Serious Injury

[Mark Grotenhuis]

Hey guys, Last thursday I was making a clamp rack for my collection of jet clamps. I was using a piece of plywood glued and screwed to a 2X4 and cutting 3/8" Dado's in it for the clamps to fit in it. I was using my miter gauge to steady the piece through the blade and was on my last dado when the piece kicked hard, rocketing it into my hip. I stood there in shock for a second when I realized there was blood on my shirt. My hand had hit the blade.

I was shocked because I had not even considered my hand to be close to the blade while cutting. I called my wife at work and told her to meet me at the ER. I drove myself there. The surgeon looked at my hand and said the tip of my middle finger on my left hand would have to be amputated, but otherwise everything else was ok. My heart broke hearing the news. Friday afternoon I was released from the ER and I have been nursing myself back to health. I now know why the blade kicked... my miter gauge came loose causing my angle to change while pushing it through a very tall dado.

Now looking back I think of all the things I should have done differently... I should have bought a saw-stop... I shouldn't have even been attempting a dado that dangerous ... or I should have made sure my miter gauge was tight. So many regrets, and I'm so embarrassed.

I guess I'm just writing this to remind you guys to be smart with your tools, if there's a voice in the back of your head that says its dangerous ... it is. I do have a pic of my finger pre-surgery... but its really gross. I figure I'll spare you guys the mess. Be safe guys.

Oh yeah if your wondering ... it happened soon after I posted this post: Powermatic Drawers! (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=91968)

[Rob Russell]

Ouch. Hope you heal quickly.

[Tony Bilello]

Gee Mark. I am very sorry to hear about your accident. Table saw accidents are all too common. Fortunately, I have not had one myself, but during other non-related accidents I have had, I always remember thinking to myself right at the instant before the accident, "I ought not to be doing this, this way."
Having said that, I wish you a speedy recovery.

Tony B

[David DeCristoforo]

I hate hearing these stories. It's the "dark side" of woodworking. And it can happen to anyone at any time. Afterwards it's easy to start in with the "should haves". But don't start beating yourself up. These things happen. Trust me. I know. My advice to you is to "get back on the horse" as soon as you can. Don't let this scare you away from the shop. I stayed out of the shop for almost two years after a serious hand injury. It was a big mistake. Also, you hear about "post traumatic stress" in relation to people who have been in combat situations. But you can have PTS from any serious injury. So you need to watch out for that.

[Bill Huber]

Sorry to hear this but I am glad you posted it.

It is always a good thing to be reminded of safety.

Hope everything heals up ok.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Sorry to hear about your injury - hope you heal quickly!

[John Schreiber]

Wow. Thanks for sharing the story. You mention that the dado itself was dangerous. Was it really dangerous, or only because the miter gauge slipped? Do you know how your finger got to the blade during the kickback?

Hope you are healing well. Typing must be a bear.

[mreza Salav]

Really sorry to hear about this, and many thanks for posting it.

Would you say that the kick back cause your had to touch the blade or ...?
I'm just trying to understand what exactly went wrong to learn a lesson from your case.

[Don Abele]

Mark, I hate reading posts about anyone getting hurt, but as others have said, they remind us that we have a very dangerous hobby and accidents can happen in an instant.

It sounds like you've figured out what went wrong which helps so you (and us) know the cause to prevent another occurance. This also helps reduce any fear of reoccurance and get you back into the game as soon as you can.

One thing came to mind though - how were your hands positioned? You said you left hand struck the blade. In most cutting operations, my left hand is far from the blade.

I wish you a speedy and uneventful recovery.

Be well,

Doc

[Greg Cole]

Mark,
Sorry to hear of your accident. I hope you recover quickly and well.
I will say takes a bit of courage or humility to post about a shop accident. I too have had an accident in my shop that I posted here.
I dropped a push block using a jointer, caught it as it fell... and when catching the falling push block, I got my finger between the cutter guard and the fence trapping my finger for an instant. I betcha I couldn't repeat that sequence with the same outcome again in 100 tries, but I am NOT going to try. :rolleyes: In that instant I lost about 1/3 to 1/2 of my left pinky tip as in about 1/2 way up the fingernail. My pinky is still about that much shorter that it was and the end where I shortened the bone is pretty sensitive to touch-impacts.
David has very good advice about getting back on that horse. I was back in my shop as soon as I could. Literally, I was back in the shop in less than a week and stepped up to the machine that I was bitten by. No coulda woulda shoulda's, just did what I needed to do and that was that.
The best tool for safety is the one between our ears.

