Every once in a while on a job I'll have a close call that just for the grace of god doesn't take off a digit or blind me. [not often, mind you, but probably a 1/2 dozen times in the last 50 years.]
This poor bastard wasn't that lucky-
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A friend came by in a few days so he 'only' lost an arm- but whatever he did could have turned fatal.
I can't believe all the ignorant putzes who haven't lived long enough [or done enough] to know that shit happens & want to jump all over this guy while he's down.
The article gave no clue as to HOW his arm got that stuck. THAT seems really really odd.
The amputation suggests the arm was trapped with such force that circulation was cut off, with gangrene. I used to work on boilers, and of course fiddle with my own furnace, and I can't visualize how something like that could happen, other than perhaps a big cast iron boiler falling over and pinning someone -- which apparently didn't happen here.
Be careful, it happens, but that's what makes you lazy or sloppy or arrogant until one day, kaboom, you pay for it.
I used to take an afternoon commuter rail, but between two relatively residential and suburban stops. I didn't buy a ticket because the train was usually so crowded, they didn't ask for it. Until one day, I had a real excuse. Cops had cornered two racoons in trash pails and we couldn't buy tickets. Murphy's Law being what it is, that was when one long haired, pony tailed chap collecting tickets didn't buy my story and made me pay the on-train-purchase surcharge. I fugured I had already gotten it back from all the times I hadn't paid.
I have had many many close calls in my life but I don't call it blind luck. I pay attention to what could happen and react before it happens. Maybe it IS luck, I don't know. Been around farms, factory machinery and high voltage all my life.
After 9/11 I started calling friends I knew who worked at WTC. THe twenty prior years I spent three hours a week going through WTC, having worked nearby in one way or another. Many had moved to other jobs. On chap moved within the same firm the day before. One friend's borther in law walked out fifteen minutes before the planes hit. One friend's firm had leased temp space during renovations, which fortunately ended early. But when I saw the victim list, I saw a name I hadn't expected, the husband of the lady who took my folks to the hospital when I was born. Instead of my going to thirty funerals, my entire family went to one. In the end those below the planes mostly survived, and those above didn't. It was the most successful massive rescue op in USA history. How do you explain that luck to those who didn't make it. One fireman who has lived three blocks from ma all but three years of my life took a well deserved (but ultimately very short) day off that day, when most of his colleagues died. Explain that? It doesn't say MY will be done. It says THY will be done. I was in my thirties before those words sunk in.
As much of a klutz as I am, it is only blind luck that I still have all my extremities and both eyes. My old man was a hardass on safety precautions, so I guess some of it stuck. And with age comes wisdom- so as my senses and physical abilities start their downhill slide, I take even more time planning every move before I make it, and I'm a lot quicker to knock off when I am tired or pissed off. (Both of those lead to more oopsies and injuries.) Anything taller than one story, I hire it out now. I don't heal up near as quick as I did in my younger years, and I hate pain, so I go out of my way to avoid it.
When I used to fly small aircraft I had several close calls due to high winds, hot weather and storms. One time a down draft slammed us back down onto the runway after we had lifted off and when we made it off the second time we cleared the tall saguaro cactus at the end of the runway by mere inches/feet. There were times we didn't see power lines till after we landed, hot weather almost kept us from clearing trees, high winds prevented us from landing at any airports for 100 mile radius and when we did land we couldn't steer the plane on the ground the wind was so high, one time the flaps failed to retract on takeoff (hot weather).
Oh yes, Part time job in college I worked at a lumber yard, 13 inch Delta radial saw, I must have cut 15 miles of all kinds of wood on that saw. I was careful and respected the thing, one kid wasn't so lucky and we nailed what was left of his glove above the saw as a safety reminder. Closest I came to losing a finger was with a chain saw, cut my left ring finger to the bone but didn't touch the other fingers? And once I got my fingers in the cable while adjusting a double wide garage door, like the furnace guy I was alone and the door was winning the contest, I finally had to jerk my hand out and Ouch! damn that hurt, lost some skin but the fingers stay attached. Had to go to an ophthalmologist once to get a metal shaving removed. That's when I learned MD's don't do "extractions" and optometrist don't do "extractions" I had to find an ophthalmologist covered by my insurance to do that little job. I think the safety posters about glass eyes and showing fingers that had been pulled off in the high school shop class have a lot to do with me still having all my fingers and both eyes.
I worked part of my nursing career as an occupational nurse. Each employer had one department I never wanted to hear from :o) If a supervisor brought in a guy who couldn't talk, I knew it was a polisher...polishing heavy stainless steel parts on big wheel, wheel grabs the part and returns it at 90 mph below the belt :o)
One of my regulars, whom I usually had to treat for embedded steel slivers, came with his supv. one day. He had forgotten to remove an Allen wrench from the lathe before turning it on...it spun, hung up briefly, and shot the Allen wrench at his eyes. Broke one or both lenses, got glass in his eyes. I could see a tiny amount of blood coming out of one eye, so shipped him out in a hurry. He had a tiny little scratch inside his lower lid, NO damage to either eye.
