Ed_on_88th_St

I lost the last joint of my left thumb (I'm right-handed) to my brand-new Bosch job-site tablesaw last September. The blade guard was not installed. I was ripping a long 2 x 6 and pushing the board on the fence (right) side of the blade with a push stick. The cut was finished and I was stepping back from the saw to turn it off when somehow my left thumb hit the blade. I still do not know how my thumb got in the way of the blade.

Excellent advice from my hand surgeon led me to forgo an attempt at reattachment. My recovery and acclimation to my amputated thumb have gone exceptionally well. The stories I have heard of about the arduous process of recovering from re-attachment surgery and the low probability of success confirms that I made the right choice. My biggest losses have been the absence of a fingernail and a deranged sense of touch. I'm hoping the latter problem will improve over the year as others have experienced.

I consider myself very safety conscious, and I recall many instances when I would not proceed with a cut because it felt unsafe. That unease was absent on this occasion. I've been using tablesaws for home improvement and cabinetry for 30 years, and the cumulative odds of having an accident caught up to me.

I replaced the old Craftsman saw in my home shop with a SawStop. I may replace the Bosch with a second one. I use the blade guard at all times now, even though I am still getting used to it. The Sawstop technology should be mandatory, just like airbags in cars, and if it takes regulatory action to make it so, I'm all for it.