Minor accident today

[Fred Voorhees]

My Brother is a self employed general contractor in the Cape May,NJ area. He just emailed me a few pictures. I'll only post one. Seems that he was doing some carpentry and his air framing nailer performed a double shot. The gun was about a foot from his arm when it went off and the ring shank nailed hit him square in the wrist. He said it didn't hurt to bad when it happened and for the twenty minutes that he drove around looking for someone to pull it out. He said it was in about 3/8ths of an inch, but it was holding pretty good. Now that it's out, he says that it's aching a good amount. Might have nicked the bone. I told him that I am definitely NOT reeling in his salmon when we go fishing in upstate New York in two weeks.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Fred...I hoped he had it checked out by a doctor to ensure the wound is clean. As a minimum, he may need a tetanus shot.
-Jeff :)

[Jim Becker]

Ouch!!!! (Did I happen to say, "ouch!"????)

What Jeff said! Definitely a doctor needs to be involved if not already, especially to insure that the wound is properly cleaned...the adhesive on those ring-shanks add a little extra special zing, too.

[Todd Jensen]

That is awesome, and a great friday shot. Thanks Fred. Somehow I can't turn off the humor switch at someone else's expense. :D Glad to hear it didn't poke his eye out or hit the jewels. :D

[Tom Cowie]

My wife just told me that women would never post anything like that :D


On the serious side I hope he's ok..

Tom

[Jim Kountz]

Son! Thats gotta smart just a little bit. My dad had the same thing happen to him but it got him in the thumb. Im with the others here that said to make sure its clean and not let it get infected. Had another friend who hit a guy in the mouth one time and it ended up costing him a finger because of infection. True story!

[Gary Herrmann]

Have him go see a doctor. Knock him and carry him if he won't. I have a brother too, sometimes you need to whack 'em upside the head.

Thats a puncture wound. They don't heal easily. Prone to infection.

And if it was stuck in there pretty good, it either penetrated the bone or grazed it.

I've got a screw in my arm due to surgery and I've had bone bruises. That could very well be what he's got aside from the puncture wound. Bone bruises can ache for a good while.

Did I mention that he should go see a doctor?

[Fred Voorhees]

He tells me that he had a tetanus shot about three years ago. More than likely due to something like this.

[Todd Jensen]

LOL..."more than likely..." I still can't help but chuckle - our poor loved ones must really enjoy watching us get smarter over the years. :D

[Jude Kingery]

Yep, that's gotta smart, reminds me of the time my brother shot a nail through his calf and pulled it out with pliers - so he could finish the fence. I asked him if he got a tetanas shot and he said no, Jude it was galvanized. I told him oh my word, go get a tetanas shot. He did. Hmm. But no, that can't be fun in any event to shoot yourself with a nail gun! Hope it heals up quickly for your brother, Fred! Jude

[Denny Rice]

That reminds of me of a guy named Steve in a building trades class while I was in High school. We had two nail guns going and we were putting down a plywood floor when Steve decided to nail his hand to the plywood. It didn't bleed until they pulled the nail out.

[Jason Roehl]

That's nothing.

I just heard of a guy who shot himself in the arm with a framing nailer multiple times THROUGH the bone--ON PURPOSE.

My friend's son got his start as a framer a number of years ago in Colorado. One dewey morning, he got up on a roof to do some work, and tied himself off. Some of the other guys present were laughing at him, but where he was working, the roof overhang was above a pretty high precipice or cliff. Sure enough, it wasn't too long before a guy slipped and was headed for the edge of the roof with nothing to grab on the way down, but he had his framing nailer in hand...so he put about 4 or 5 nails through his forearm at the edge of the roof, leaving him hanging only by those nails through his forearm. :eek: The doctor later said that if he had missed the bone, he likely would have gone over the edge as the nails would have ripped right out of the flesh. My friend's son helped rescue him, but they had to cut out that section of plywood and took him to the ER with that section attached.

Everybody always tied off after that...

[Todd Jensen]

I won't call B/S, but maybe H/S as in Highly Skeptical. No offense Jason, but I'd need further proof to believe that story. 4 or 5? On purpose? :cool: Were the first 2 just to increase drag as he set himself up for the subsequent shots? Anyways, sure would like to see the x-rays or accident report or a picture for that one...

