rclooney

looking at the costs of medical help in the us, thank god im in the uk. happy healing to all you accidentees out there.

DavidAgar

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I just gave myself an early Christmas present with an xacto knife. Yesterday was not a good day for me at all. I had just finished glueing on my diheadral brace to one half of the wing. I used epoxy to do this so while the glue was drying it was breakfast time. I went back into the garage about an hour later and discovered I had glued it on upside down. No problem, get the torch out and gently cut it loose from the spar. I had about half of the glue joint loose and boom. Being stupid I was pulling the knife towards my left hand and in an instance I had cut my left hand open and hit a vien in the process. I had blood squirting straight up and could not get the bleeding to slow down. My son call 911 and the fire department was at my house in a matter of moments and they were successful at getting the bleeding under control and off to the hospital I went. Well I now have a left hand with 4 stiches on the inside and 11 stiches on the outside and a huge bandage applied that allows me to do not much at all. I have to see the orthopedic surgeon on Monday as they belive I have cut some of the nerves that will need to be reattached, but in general I am considering myself lucky for being so stupid. My point is guys and gals, think about what you are doing in the work shop. Don't let the frustration of making a mistake take control of common sense. I am a member of my companies safety committee and know better, yet I allowed my self to become stupid. Now I get to pay the price. I am indeed lucky to have a great medical plan and my out of pocket expense's for this mistake will be about $50.00, however I am giving up at least a month's worth of garage time with my son and I cannot put a dollar ammount on that. Please be safe in your shop, it is not worth it when you make a mistake. Thanks Dave

CafeenMan

David -

When I got my injury I was really irritated with myself, but it didn't take me long to become very thankful it wasn't worse. I haven't lost any vital parts and I will heal. It could have been much worse.

I'm sorry about your accident. Sounds like it was a lot worse than mine. I didn't have any spurting blood - just a nice healthy flow. I have managed to build in spite of it, but it hasn't been easy. It's healing nicely and I can almost type again. Hopefully you won't be out of commission for as long as you think.

We really need to be careful in our shops. I have sliced off finger tips many times - particularly when stripping sticks or cutting covering. The knife can very easily ride up on the the straight edge and through a finger before you know it. It takes me a few times of doing anything to get smart.

Now I cut slowly - no more sailing the knife down the sheet - too risky. I don't take my eyes off the knife and I'm just a lot more careful.

Anyway, I hope we all have a happy holiday with our families and maybe with a little care this next year will be safer for all of us.

Best regards,

Paul

Cheech

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This happened while I was just lightly sanding some balsa.

Flyboy Dave

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Cheech....

....never sand balsa with a chain saw....[X(]

CafeenMan

Well... that was gross..

causeitflies

Cheech, you need to use a finer grit for light sanding.

runover1

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What in the world were you sanding with? How did that happen? Man, you really need to work on the bench instead of on the ground!

Cheech

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Yeah, it was/is gross. But the subject line already said "disturbing image". CafeenMan's finger looks terrible.

FLYBOY

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Man cheech, your supposed to be sanding the plane, not your leg. Stop when it starts hurting, don't keep going. Hope that heals fast. Looks like it smarts.

rustyrivet

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Oh gosh what's next? A picture of someone holding 1/4" wire rod between his legs while he tries to temper it with a blow torch??? Let me get outta here before that photo gets posted.

rajul

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Cafeenman, sorry about your injury. I've recovered from an APC prop cut when my Saito 100 backfired on me a month ago. Thinking back it was my electric starter that saved me from a more serious injury, as the loose prop hit it first, lost some momentum before hitting the base of my thumb and forearm. The doc gave me an anti-tetanus jab. Looking at your injury, you should get a doc to look at it. Get well soon and Merry X'mas to you and all !

CafeenMan

My accident occured on Dec 14 I believe. So this is about one and a half weeks later:

No infection - no gangrene - no loss of entire finger. Just a nicely healing wound.

CafeenMan

I didn't mean that it wasn't appropriate for this thread, but it was gross. So are you going to tell us what happened or what? Hope you're doing well now.

rajul

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Cafeenman, your finger looks incredibly better ! Glad to see its healing well. I guess your healing power is pretty good. Take care............Mike

Cheech

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[link=http://www.devino.org/mark/colorado/DevinoLeg.jpg]cheech's nasty leg picture [/link]

The gross picture came from an accident I had out in Colorado. I screwed it up on an "Alpine Slide" ride in Winter Park. After banging around on the slide my calf/shin swelled up like a balloon and hurt like all get out. It had a small fracture and there was a bunch of "soft tissue damage". At the ski place I was instructed to come back for casting the leg because of the outrageous swelling. I was given a shot of morphine and a set of crutches and turned loose. Even with textebook medical care the injury on my leg became quite infected. It looked terrible. After a few doctor visits back at home and two weeks of anti-biotics it was decided to look at a surgical solution for this "raging infection". The surgery involved taking a pretty good size hunk of hide out of my leg between my knee and my ankle.

It was not a balsa sanding accident. It ended up being a six day hospital stay and about another month of IV antibiotics. All is well now.

rajul

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Did you administer the IV antibiotics yourself at home ? It's kinda tricky to reset the branulae.

runover1

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Yeah Man! Them alpine slides are very dangerous, but fun. I can't understand how in our legalistic society, how they are able to keep running them. There was once three of them around here, now your'e lucky to find the one still open. I used to live in Florida and I went to see my grandparents here in PA one summer while I was a kid. They put me in a summer program that had lots of activities and the Alpine slide was one of them. It was outrageously fun and had been my first trip to a ski mountain, so the height freaked me out at first. Anyway, I hope you recovered well.

Cheech

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I did. Some stuff on 6hr increments, some on 8. Some was pumped in, others were dripped in a bag. Seemed like I was ALWAYS hooked up. The hospital stuck a tube up my vein for easy access.

rajul

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Cheech, I asked because I have some experience administering vancomycin intravenously for my dad at home. There is a risk of infection in administering IV in a non-sterile environment. Anyway, good to know you're out of danger

Cheech

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The ski resorts in Colorado make loads and loads of money. They are at least somewhat protected by the law. Basically, they seem to take the stand that skiing and sliding is considered inherently dangerous and injured riders are faced with a "you know what you're getting yourself into" attitude.

runover1

My Feedback: (10)

That's cool! In the northeast, everything fun seems to come under scrutiny.

rcu guest-delete

Hope you learned from this accident, and hope you get well soon !!!!
Once saw a .61 w/Master Airscrew chop a dude`s middle finger off the hand, we actually had to look for the "thing" around the field, which we found, but could not get "reglued" back. Be carefull with fast rotating things !!!!

jessiej

[I have an appt tomorrow for a follow up on my separated shoulder. I'll ask the doc to look at it, but he's an orthopedic surgeon]

Regardless of specialty all MDs start out with the same training. One of my closest friends is an ophthamologist. Aside from treating my eyes he has treated me and my family for a wide variety of injuries and ailments, including a chain sawed knee, a finger my son caught in a drill press when he didn't use the vice and most recently my thumb which I sliced neatly down the centerline of the nail till I hit bone.(band saw) He normally does not charge me, but said that if we kept this up he was going to be forced to require reimbursement for sewing supplies.

rajul

My Feedback: (58)

Jessiej, thanks for sparing us the agony of seeing any of your pics ![X(]