Greg

[jeremy levine]

Very sorry to hear about your accident, but thanks for posting.

[Bob Ross]

Mark,

My condolences on the loss of your finger tip. David raises a valid point re: PTSD. Your being willing and able to talk about it is a good thing. It is a loss and I suggest you allow yourself to grieve it.

I was a combat medic in Viet Nam and one of the first Physician Assistants in the country. I worked for a group of Orthopedists in Cincinnati. A couple years into the job we were joined by a doc whose specialty was hand surgery. I had been witness to a lot of trauma and some horific wounds before, but the volume and extent of hand injuries from woodworking and industrial accidents was eye opening.

Heal quickly!

[Dave Falkenstein]

Having cut my thumb rather badly 15 years ago in a table saw accident, I can honestly say I feel for you. Do what the doctor tells you to do in order to heal properly. Good luck.

[Michael Hammers]

Mark,
Really sorry to hear that, my prayers are with you. I too am saving for a Sawstop. And do not be embarrassed, I was a Paramedic for years and used to tell people not to beat themselves up to bad in different situations, that is why they are called accidents.
I hope you have a speedy recovery and are able to get back up on the horse soon.
Michael

[Hank Knight]

Mark,

I'm sorry to hear of your injury. I'm glad it wasn't more serious. Don't beat yourself up. Accidents happen, unfortunately, and every one was preventable in hindsight. But hindsight is just that - hindsight. If we could see them coming we'd be rich. :D

If it makes you feel any better, I had a rare (for me) bad kick back this weekend too. My table saw threw a 2" X 3" X 24" piece of maple back at me. Fortunately it missed me, but it hit a piece of furnuture I've been building for 7 months and smashed several pieces of it. :( I had removed my splitter to allow room for a narrow piece to pass between the splitter and the fence. I decided the cut was dangerous so I reversed the cut so the narrow piece would be on the offcut side of the blade - probably a wise decision. But I was so focused on the cut, I forgot to replace the splitter - stupid, stupid! At least there was no blood, so I was luckier than you.

Most of the injuries I've heard of happen the way yours did. Nobody intentionally sticks their hand/fingers into a spinning saw blade. There is usually some violent, unanticipated failure that jerks the person's hand into the blade, like yours. That is why I think a Saw Stop is a good investment. Many on this and other boards argue that Saw Stop is a waste of money and that good safety practice will keep you from getting hurt. I agree that 999 times out of a thousand that's true, but the 1 mistake in a thousand can be costly. I consider myself a "safe" woodworker, and I'm sure you do too. But your injury and my kickback this weekend have me rethinking my Saw Stop options.

Sorry for the long ramble. I hope you heal quickly, and I agree with the advice to get back on the horse ASAP.

Hank

[Mark Grotenhuis]

Well just to clarify when the board kicked it hit my right hip, which caused me to rotate to the right sending my left hand into the blade. It all happened in a millisecond. I'd guess that my hand was 4 inches away from the blade before it kicked, and yes typing is a bear.

[Rick Levine]

Mark,

I’m really sorry to hear about your accident. Not to steel the thread, but just as a reminder that shop accidents can happen for other reasons besides tool mishaps. I am recovering from bilateral hernia surgery a week ago and I attribute it to all the lifting and moving of lumber and tools in my newly constructed shop. I have since built some devices to move full sheets of ply and other large objects in the shop.

[Peter Luch]

Hope you heal quickly, sorry about the finger but it sounds like it could have been much worse.

Takes balls to admit doing something wrong and/or having an accident but it might help someone from repeating the same thing.

If one other person on this forum can keep from doing the same thing then your coming out and explaining what happened is well worth any embarassment on your part.

Take good care of that finger until its healed 100%!!!

