing the nerve in one. He's scheduled for surgery monday and now I gotta figure out how to get his pickup to Dallas GA on Sat

 

[e57]

Here's another fun one...

Went on a service call 'bout 12 years ago, and had to check the service side splices in a can about 20' off the ground. I opened the can and there was a piece of wood holding the splices in. I pulled that out checked what I wanted to, and wrestled the 250MCM taps back into the box, and started to close it without that board that held them in. One of the kearneys popped back out while I was closing the can, and the top of the split bolt pushed throught the tape causing a dead short on the cover I was holding. IT WENT OFF LIKE A GRENADE! It blew a 2" hole in the cover which sprayed my face and neck, then I lost balance on the ladder and slipped down a few rungs. Got one leg hung up in the ladder and then slide sideways down the side of the building and landed on my side. Then I jumped back up to see if I was on fire from the blast, which was hard to do looking past the big white spot in my lower vision. Then checked if I got hurt from the fall - nothing, just a few burn holes in my shirt, and a few minor burns on my neck and cheek, and some extremely rattled nerves.

Then I chained the ladder to the building, and went home... The next day I had to get a new cover made, then went back out there to check and retape the splice, put that damned board back in and close the can. IT TOOK ME OVER TWO HOURS TO GET THE NERVE BACK UP TO EVEN CLIMB THE LADDER! That was nearly my last day as an electrician...