Follow-up Dr. visit

[William Steinfeldt]

It is Monday morning. I just got back to the Dr. as I expected. Good news, bad news. Let us do the bad news first, the first joint in both the middle finger and the ring finger are destroyed. The doctor is hoping the finger will fuse together at that point. Ring finger the worst, the bone at the tip of the finger is almost completely gone, as is the adjoining first joint. I have lost feeling from the second joint to the tips of fingers on ring finger and middle finger, the first finger looks like it may be numb from the first joint to the fingertip, mainly around the nail bed. Good news, all the fingers are still there, although somewhat damaged, there is no infection, and at this time. The doctor is satisfied with its progress.

 

My other area of concern is the fact that I may have lost the gripping power in my right hand. With two fingers completely unable to grasp objects, safety becomes an issue. I guess we will just have to see how it goes. I am debating on whether to post some photos of my hand, I do not want to gross anyone out, but I would like to give visual impact to the safety issues I discuss. I am torn over this issue, please tell me if you think this would be good to post them or not.

 

One last item, to all of you, drop me a kind word and set a prayer you will never know how much that meant to me. Strangers brought together by drilling jig and an activity that we all have a passion for. May God Bless You all, Thank You, God Bless You. William Steinfeldt

[William Steinfeldt]

jason morgan said:

I would to post pictures and let others know how your progress is coming

and I would like to know how this happened so I can be more careful as I continue

to build.

 

Thanks,

Jason Morgan

 Good Morning Jason, I will continue to update with pictures and how the healing is going. I was building a child's coat stand, I had ripped a 2 x 6 in half, glued them together making a square. I decided to make it an octagon, I set my saw at 45° to accomplish this cut. I set up the rip fence. I then pushed the glued piece across the saw blade and made the first cut, no problem. I laid down my push stick to retrieve the piece for the second cut at least I think that is what happened and proceeded with the second cut somehow my first finger must have extended over the blade, and the blade grabbed and pulled my hand in. To tell you how fast this happened I was approximately 4 inches from the end of the cut, and I finished the cut, then realizing my hand come in contact with the blade. It probably took one thousandths of a second for this to happen. I believe I did several things wrong that morning number one – getting my hand to close to the blade. Two – I had became complacent. Three – not taking enough time to make sure the blade height was just enough to cut through the wood with very little sticking through. 4 – I lost concentration, I had cut one side not without any problems then lost focus for a split second.

     In my last job before forced to retire due to certain physical conditions. I was a supervisor in injection molding facility, we ran machines and 70 tons to 4500 tons, the big machines you could walk into. I wrote the safety rules, I wrote the machine operation rules. I taught lockout tag out, I wrote to QS and iso-9000 certification not only for molding but for other departments as well. I felt so foolish for the actions I had just taken, I know better, but I rushed. Jason, the best advice I can give, take the time to check everything, take your time. Check your safeties, check the blade height used just enough blade to do the job, keep your hands away from the work, away from the blade. The most important piece of the formation is never take your eyes off the blade.

 

[ivan stokes]

well said Jay, William post the pics whats the point in going to war if u dont get battle scars lol wish you speedy recovery

[Jay Boutwell]

Bill, what a close call you had for a more serious injury.  I viewed your pictures of stiches removed injuries. That saw  had some sharp teeth and it was hungry.  I think it has caused most of us out here to be more alert and mindful of shop safety especially around the saws  i do appreciate you posting the photos as photos of a resulting injury will speak volumns to us that have been fortunate and never had this happen to us.  Shortly after the accident there was some talk about the product called the saw stop.  i started checking into the "SAW STOP" finding that there is only one at this time and the cheapest I was able to find it was $1600.00 and that was for a contractor style saw.  A steep price I thought to my self, until i started looking further and  ran across some information about the saw stop and some medical cost figures that make the $1600.00 look like a drop in the bucket.  I'm not trying to adversise the product but i do feel that some of the information on the video i was able to download is worth looking at.  It is not a gruesome video to watch but it will heighten your sense of danger around a table saw.  I was able to figure out a way to share it to those whom are interested.

 

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d6a4d314d6a59794d7a413d0d0a&blogview=true

Bill I'm certainly glad that your are getting better.