Aloha, Peter

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Rick - great point! I was thinking that although it's the spinning blades that do the damage, often there's an "initiator" for the accident (Mark's loose miter guage, for instance). I actually had a "talk" with the wife last night about shop safety - she knows I do my best but that accidents do happen (so don't beat yourself up over it Mark!). My concern is clear footing - my bad habit (ok, one of my bad habits) is to work in the midst of "clutter". I worry that it's only a matter of time before I trip or stumble over a shop vac or box or tool that's in the way, so I'm trying to make it a point to work in a clearer/cleaner environment. It's always good to get a reminder to think clearly and work safely.

[Andy Casiello]

Mark, I'm sorry about your accident. I had a kickback incident very similar to yours about two weeks ago, where a piece I was cutting fired off and hit me in the right hip. It's amazing to me how much force a rather small piece can carry. I too stood in shock for a second - it happened so fast. I was lucky - I didn't contact the blade.

I installed the blade guard on the TS (Grizzly 1023 SL) for the first time immediately after the incident (well, after I walked it off for a while). I'm leaving the blade guard on there - and will only take it off if absolutely necessary. I'm buying a Leeway shark guard to replace the stock unit. I also may look at the Bolt on Riving Knife being developed by Bob Ross. I figure that in the aftermath of a learning experience like that, the best thing I can do for myself is take action to limit the potential for reoccurance.

Again, sorry about your accident. It could happen to any of us.

[Ray Schafer]

Mark,

I hope you have a quick recovery. I really appreciate your sharing your story. I did not realize that kickback could throw my hand into the blade. That is a good thing for me to know. I am sorry that you had to get hurt for me to learn about it.

Thanks.
Ray

[Rob Luter]

I feel your pain, literally and figuratively. I mashed the end of my middle finger many years ago while changing a tire (jack broke). It looked like the end of a hotdog someone hit with a hammer :eek:. The doc's bandaged it up and told me to hope for the best. A couple weeks later a guy in the woodworking program I was in at school stuffed his hand into a 3/4" dado stack :eek::eek:. Through prompt care and the grace of God we were both able to type again..... eventually.

The lesson I learned was that you can't be too safe, you can't plan too much, and your workpiece can't be held too securely. I've spent a fair bit of time making idiot proof workholding accessories for my table saw, lest I come up out of the basement asking my wife to help the idiot (me) look for missing digits or take me to get stitched up.

Best wishes for your recovery.

[John Shuk]

You should not be embarrased. You are doing everyone who reads this post by telling us about it. Hope you heal quickly.

[Bob Slater]

Very, very sorry to hear of your accident. Thanks for reminding us to remain vigilant to knowing how quickly this can happen.

[Brent Smith]

Sorry to hear of your accident Mark. Listen to the others and get back at it as soon as you can. I waited a couple of months after a kickback accident and it took me a while before feeling confident at the TS again. Your post shows one of the real dangers involved in kickback, the collateral damage. When you get hit by a piece of wood flying at that speed, your body just reacts without time to plan.

[Mike Heidrick]

Mark, very sorry to hear about your finger. Thanks for telling us about the accident so we can avoid the same process possibly.

Did you get the clamp rack done?

[Eric Larsen]

You have my sympathy. I hope it wasn't your writing hand.

Thanks for posting this, it serves as a reminder for everyone to think before cutting.

[Anthony Anderson]

Sorry to hear about your accident Mark. Thanks for the reminder, to all of us, that it can happen to anyone. These types of reports by our members, help us to keep safety at the front of our minds, when in the shop. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Bill

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

GLAD it wasn't worse!

Bruce

[Simon Dupay]

I feel for you, last night I was cutting some thing on my PM64 when I went to move the fence the saw tip over knocked down something it busted me open pretty bad, was in the ER till 5 AM had a gash about 1 1/2-2" long they had staple together, I'm just glad nothing hit the blade. So hope you heal soon.

[Bruce Page]

Ouch! I'm glad you weren't hurt worse. Heal quickly.

[Richard Wagner]

As all of the others have said, I too am sorry to hear about your incident. I too have had one of those and I have scares and a slightly deformed finger on my left hand to show for it. Unlike you, I am to this very day not sure just how it happened.

