# Cut off my thumb - caution very graphic



## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

this is what happens when you are not fully engaged in a dangerous task.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

Holy cow


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

*more*

One of these is two months after and the better looking one is my one year anniversary. Starting to recover nicely. BTW don't do this.


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## stuiec (Sep 25, 2010)

Huh. Looks "custom".


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

lol ya got that right


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Good to see they were able to save your thumb.. :thumbsup:

How did it happen??


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

ya they just sewed it on and sent me on my way
I was checking rotation on a mud pump traction motor in front of my boss and he told me to spin the uncoupled shaft of the motor as u can see in the picture of the shaft. so i did and then I looked at the meter to see what it was reading and bam.


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

*that's the one*

this is the pump that got me


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

lesson learned


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Were you wearing gloves at the time??


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

I was yeah. probably the only thing that kept it attached


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

chromonology said:


> I was yeah. probably the only thing that kept it attached


Don't bump that into anything...


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

doesn't hurt anymore, it's been a year. still don't have feeling on one side of it though


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

That hurts to just look at Chromo.....~CS~


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

lol sorry steve


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## JohnR (Apr 12, 2010)

Hey, thanks for posting it, sometimes we need a wakeup call. Nasty yes. Bet that felt good, once it stopped hurting.


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

I hope they sent you home with some _happy pills _Chromo....~CS~


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

It stops hurting when the pain goes away. Lol, no but it really was a wakeup call for the whole crew at our site. We had always been checking rotation like that without the guard on since we started there, and because of me the VP of our entire company(huge company) flew down and met with me and we came up with new procedures for not only that but many other dangerous tasks. I've learned a ton about safety in the last year, and I pretty much owe it to that incident.


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

No actually they gave me a few t3's and morphine in the hospital, and then made me go take a piss test right after. But because of all the morphine I had in my system I failed the drug test, and they had to send the results into the lab for further analysis. I got a call a few days later from a lab tech, and she asked me where I got the morphine. I said the hospital... and she said I had to have gotten it from the street because she's never seen a person on so much morphine at once! lol then I told her I chopped my thumb off and she was like, "Oh.... ok your good to go"


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## hardworkingstiff (Jan 22, 2007)

chromonology said:


> no actually they gave me a few t3's and morphine in the hospital, and then made me go take a piss test right after. But because of all the morphine i had in my system i failed the drug test, and they had to send the results into the lab for further analysis. I got a call a few days later from a lab tech, and she asked me where i got the morphine. I said the hospital... And she said i had to have gotten it from the street because she's never seen a person on so much morphine at once! Lol then i told her i chopped my thumb off and she was like, "oh.... Ok your good to go"


idiots !!!


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## hardworkingstiff (Jan 22, 2007)

chromonology said:


> It stops hurting when the pain goes away. Lol, no but it really was a wakeup call for the whole crew at our site. We had always been checking rotation like that without the guard on since we started there, and because of me the VP of our entire company(huge company) flew down and met with me and we came up with new procedures for not only that but many other dangerous tasks. I've learned a ton about safety in the last year, and I pretty much owe it to that incident.


Glad to see you are OK, and also glad to see that the company took this seriously. :thumbsup:


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Ya the more I think about the whole situation the more I realize how messed up it actually was... in every aspect.


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Ya thanks man


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## wireman64 (Feb 2, 2012)

chromonology said:


> this is what happens when you are not fully engaged in a dangerous task.


Once when working with my dad, i remember one of his guys sawing off a few of his fingers on the table saw , i was standing there watching blood pour out the bottom of the saw while everyone came running . Im still afraid of table saws


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Ya that's crazy stuff. Huh! I didn't even bleed at all on this one. It only started to bleed when the doctor was giving me needles.


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

Goddamn, I likes the way you do bidniz, playa!!! You don't settle for that sissy " I hit my thumb with a hammer!" BS. You go for the gusto! "Hey guys, watch what happens when I stick my thumb in this coupling!":thumbup:


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Ya and you know what's even crazier, I thought I would've screamed and cried but I just grabbed my thumb and said to my boss, " I'm hurt" and he was like, " what happened, and I said, " bad" lol you wouldn't beleive what you body does to you when you are in an incredible amount of pain.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

Damn ! Good news is you still have a thumb.
I was doing a pm on one of the motors on a conveyor second tier up on the catwalk, and had the guard off the belt. I was surrounded by motors every few feet. When I looked away for a second the back of my hand was hit by the rotating sheave mounting bolts ! I was thinking how easily that could have grabbed my glove, and pulled my arm in there !!!

Oh yeah, a couple weeks ago with a hole saw !


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Yup, damn! That's a good one too. My glove could've been caught too. That would've been disastrous.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

For the record, I did not say "Holy cow" in my two prior posts in this thread.


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

*Yup*

Oh I know erics


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

chicken steve said:


> I hope they sent you home with some _happy pills _Chromo....~CS~


They probably did, they robbed me of that here in NY, no controlled substances prescribed from the ER anymore. I went out and bought Percocets from a known associate last night. My hand feels fine now.


