Well, the day STARTED good...

I was thinking about this from a 'moving forward' perspective Chris. I'm wondering if there is a way for you to cut the banding without being so close, like getting something under the edge and cutting it with long handled bolt cutters.

It makes me nervous to have a coiled steel product with edges that close to you, even with gloves. I know of a guy who was killed by a piece of metal that was under 1 pound per square inch of pressure.

I was thinking about this from a 'moving forward' perspective Chris.  I'm wondering if there is a way for you to cut the banding without being so close, like getting something under the edge and cutting it with long handled bolt cutters.

It makes me nervous to have a coiled steel product with edges that close to you, even with gloves.  I know of a guy who was killed by a piece of metal that was under 1 pound per square inch of pressure.

I hear you. It always makes me nervous. We always do everything we can to be as safe as humanly possible, but...stuff happens. In this business, a LOT of stuff happens. It's a heavy, dirty, dangerous field to work in, even for the office manager! It's almost impossible to accurately predict exactly how that spring-wound sheet metal is going to react when you release pressure. We make good guesses, and hope for the best.

Luckily, injuries like this are few and far between. Most of the time it's minor burns and superficial abrasions. In my 4 years with this company, this is the first time any of us has had to get stitched up from a work injury. We do surprisingly well for such a high-risk construction field...

I would have liked pictures - sorry for your pain BadDad that memory in the steel is a bitch. I can remember a number of years ago cutting some steel mesh for a concrete slab with side cutters and the darn mat rolled up when I cut the last wire and slashed my palm open about 2" slice. Ouch. Glad you missed any tendons and nerves. Heal fast.

I would have liked pictures - sorry for your pain BadDad that memory in the steel is a bitch. I can remember a number of years ago cutting some steel mesh for a concrete slab with side cutters and the darn mat rolled up when I cut the last wire and slashed my palm open about 2" slice. Ouch. Glad you missed any tendons and nerves. Heal fast.

I'll post pictures in a day or so when I remove the dressings to change them...just for you!

My daughter asked for pictures too. She doesn't believe I actually went for stitches. She has seen me super glue more cuts than I could even begin to count, so she is still skeptical that I even saw a doctor. She actually accused me of doing the stitches myself, because she knows I have a couple suture kits in the bathroom...I won't see her until tomorrow so...she'll believe me when she sees it...


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Alright, so I changed the dressing when I got home from work tonight. Fair warning, the following picture is not pretty. You see the 3 stitches right above the knuckle, and the cut actually continues to the left side of the finger, but a little glue did the trick over there. It's a pretty grisly, ragged mess...
















I'm putting in lots of empty space so hopefully people will have the option to NOT see the following photo, should they choose...

Nice, neat job. You'll hardly have a scar

That's not much more than a paper cut. C'mon man !!! Thought it was going to be sump'in gory sheez... But seriously... you were lucky (as you already know) and there's a lesson in everything. Probably a good lesson, because you'll heal just fine. Next time, better safe than sorry. Wear your gloves... You don't need 'super' gloves - I'd guess, you already had on hand the proper safety gloves. And you don't need anyone like me to remind you.

Couldn't help but comment. I worked in metal stamping for a lot of years. (brings back memories that I don't need)

WARNING GRAPHIC!!!

So, while we're on the subject I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the injury that one of my son's classmates sustained at university last year.  They were at the student pub having a couple of post final exam pops and then were leaving.  The injured fellow opened the exit door with a straight arm that unfortunately contacted the wire reinforced glass panel in the door which broke and his arm went through.  WARNING very graphic and very gruesome pictures of before and after suturing.  The guy suffered severe nerve and tendon damage, yes that is severed tendon sticking up in the first picture.  You're only seeing a fraction of the stitches that were put into this guys arm, most are internal.  He has more or less full functional use of his arm and hand with some permanent numbness/loss of feeling from the nerve damage.  Lesson learned - use the door handle to open doors whenever possible.

I'm posting these not to be totally gruesome but rather to warn people to be careful - these sorts of injuries are not uncommon with doors of this kind and the building code no longer permits these doors, however, there is no requirement to remove existing doors which are in public buildings all over the place.  

Mods, if you think these are too graphic then by all means remove them.

DANG!! If he has full use with those severed tendons, then he is a very lucky individual. I'm shocked none of the skin is missing. Looks like a very clean suture job. Props to the ER Doc!

Oh Wow !!! Now that's an injury. Amazing how fragile our (oftentimes taken for granted) bodies really are.