I was not using the TS but rather was doing some shaping. As quickly as you describe, things were out of control and I was on my way to the ER. The doctor says it was a blade but I have my doubts.

I do hope you heal fast and well. Take care of yourself, infection can be a bear. Work hard to avoid it.

Get back into the shop as soon as the doctor says it is OK.

[Joe Jensen]

Mark, sorry to hear about the accident. At least it sounds like you will retain full usage of your hand. In hindsight all of my accidents were the result of bad decisions. The sad thing is that when I made those decisions I didn't comprehend the consequences.

Thanks for sharing, it's important for all of us to get regualar reminders that anyone can make a mistake and bad things can result.

Hope you heal quickly, and hope you can rebuild your confidence to get back in the shop...joe

[Dave Sharpe]

Mark - as with everyone else, I'm sorry to hear of your accident and thanks for posting a warning for the rest of us. As an ER nurse, I frequently see similar injuries - In fact, I think some of my coworkers deliberately assign such patients to me as a kind of friendly warning. I've joked for a long time that I should set aside $50 into my sawstop fund each time I see one of these injuries.....
I do wonder about the effectiveness of a Sawstop in the situation you describe. Given that your hand was pulled rapidly into the blade, would the brake system react quick enough to prevent a serious injury? Obviously the sytem reacts much, much faster than our own nervous system does, so it will be effective in a case of simply pushing a hand into the blade, but what about a hard pull into the blade as you described? Anyone have any answers on this? I've seen the hot dog demo, but what about rapidly flipping a hot dog into the blade?????
On a lighter note - Look at the bright side of your injury! Now you can do fractions when counting on your fingers! Or show kids what happens when they bite their nails! (a little ER humor there)

DAVE

[Greg Almeida]

Hi Mark,
Sorry to hear about your accident,but i literaly feel your pain.I was never going to post this but if it can help I'll try.On a beautiful day back on October 2,2007 I was working on some cherry book shelves running some stiles on the shaper.I was using a push stick ,feather boards ,thought everything was o.k.I had been running for about 2 hrs.And then I felt my fingers hit the cutter.Fortunately the fence was very close to the cutter.I lost to the 1st joint on my middle finger and a half inch or so on my ring finger on the right hand.Just like that in about 1 second.I could feel it cut and rub in that short time.After many hrs trying to find out what I did I've come to the conclusion that i had the feather boards too tight and I was pushing too hard and I slipped.But all that said the LORD has been very good to me in that He sustained me through it all and taught me alot of patience and dependence and I thank Him for that.So all the best in your recovery.It's going to be a real learning experience.

[Jacob Mac]

I think a lot of people have either had accidents or have done something that could have caused an accident. I know I have. So don't beat yourself up over it.

Get better, be safe, and do what you think you need to do to be safe in your shop. Thanks for sharing your story, at the very least you are taking a very sad accident and using it to help others.

[Eric Larsen]

Obviously the sytem reacts much, much faster than our own nervous system does, so it will be effective in a case of simply pushing a hand into the blade, but what about a hard pull into the blade as you described? Anyone have any answers on this? I've seen the hot dog demo, but what about rapidly flipping a hot dog into the blade?????


The brake grabs the blade and retracts in the span of about 2 saw teeth. I think it would still be a deep cut, but it wouldn't hit (let alone cut through) the bone.

My $0.02 only having seen the saw hit a hot dog at a show.

[Mark Grotenhuis]

I wondered the same thing Dave, I mean I lost my finger with a dado blade ... and I'm pretty sure it ripped through my fingernail before the rest of my finger. Will your fingernail trip the sensor? If not my injury would have been almost exactly the same on a saw-stop. I really doubt there is a perfect safety record on the saw-stop. I'm sure they help a lot, and I'm now seriously considering selling my powermatic and buying one, but it can't be perfect ... right? Someone must have been at least slightly hurt on one by now; and I mean by the blade not any other part of it saw as that other recent post told of. Am I wrong? Am I an idiot for not having one?

Thank you guys for all your advice and help so far... I'm not worried about post traumatic stress or anything. I've already pulled apart and cleaned the saw to the best of my ability... I'd be back using it already if my hand weren't all bandaged up. As for my clamp rack, I'll finish it as soon as I feel like my cuts are healed.