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## 24 big guy (Jun 29, 2011)

chromonology said:


> Ya and you know what's even crazier, I thought I would've screamed and cried but I just grabbed my thumb and said to my boss, " I'm hurt" and he was like, " what happened, and I said, " bad" lol you wouldn't beleive what you body does to you when you are in an incredible amount of pain.


That's crazy good thing you still got your digits.

When I was like 5-6 years old my dad was working in a machine shop, he clear cut all of his fingers on his left hand off. He cut it in a 35 ton press machine,he was next to his boss and same thing he didn't really feel anything but he said when his boss saw his hand the guy fainted. Luckily my dad was able to save his fingers they don't straighten fully he needed many skin grafts had to pull bones from different parts of his body so he'd have a bone in his pinky and ring fingers. It looked scary now cause his hand won't straighten fully or close fully his hand is almost like a claw cause of the limited mobility. His fingers also go numb if he's out in the cold. I'll post a pick of what his hand looks like later.


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

*Machines*

Ya we definitely take for granted the insane amount of power that lies behind these machines. If you stand in its way you won't stand a chance.


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## 24 big guy (Jun 29, 2011)

chromonology said:


> Ya we definitely take for granted the insane amount of power that lies behind these machines. If you stand in its way you won't stand a chance.


Luckily I don't work on big equipment like that, but my biggest fear is cutting my fingers so I watch everything I do with them, ESP when I'm using a skill saw or something like that, that can do some damage.


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Yes absolutely learn from other people's mistakes. You don't have to learn the hard way.


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## 24 big guy (Jun 29, 2011)

chromonology said:


> Yes absolutely learn from other people's mistakes. You don't have to learn the hard way.


Ooo don't get me wrong I like learning the hard way I just prefer to keep my digits lol


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

chromonology said:


> I got a call a few days later from a lab tech, and she asked me where I got the morphine. I said the hospital... and she said I had to have gotten it from the street because she's never seen a person on so much morphine at once! lol then I told her I chopped my thumb off and she was like, "Oh.... ok your good to go"


Where on the street? Heroin? yes. Morphine? No.
That is so stupid. Who gets street Morphine? 



Shockdoc said:


> They probably did, they robbed me of that here in NY, no controlled substances prescribed from the ER anymore. I went out and bought Percocets from a known associate last night. My hand feels fine now.


Now Doc, you could have done much better than Percocets? :laughing:


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Lol no doubt!


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## 24 big guy (Jun 29, 2011)

John Valdes said:


> Where on the street? Heroin? yes. Morphine? No.
> That is so stupid. Who gets street Morphine?
> 
> Now Doc, you could have done much better than Percocets? :laughing:


Unless he was getting perk 30's they have replaced oxy with perk 30's as the premier drug to get these days. It's crazy almost like heroin cause of the opiates in the pills where I'm from that's what everyone's into as far as getting high you can't find coke or crack like it used to be the perk30's have taken over in my area. Lucky for me I don't do any of it.


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## butcher733 (Aug 4, 2012)

Shockdoc said:


> They probably did, they robbed me of that here in NY, no controlled substances prescribed from the ER anymore. I went out and bought Percocets from a known associate last night. My hand feels fine now.


I blew my back out when I started my apprenticeship, I had a massive herniation between two lumbar vertabrae. I only missed one day because of this and my doctor was shocked when he saw the X-ray. I told him that I need some pain pills, but if you give me anything less than percocet don't give me anything. He was a good doctor!

I also have a jw in my local who has "7 left" on his plates!


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Ya this was a no lost time incident without pain meds


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

unless you consider t3's pain meds


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## sparky970 (Mar 19, 2008)

Before cell phones I had my fingers caught in rotating equipment so no pics. I had an open dislocation on my middle and ring finger and a plain old regular dislocation of my pinky. When I got to the ER, I told the guy to be careful as he unwrapped my hand. The first thing he did was tear off the towel and get on the phone and announce, "it looks like we have an amputation". Fortunately, I still have all my fingers, although they aren't very straight. Who knew bone were so white? The sound of them popping back into the so cket is horrifying.


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Ya we work in a dangerous world. We should b getting danger pay for this stuff.


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## 24 big guy (Jun 29, 2011)

This is a few pics of my dads hand he chopped off in a 30 ton press machine


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## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

we usually have rotation posted on the side of the motors or fans.
but if its not posted we use these

lightly touch the wheel or pulley with the long bristles and you will see them bend in the direction the motor is running
sometimes you don't even have to touch them as the Bernoulli effect will push the bristles

saves a lot of fingers


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## hardworkingstiff (Jan 22, 2007)

24 big guy said:


> This is a few pics of my dads hand he chopped off in a 30 ton press machine
> 
> 
> 
> ...


:laughing: I have that exact same vinyl in one of my bathrooms.


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## btharmy (Jan 17, 2009)

Good to hear you got to keep your thumb. My brother in law's father in law wasn't so lucky. I know winter is pretty much over but be careful with snow blowers.


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## chromonology (Dec 14, 2012)

Nice one! B careful out there


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