I posted a article about a guy who had his hand cut off on the table saw a week back. Here is the followup. Amazing, this guy was a safty director for a department store!!!!
A Gilbert man whose hand was reattached after he accidentally sawed it off recounted the day he thought he’d lost his hand for good.
Timothy Blazer, 52, sawed off his hand while working on cabinets at his house on Nov. 12. His doctors were stunned to learn Blazer, who was home alone at the time of the accident, calmly put his severed hand in ice and applied pressure to stop bleeding while waiting for emergency units to respond.
“He was very in control,” said Dr. Lloyd Champagne, one of the surgeons at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn
hospital who reattached Blazer’s Hand.
Blazer, a safety director for Macy’s, was cutting a cabinet on a cooler when it tipped, taking the saw with it.
His hand was severed.
He was about to get in his car to drive himself to the hospital when he acknowledged the severity of his injury and called for help instead.
Five surgeries later, including four hours of surgery to reattach it, Blazer has movement in his hand. He can maneuver it as if squeezing an orange.
“When I woke up in the operating room I didn’t expect to ever move my hand again,” Blazer said.
Although doctors at the hospital have reattached hands before – Champagne said it happens about once a year – one of the main reasons the reattachment was successful was that Blazer acted quickly by putting his hand in ice.
When asked how he remained so calm, Blazer said his background in the Boy Scouts and safety training for his job were factors.
In retrospect, he said, it was “stupid” to use a cooler instead of something sturdier. Blazer usually uses the tailgate of his pickup truck when sawing, but his wife had taken the truck.
He described the pain when the saw cut off his hand as an unexplainable sensation. “It was more of everything getting really hot,” he said.
The most traumatic part might be over, but Blazer faces years of therapy to regain strength in his hand.
Champagne said Blazer will have therapy four times a week, although doctors are not sure that he’ll ever regain all of his hand use.
Replies
There was once a FEMA administrator who worked as an Arabian horse judge, so perhaps the threshold for qualified safety directors isn't as stringent as we might first believe.
I do all my portable table saw cutting on Coleman coolers, not Igloo brand. Coleman's are much more stable, and that was that guy's first mistake, not knowing that bit of useful info.
"Hi honey. It's me. I'm at the hospital. Cut my hand off...I said, I cut my hand off...no, it's OK, I'm fine....."
Cheers,
Seth
Appropo to nothing said above, I heard a great Foxworthy redneck joke that might appeal to the "cut my lumber by resting it on the tailgate of my pickup crowd" : You might be a redneck if your son is named Dale Jr. and your name ain't Dale.Regards,RonAs God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!
-Arthur Carlson
Edited 11/27/2009 6:04 pm ET by RonInOttawa
Kinda sounds like the the guy who lost an ear when he leaned over the saw bench to retrieve a piece of timber. The boss looked around under the saw bench to see if it could be found and reattached. On finding an ear and showing it to the guy. He claimed it wasn't his as his had a pencil behind it. Could be his cousin...?wotI started out with nothing...and I still have most of it left!
Ron,
One of them three rednecks described how clean out the bed of a pick-up. Just put it in reverse and jam on the gas, then jam on the brakes.
Note: lower tailgate first.
I think it could work with a load of lumber as well?
--jonnieboy
That is a well used trick at the dump! Put the slick stuff on the bottom an ya gott'er made! Just to be shor, ya need to hit the gas when you pull away. If the tires ain't spinning your'e not doin it right. <!----><!----><!---->
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Azmo,
It looks like it was a circular saw instead of a table saw, "was cutting a cabinet on a cooler when it tipped, taking the saw with it, his hand was severed." Not that it really matters.
He ia lucky guy that they were able to reattach his hand.
Taigert
On the TV news he described it in more detail. One of the small ones perched right on top of the Coleman Cooler. He tried to catch it.... for some reason. Showed his x-rays also, two complete parts. It is an amazing surgery story.
Now I admit sometimes to having nightmares about doing something stupid like that. I am glad to wake up and find that partzheimers has not taken over. <!----><!----><!---->
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Wow!
I'm not the only one who has night mares? some times I find myself day dreaming about all sorts of accidents (not while working with tools) This keeps me safe as I am then to aware of the consequences to do anything too stupid I hope.
I hope! ;)
Chaim
I had assumed this was a benchtop table saw, with a cooler substituted for a bench.Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Azmo, was saying the same thing.
I just find it hard to imagine how someone could be stupid enough to set even a small cabinet saw on a cooler and expect some thing good to come from that.
Taigert
To Taigart and Mike, I had also thought it was a bench saw. It is surprising how many dumb persons there can be. I tend to think - just this one time..... Then hopefully senses kick in.
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