[Rick Fisher]

Mark, I had the same thing happen this spring. I will post a picture of a near miss.

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m455/jokerbird_photo/shop028.jpg


I post this only because it shows that it could happen to anyone. I did something stupid, I was ripping 3/4" plywood to 19" widths and stacking them on the outfeed table, just to the right of the path of the plywood.

Then I changed the width to 22" and didnt move the pile of plywood. The first piece I pushed through caught the edge of the plywood stack and twisted sideways. My hand was easily 8" from the blade and got thrown over it. One finger must have caught a tooth on the way by. The plywood hit the fence so hard that it moved 1/2 an inch. Sounded like a shotgun blast.

Im really sorry about your finger, and hope you heal quickly.

[John Schreiber]

. . . I've seen the hot dog demo, but what about rapidly flipping a hot dog into the blade????? . . .
In this post (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=521169&postcount=42)a while ago, a creeker reported . . .

I mention again the demonstration/test that the Minnesota Woodworkers Guild did last year. A 2' long summer sausage was swung into the spinning blade (vertically, about 45 degrees to the blade) like a baseball bat. (I don't know how fast that is, but I don't see how you could get yourself into the blade much faster) The blade was MOST THE WAY UP...~2.5". The resulting cut was about 3/4 of an inch long, maybe 3/8" deep. A nasty gash for sure, but on any other tablesaw that would have been 2 half sausages...or an arm and a hand. :eek:
One more piece of data.

[glenn bradley]

Mark, I had the same thing happen this spring. I will post a picture of a near miss.

Just think if you woulda hooked that ring! Yikes.

[glenn bradley]

So glad that wasn't worse. Please heal fast and get back on the horse. . . . I love my sleds, I love my sleds . . .

[Prashun Patel]

humbling. Don't be embarrassed. When I read this, my thought is not "man, what a dummy", but "man, that could have been ME." I bet a lot of people feel similarly.

[Gary Lange]

Very sorry to hear of this accident. It will help to remind all of us of the dangers we face when in the shop. Lets let this be a lesson to all of us to pay attention and do things the right way.

[Will Blick]

I wish you a speedy recovery.....

the risk factors, injuries and close-calls come out of the woodwork (excuse the pun) whenever a post like this is made. So thank you for making the post.... every time we read these stories, it reinforces safety....

We all fall victim to - out of thought - out of practice.

Sort of my own play on, out of sight, out of mind.

[Neal Clayton]

not to seem preachy or anything at other people's mishaps, but one thing i was taught on day one when i first used a table saw years and years ago was unless i'm cutting plywood or cross cutting with a miter gauge, i have no business standing on the left side of the fence. in the case of the plywood it can't be avoided, in the case of the miter, you have no hands to the right of the blade so you can't be drawn in.

worst case scenario if you get halfway through a cut that isn't safe, and you know it's got a good chance of going bad, you can just let go, the board isn't gonna hit you on the right side of the fence.

in fact i did that just last week, trying to cut a deep grove in a 2x4 run through on edge, blade near max height, and i thought the board was square but it was off by enough to make it iffy. when i felt the slightest bit of resistance coming back at me, screw it, i let go and watched it fly. better that than having to choose between a board to the face or a hand through the blade.

i'm sure most of us know these things after years of use, but if anyone starting out reads this thread, there are reasons why you stand a certain way and use a right hand here and a left hand there, and not the other way around. when it comes to table saws and shapers and you realize halfway through a cut that you've got a couple seconds before something very unpredictable and painful is about to happen, you don't wanna be standing in the wrong spot with the wrong hand in the way, as long as you can simply let go without getting hit or cut, your chances of not getting hurt go up exponentially.

[Rick Fisher]

I find the safest cut I make on any tool is the first cut. We are all different of course.

For me, the danger comes in repetition.