One of my informal studies regarded employees whose cologne was heavier after lunch...they drank on the job, covered up with cologne. Not great for machinists, but at least when they got hurt it, perhaps, didn't hurt as much :o)
Hey, Lets face it. If we are a male over sixteen, have ever DONE anything, and are still ALIVE, we've by definition" gotten away with doing something stupid"
Ouch. I was talking with a public works supervisor the other day as we ran into each other at a parts counter. I was purchasing a wire brush, which gave him a knee-jerk to bring up safety glasses.
I mentioned that I not only use glasses, but use an additional full-face shield when I am using a wire wheel in the grinder, bringing up the issue of long-term accumulation of metal in eyes being a bad thing when you need an MRI later in life.
He told me a story about one of his workers a few years ago, who only wore the glasses. It turned out one of the wires came loose (as they are prone to doing), and got around the glasses and into his eye. He immediately contacted the supervisor, who got him a ride to the hospital forthwith.
The problem was that the doctor found nothing in his eye, and sent him home.
After two days,, the fellow was experiencing a severe headache, and his head and eye were experiencing severe inflammation. Upon giving him an X-ray, it was determined that the wire actually went through his eye (which is why the original doctor couldn't see it) and embedded itself alongside the optic nerve, penetrating the outer membrane of his brain.
He was airlifted to OHSU up in Portland, and while they were able to save his life (and his brain), he permanently lost his sight in the eye that the wire went through.
I'm usually pretty religious about safety gear, but that made me a fanatic.
About 20 years ago I was called for jury duty. During jury selection one of the candidates (ended up being the foreman) was asked about her children (all males 21, 29, 31, 33ish at the time), and whether they'd ever been to the emergency room. Her: no. Me (to self): liar.
I was the last man standing and went home with a get out of jail free card good for two years without having to sit through a trial.
If I used power tools, I'd probably have to wear a helmet, bullet proof vest, and face shield to feel safe :o) There are memorable stories in the news pretty regularly...a guy who was up in a tree, trimming with chain saw and cut the back of his calf with the saw. Experienced, in the biz 20 years or more. His helpers on the ground wanted him to get down, but he would not. They called for help but he bled to death up in the tree before help arrived...
Or the guy mowing grass on a bank along the water, tractor tipped and pinned him under water...
Guy using grinder, wheel broke and a chunk severed a vein or artery in his neck and he bled to death...
I was driving downtown one day on a street where sewer installation was going on. The sewer excavation was in the curb lane, front-loader in the lane next to it, I in the third lane going opposite way. Traffic was barely moving, so I watched the young guy digging...the ditch was to his side and each time he took a scoop of dirt, the rig tipped toward the ditch so that the tread on other side lifted off the ground. I almost had a heart attack...stopped as soon as I could and grabbed the first person with a hard hat and told him my concern. His reply was really weird..."Do you think it looks dangerous?" I thought that was nuts, so went back to the car and drove to the construction trailer to find a boss. The first guy I spoke to was already there, in the boss' office. The boss was really terse and told me the situation was taken care of.
I accidently ran a tiller into my main service electric cable, one of those I almost died. It was a borroweed tiller, the rubber handle grips kept falling off. neighbor put them back on moments before shower of sparks.
neighbor had borrowed tiller from a friend of his and he was afraid I would lose the handle grips
I beheaded an extension cord with my hedge trimmer...plastic body. Had me rubber gloves on when I hit the light switch with my utility knife while trimming wallpaper :o)
Many years ago, I was building a deck off the back sliding door on an older house. When planning the size and location, I initially considering wrapping the deck around the side of the house with a small extention that would tie out with the sidewalk from the drive to the side garage door. The electric & phone entered the house near that door, so I decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to dig posts in that area and mentally eliminated that portion of the deck in my mind.
Weeks later, I rented a gas post hole drill and started whacking out the holes for the deck posts. Totally forgetting why I wasn't going to build the deck around the side of the house, I cleverly drilled a few more holes on the side of the house until I got to the very last one. For some reason, the auger would only go about 24" down and not to the 36" frost line. I figured I had hit a rock and leaned as hard as I could, but the drill just wouldn't go any farther.
Pulled the auger out of the hole, cleared the dirt at the bottom and what do I discover? The electric service cable from the transformer at the street to the house. If that line hadn't been armoured, I would be singing with the angels.
Sat down on the grass and repeated a thank you prayer for about 30 minutes straight. To this day I can't believe I survived.
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