the suck that was my day

Antilus · Post by **Antilus** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:04 pm

how to begin..

background i guess. i work at a machine shop, it contains machines that widdle and do crazy stuff(s) to metal. mainly aerospace type stuff. i work down at the bottom of the food chain. i cut the raw metal bars into varied lengths and get them all ready for the machines to have there way with them.

today at work i was having difficulty with a particular bit of material i had to cut, involving some alluminium tubes. i asked a co-worker who has alot more experience than me to lead me in the right direction.

he changes this, alters that, adjusts that thing over there. till finally we are ready to see how its gonna turn out..

we normally use coolant on the blades we use for cutting to .. well to keep them cool, but we did not on this.. for reasons that are rather useless to get into .. anyway instead of coolant he gets this wax type stuff that we sometimes use on other types of saws.. basically picture a paper towel tube filled up with some vaseline looking stuff... a bit thicker though.

so we turn mr saw on, to check speed n all that.. and so he can apply the wax stuff to the blade. he then tells me to go over and turn the speed up on the blade... so i go over to the side of the saw and start turning the annoying wheel endlessly clockwise.

by this time dude is putting that wax stuff on.. then (this is speculated, since no one actually saw what happened) somehow the tube of wax got stuck in saw blade, jerking it around in another direction and thusly cutting off the guys thumb.. im not sure which thumb.. im not sure how much of it was cut off. but none the less dude made a mad dash for the bathroom.

at first i thought he just mildly cut himself, he said "medic" before he disappeared into the bathroom, but in a not at all serious way.. i could have sworn he was 1/2 laughing too, this could have been from shock though i suppose. a moment or 3 later he comes out and seriously said "i need a medic!!"

so yea, ambulance comes, takes him away.. me and maintenence guy clean the saw off, and the trail of blood leading to the bathroom. for some odd reason i was hoping the bathroom would be horrifically drenched in blood, i really dont know why, i guess for shock value. but alas there was just a bit here and a bit there.

anyway the point of sharing this information is that now.. i feel like its my fault this happened, had i not asked him for help, someone else.. maybe they would have had other ideas.. maybe it wouldnt have happened. i know it was an accident and more his fault than anyone elses, but i really cant help but feeling like im to blame.

if the situation was reversed.. and i was the one probably still in the hospital right now, would i be wondering the same thing.. was it my fault? was it the dudes fault who asked me for help. if he didnt ask me for help, i wouldnt be sitting here right now. etc.

i guess i'll find out in a few days if they saved the thumb.. no one even a clear answer on if it was completely severed.. or just mostly.

:eyecrazy:

excuse any typos and other grammar like errors, .. in a rather odd mood ><

Ciladan · Post by **Ciladan** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:09 pm

Nah it was just an accident, you can't blame yourself, who would have seen it coming?

Narrock · Post by **Narrock** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:26 pm

Yeah, it was a total accident. Don't blame yourself though. There was ultimately something he didn't do precaution-wise to prevent such an occurrence.

Phlegm · Post by **Phlegm** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:36 pm

save the thumb.... go to wendy's......

10sun · Post by **10sun** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:49 pm

Mills can be very dangerous, accidents happen all the time. People get too comfortable doing certain things while cutting corners and end up cutting themselves.

Can't beat the time that a guy in the shop I used to work at had a piece of metal go right through his hand when the lathe hiccuped.

...better than that, I walked into my parent's house a year or two back and there was this red stuff all over the place and it looked like ketchup and I was like alright, my little shithead brothers must have gotten in a food fight or something. I go lay down on the couch in the living room and start watching TV because I was bored. Several hours later, they get back from the hospital and start yelling at me because there is blood all over the kitchen from where my mom had cut the tips of two of her fingers off because she was cleaning a blender and was too stupid to unplug it.

I just started laughing... who in their right mind wouldn't unplug a blender if they were to clean it? Its akin to sticking one's hand down a garbage disposal...

Darcler · Post by **Darcler** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:48 am

I use a fork to feel around for other utensils in the garbage disposal.

