Thanks for Mechanix Wear and some Anti Sieze. Thursday bout 3 pm I was at work in the shop putting tracks back on to my dozer. Had one rolled over the top rollers and was getting off to get a bar to pull the slack out so I could get the track jack attached and pull them together. Just as I steped off the machine the track buckled between the front roller and the idelar wheel. Somehow my 4 fingers of my right hand got smashed between two pads. Because of how far down it went I couldn't press the pads down or up without pinching my fingers worse. yes hurt like heck. The shop foreman was there with me and I said call Scott in the office, he said hes down at the redi mix plant. Doing some quick thinking, and not panicing(usually on the other end of this stuff with the fire rescue) I had him get my cell phone and I called my dad who is just across the street, hes the highway commisher for the county. Next I called my boss Kevin who still happend to be in the yard, within a minute I had 5 guys there, Tom shop man, my dad and a employee of his and Kevin and Scott. Once we figured out we couldnt pry either way the next idea was to just cut the pad, however torch was way to close to my fingers and that wasn't going to work. I said go get the 3/4" impact and there is an 1 1/8" socket in my tool box, they will come out as we always put never sieze on them. Within a minute the pad was off and my hand was free, didn't even phase my fast fit mechanic's gloves. Dad and Kevin took me to ER and still didn't know what the issue was going to be when the glove came off, and while waiting for the nurse to finish paper work I said hell with it and pulled it off myself. 3 fingers were damaged but 2 were just swollen up and my middle had been cut at the top joint right to the bone. I know if it wasn't for the glove I might not have had a finger left nor would it have been as easy to unbolt the pads if never sieze hadn't been on them when we installed the tracks 4 years prior. Trbo
Sorry to read of your misfortune EZ but all well that ends well,well done on keeping a level head not an easy task under the circumstances .How long will you be off work for?
Sorry to hear you got hurt. Glad cool heads prevailed and it worked out as well as possible. I put never sieze on most everything I put back together. Gloves I am lax on wearing.
Ouch!!!!! That hurt just reading it. It just goes to show that a little bit of forethought and remaining calm, can sometimes prevent further injury. I hope you mend soon, Turbo and can get back to doing what you enjoy most. Rn'R.
Glad to hear you are ok. That always is a terrible feeling when you are scared to remove a glove or shoe for fear of what you might see.
Glad you still have your fingers . I need to wear gloves more.
Glad to hear you're going to be OK. And thanks for sharing that story. I have to change a sprocket on my excavator soon. I know I'll be especially careful now!
Wow, I am glad your injuries are not worse then they are, keeping calm and being the rational one helped. All to often it is the bystanders that panic and cause more serious injuries, and the gloves and anti seize kept it from being a bad situation. Is it too early to tell if there is any nerve damage?
Glad it wasn't any worse, of coarse thats bad enough. Have a speedy recovery TRBO!
Glad to hear that everything ended up much better than it could have been. I crushed the tip of my pointer finger on my right hand a couple of years back. I can sympathize with your pain right now. Crushing it wasn't as bad as having a Mongoloid finger for the next three months while everything healed up
I'm glad you are for the most part ok and nothing major went wrong. Hope you heal up good and take it easy on the hand.
Sorry to read about this Trbo, real glad it wasnt any worse it takes some (football things) to keep a level head in a crisis, especially when its your crisis It is also a good reminder of how quickly and easily things can and do go wrong. Play safe and be careful.
Went to see a specialist on friday morning, back to work friday afternoon. Just a dam finger and hand. I can still operate. Trbo
Thanks a bunch. I figured there was going to be no good comming from ME not being calm. It wasn't life or death so just let it ride and solved the problem at hand(literity). Trbo
Seen the specialist on friday and she looked it over(i looked her over, very cute). Said no nerves or tendons were damaged, just a good deep flesh wound. I have to go back to see her next week, just to follow up and remove the stiches. For as bad as it could hav been it worked out pretty well. Trbo
Thanks a bunch. Trbo
Thanks, worked out pretty well. My one boss, and asst fire chief told me that either I was just that stubborn or tough to no pass out for the pickle I was in. I said well passing out was going to do two things, make matters worse and be bad for my ego. Yeah it hurt like hell but you just deal with it. As far as things going wrong, I felt the entire time I was trying to be safe. One thing I know I would do different is explain to the guy helping me more of what needed to be done so he knew what was going on. Therefore I might not have had to get off the machine. Make sure everyone knows the task at hand before starting. I will use this in our saftey meeting next winter and chalk it up to a learning experience with the best outcome for what happened. Trbo
I joined the club today as I stabbed myself like a TOOL between my thumb and my pointing finger while taking duct tape off a water hose to repair it.:Banghead:Banghead 4 hours to get out of ER with 5 stitches on the skin and three underneath the skin. Never did anything like that in 57 years :Banghead:Banghead:Banghead Good news now tendon damage so no OR room. They said and no work for three days or it will bust open and not be stitchable and take two weeks to heal. :Banghead:Banghead Kinfe was sharp so it didn't hurt till later. Lucky it was the end of the day. I guess it could have been worse so I am happy although I feel like a :duh:duh
Now you got lucky, I ran a 1/4 drill bit through my little finger two years ago, yes I put the drill in reverse and yanked it out, anyway it cut the nerve and the Doctor said it never heal. I am reminded of that day everytime I get it caught in a chain link or anything and try to walk away.
I'm glad it looks worse than it is EZ TRBO. It is the unexpected that always bites the hardest isn't it?
Whats kinda funny is it took an entire ONE second for it to fall down with my hand in it and it seemed like it went in slow motion. I can remember thinking before the track even stopped moving 'SHOOT". In that split instant I knew this was going to hurt. But all and all for as bad as it started it ended pretty good. Fingers still in tack, working and no nerve damage. Trbo
Good luck TRBO, hope you have a speedy recovery!
Sorry to drag this up again as you have hopefully got to the point of it not hurting too much and just about managed to forget it ( no really its no trouble, its what mates are for ) A very good point you make and something that many of us take for granted, that the others know what we are thinking, planning and doing when in actual fact a few more minutes running through the plan ( ) works wonders A very good reminder to all of us and really pleased you got out of this on the lucky side :drinkup