Human Stupidity strikes again

Rather than putting a severed part directly on ice, you'd do much better to stick it in a baggy and float it in a bucket of ice water. Ice can cause further tissue damage that ice water won't. In the best of all worlds, I'd pour some normal saline in the bag, but I don't keep any around the house.

Would that be significantly different from the saline solutions sold to contact lens wearers?

If this was the incident that happend in Northern Michigan last week, I think he was using a compound miter saw to cut some trim and was reaching across the saw to hold the stock. It was his left hand that was severed. His wife was the one who brought the hand with them to the hospital. I agree that it seems like it would be hard to cut off your whole hand. The article said that he did not feel any pain after it was cut off! Reading about this sort of thing makes me VERY careful when working around blades. Btw, young carpenter, I live in T.C., where are you from?

Jswee Curmudgeon in Training

And probably facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills

John

John Crea notes:

Or his insurance company is. Think what that does to YOUR medical insurance premiums.

Charlie Self "Health food makes me sick." Calvin Trillin

Would the contents of a fresh, sealed eye wash bottle work? I have those, and if they would work, it would be nice to know. Just in case.

Barry

I'm not sure what they sell for contact users. FWIW, normal saline is 0.9%. It's called "normal" because it's the same concentration of salt normally found in blood.

Since my last comment, I did a google search on "saline for eye wash". I immediately got a hit that indicates it should work just fine. Apparently, eye wash IS 0.9% saline solution, ie, "normal" or "isotonic".

Save up those fingers and toes! You're ready!

No, but you'd need a lot of the little bottles. A couple of Tablespoons of table salt in a quart of water will give you a close enough mix. As I remember. it's been about 15 years. Does that sound about right Mortimer? Dave in Fairfax

It takes only a brief moment of inattention (or stupidity) to cause an accident that changes lives.

If so, his wife deserves a lot of credit. It is very difficult to think clearly at a time like that.

Quite believable. The pain may come later after the shock and disbelieve wear off. I lost the end of my index finger about three years ago. I closed a car door on it. The end of my finger was crushed and all the flesh pulled off. It did not hurt. In fact, I did not realize that I had seriously injured myself until I saw the bone sticking out.

Where is that? I am a troll from the L.P. Myself.

John Crea responds:

Huh? How is tax money involved?

Charlie Self "Health food makes me sick." Calvin Trillin

I think this qualifies as more than a "brief moment" of stupidity or anything else. I mean, come on. The guy first crosses his arm under the blade and leaves it there as he lowers the blade. He then brings the blade down and through his wrist. Maybe 7-1/2" diameter wrist, with bones.

That's a complete cut-out of the brain on at least a temporary basis, with or without pain.

Charlie Self "Health food makes me sick." Calvin Trillin

Was this Andre the Giant? My wrist is probably only 7-1/2" in circumference!

alexy responds:

Sorry about that. Doesn't exactly alter the point, does it?

Charlie Self "Health food makes me sick." Calvin Trillin

CW responds:

I think I wrote that about 4 a.m., after being up a whole 10 minutes. Sorry.

Charlie Self "Health food makes me sick." Calvin Trillin

No, and I should have included a smiley to acknowledge that! I accept a slap on my [skinny] wrist.

My place of employment is considered the "county" hospital. As such, we turn no one away, whether they have insurance or not. The county picks up the bills for those without insurance. Guess who picks up the county's bills?