[mark page]

The last time I was at the good ole emergency room for seven stitches in thumb from a miter saw accident (whole nuther story), the guy on the "slab" next to me appeared to have a framing nail in his hand just before the wrist. I overheard the nurse tell him they had him on as much morphine as they could legally give him. He was there in the same condition when I arrived and still at the time I left, and it took them a while to get to me since it was a weekend. Probably waiting for a specialized surgeon to arrive. I can still hear all his moans, groans, and cries in my head. Only good thing that happened from his accident is that all of a sudden my accident didn't hurt nearly as much as it did before seeing him.
On a funny side note: At the time my accident happened and since it was a weekend, we had to bring my then grade school kids in tow with us. They couldn't bear to even look at my wound at home, but the doc asked them if they wanted to watch him stitch me up. Before he was done, he was asking them to kinda move back a little so he could see where he was sewing. hmmm, them kids.

[Jason Roehl]

No offense taken, Todd. I don't have any of the hard evidence (x-rays, photos, etc.), just the word of my good friend and his son. I have no reason to not believe either of them, as incredulous as the incident may seem.

Given the choice of falling 100-plus feet off a roof and cliff, I wonder how many of us would a) have the presence of mind to come up with such a solution, and b) have the, um, brass ones to carry it out...

[Todd Jensen]

Thanks for taking it with no conflict, jason - I guess ultimately I'm admitting that my brain and berries just aren't brass enough to make that type of decision, which is probably a good reason why I stuck with framing for such a short period and got into finish carpentry. :) Kudos to the person with the presence of mind to execute such a decision under dire circumstances. Ouch! :eek:

[Gary Garmar]

Wow!! Very lucky he didn't injure the Radial Nerve and or the Radial Artery. The Artery would have required Major surgery to repair. VERY LUCKY!!!

[Fred Voorhees]

No offense taken, Todd. I don't have any of the hard evidence (x-rays, photos, etc.), just the word of my good friend and his son. I have no reason to not believe either of them, as incredulous as the incident may seem.

Given the choice of falling 100-plus feet off a roof and cliff, I wonder how many of us would a) have the presence of mind to come up with such a solution, and b) have the, um, brass ones to carry it out...

I will go on record as saying that by the time I decided that I had the "brass ones" to do such a thing.......I'd be falling through the air.

[Jason White]

Tell him to use a nail set and a little caulk. You'll never know it's there!

JW


My Brother is a self employed general contractor in the Cape May,NJ area. He just emailed me a few pictures. I'll only post one. Seems that he was doing some carpentry and his air framing nailer performed a double shot. The gun was about a foot from his arm when it went off and the ring shank nailed hit him square in the wrist. He said it didn't hurt to bad when it happened and for the twenty minutes that he drove around looking for someone to pull it out. He said it was in about 3/8ths of an inch, but it was holding pretty good. Now that it's out, he says that it's aching a good amount. Might have nicked the bone. I told him that I am definitely NOT reeling in his salmon when we go fishing in upstate New York in two weeks.

[Todd Jensen]

LOL, JW...:D ... painter will fix it.

[Jason Roehl]

Todd, them's fightin' words. :D

[Cary Swoveland]

Puncture wounds can be serious. I recall reading in a newspaper--many years ago--of a fellow who somehow fell and impaled his shoulder on a pointy, steel fence post. (It looked the common galvanized pipe kind.) His mates cut the post and took him to the hospital. The story included a picture of him walking into the hospital, with the post sticking out front and back. The strange thing was that he looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll.

Cary

[Gene Michael]

I agree with the folks who have recommended he see a doc. If the nail got into the bone at all, he could develop osteomyelitis, an infection in the bone that can be difficult to treat.

[Mike Langford]

LOL...What cracks me up is that he took a picture of it!!! :D (while driving no less! :eek: )

hope he heals up o.k.....

[Todd Jensen]

I love this post.. I'm falling over laughing every time I check on the updates... Why someone else's pain is so funny I'll never know because I truly empathize how much that junk hurts. Like my buddy on my broken bmx seat as I rode him around - seat gave way, he landed on the tire, and I had a new braking system as he slammed into the seat post and I'll never forget that tire on jeans sound. :D
BTW, Jason, I'd offer apologies to painters but you should see what they've done to some of my work. :cool:

[Paul Hendrickson]

LOL...What cracks me up is that he took a picture of it!!! :D (while driving no less! :eek: )

hope he heals up o.k.....

I was thinking the exact same thing Mike. It is as if he wants to make sure everyone believed him when he tells the story in the future and that was more important than the pain he must have had to use that hand to drive so he could snap a pic with the other. Scariest part is I know I'd do the same thing. Remember, no pic . . . didn't happen.

[Todd Jensen]

Exactly Paul...and why I've got issues with the 5 nails in the forearm to act as a fall-stop. Maybe its because I fish.:D My buddy takes pictures all the time - no picture=no fish.
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z66/grizzified/JessesfishOctober2007.jpg