Have you seen that commercial where the woman is getting something out of her sink and "Electronics" or whatever comes over and turns the blender on next to her, scaring the woman half to death? Friend did that to me while I was getting fallen but not forgotten forks and spoons out of the drain. I never knew I could scream *quite* like that.

Gargamellow · Post by **Gargamellow** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:59 am

shit happens

Post by **Ganzo** » Tue May 03, 2005 7:02 am

When i was in high school in russia, they sent us for a week to work in a factory to see how real world works. We had to do all shit work, get up at 5am to be there by 6 ect. Anyway there was a big ass robotic machine that did bunch of complicated operation to a metal to make parts from it. Machine had a circuit breaker that was size of small closet with door on it. One dumb ass from my class was sleepy and he climbed into that box and fell asleep. Anyway when guy showed for work at 8am and turned on machine he fried the guy from my class. Worse part was the worker got 10 years in jail for murder cause he didn't check the circuit breaker before turning machine on.

Adivina · Post by **Adivina** » Tue May 03, 2005 7:10 am

at first i thought he just mildly cut himself, he said "medic" before he disappeared into the bathroom, but in a not at all serious way.. i could have sworn he was 1/2 laughing too, this could have been from shock though i suppose. a moment or 3 later he comes out and seriously said "i need a medic!!"

Not your fault at all, just a freak work accident. It happens when you work with dangerous machinery. Btw, people often laugh when they are in extreme pain, shock reaction I guess. All the times I have seriously hurt myself, I have cracked up laughing in order to not cry in front of the people around me.

Eziekial · Post by **Eziekial** » Tue May 03, 2005 7:20 am

This is what I do everyday; deal with accidents and injuries on our vessels. You wouldn't believe the things grown men do (fail to do) to save a few seconds here and there and jeapordize their lives in the process. If I had to conduct an investigation on this incident (Root Cause Analysis) I would sit down with you and Mr. Wally Fingers and ask questions like:
1) Where you checked out/Certified/Trained to use this particular piece of equipment? Was Mr. No Thumb? If not, why not and why were you using this equipment?
2) Was all the guards/safety rails/emergency stops in place and operational?
3) Is there a written set of instructions on using this equipment? Did you read/follow those instructions? If not, why not? Is it SOP to wax/grease running machinery?
4) Did you know what he was doing before he did it (JSA or Toolbench Talk)? Did you both discuss the process and think of the dangers involved and try to mitigate them? Do you have instructions to do so?

Anyway, I would ask you a lot more questions but rather than bore everyone, the point of all this is to find the "root" of the problem and 98 out of 100 times, it boils down to.....

BAD MANAGEMENT

I know, that's not a very sexy answer. But in reality, the problem is either a lack of safety policy/ procedure (management issue) or a lack of enforcement of those policies/procedures (management issue) so it's not your fault. If you want to do something to ease your conscience, conduct your own investigation and come up with solutions to keep this from ever happening again and dedicate that policy to Mr. No Thumb/Wally Fingers. If you need any help, let me know.

Jennay · Post by **Jennay** » Tue May 03, 2005 8:37 am

I use a fork to feel around for other utensils in the garbage disposal.

Have you seen that commercial where the woman is getting something out of her sink and "Electronics" or whatever comes over and turns the blender on next to her, scaring the woman half to death? Friend did that to me while I was getting fallen but not forgotten forks and spoons out of the drain. I never knew I could scream *quite* like that.

ROFL, Darcler you made my day.

brinstar · Post by **brinstar** » Tue May 03, 2005 5:03 pm

his new nickname should be "the hitchhiker"

Diekan · Post by **Diekan** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:47 pm

To bad it wasn't the whole hand, or Congress might have voted to keep it alive.

*stolen from Bill Maher*

Antilus · Post by **Antilus** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:51 pm

apparently they were able to re-attach the finger.. im sure he will be out for a few weeks? and when back he might be on disability pay for a while doing easy stuff.

i felt like a celebrity today, everyone and there mother came up to me and was like "woah, wow, dude, woah you saw that guy cut his finger off?"

Captain Insano · Post by **Captain Insano** » Tue May 03, 2005 8:11 pm

hahah... so the more experienced guy cut his finger off? laffo... i wouldn't take anymore advice from that clownball.