[Joe Jensen]

I've joked for a long time that I should set aside $50 into my sawstop fund each time I see one of these injuries.....
I do wonder about the effectiveness of a Sawstop in the situation you describe. Given that your hand was pulled rapidly into the blade, would the brake system react quick enough to prevent a serious injury? Obviously the sytem reacts much, much faster than our own nervous system does, so it will be effective in a case of simply pushing a hand into the blade, but what about a hard pull into the blade as you described? Anyone have any answers on this? I've seen the hot dog demo, but what about rapidly flipping a hot dog into the blade????? DAVE

Dave, with a 40 tooth blade, the SawStop drops the blade below the table within 2 carbide teeth. Wood Magazine shot some videos testing the SawStop in more real world situations. In a couple, they whack the Hot Dog into the blade as fast as they can to simulate a kickback injury. For a couple of years they had the videos posted on their website, but I can't find them now. In the tests where they swung the hot dog hard into the blade, the cut was more of a puncture wound and Wood Magazine attributed that to the speed at which they hit the blade, and not a cutting injury from the blade itself.

[fRED mCnEILL]

I have NEVER even considered cutting a dado with the miter gauge. Don't know why but I guess because of the size of the dado blades it seemed that there would be a lot of pressure on the wood to cause a problem. My dado cuts are all made against the fence.


Fred Mc.

[Rick Potter]

I am glad it didn't get more of you. Take a deep breath and log this lesson in the old memory bank. I am sure many of us will remember this when dadoing. Your sharing may prevent another person from an even worse injury.

Get well.

Rick Potter

[Terry Teadtke]

Sorry to hear about your accident.

I had the misfortune of running my middle finger of my left hand into my saw blade a couple years ago and to this day I have no idea how it happened. I guess I was lucky I didn’t cut the end of my finger off as I ran my finger straight into the blade neatly slicing my finger in half, through the nail and bone, to my first knuckle. I knew immediately that this one was too serious to just tape up so my girlfriend took me up to the ER. I don’t know what hurt most, the finger in the saw or the Novocain shot into the palm of my hand! So here we are in the room with the doctor examining my finger and since the cut was so neatly done with a new saw blade and the bleeding had stopped, the doctor took it upon himself to show my girlfriend a cut away view of my finger pointing out different things. I couldn’t stand to look but she really enjoyed the quick medical lesson. I didn’t care since the Novocain had done its job and I was finely not in pain. 27 stitches later and a prescription for pain killers and I was out of there $2700 lighter in the wallet and feeling pretty stupid. On our way home she let me know that a SawStop was in our near future and I couldn’t agree more.

Anyway, enough of that. If you don’t have one already, get a metal finger tip protector from your pharmacy or drug store to put over your finger until it heals. For a finger injury like your, a finger tip protector will be pure bliss.

Get well soon.

Terry

[Brent Smith]

Thank you guys for all your advice and help so far... I'm not worried about post traumatic stress or anything. I've already pulled apart and cleaned the saw to the best of my ability... I'd be back using it already if my hand weren't all bandaged up. As for my clamp rack, I'll finish it as soon as I feel like my cuts are healed.

Glad to hear you're already back in the corral :). Speedy recovery and show us the clamp rack when it's finished.

[Scott Wigginton]

not to seem preachy or anything at other people's mishaps, but one thing i was taught on day one when i first used a table saw years and years ago was unless i'm cutting plywood or cross cutting with a miter gauge, i have no business standing on the left side of the fence. in the case of the plywood it can't be avoided, in the case of the miter, you have no hands to the right of the blade so you can't be drawn in.

Neal, I tend to follow this rule but then run into the issue of having off-switch on the other side of the saw (it is one that you just have to push in with your knee) and I have a wall on the right at the end of the rails.
http://www.dewalt.com//ProductImages/PC_Graphics/PHOTOS/DEWALT/TOOLS/LARGE/7/DW746X_1.jpg

I've had a smaller piece of plywood get turned slightly and stuck on the blade, I let got and it binded the blade but the motor was still trying to run. I obviously didn't want to cross in front of the blade so I grabbed a broom and whacked it off, but on the left side I can easily kill power without taking any attention away from the piece & the blade.

[Neal Clayton]

that's one of the reasons that i've never understood the purpose for those knee switches. i've always thought the power switch on the right like the old deltas was the best way.

[Don L Johnson]

Mark,

I'm really sorry about your injury, but am glad you have made it though it. I go to a woodclub weekly, and the gentleman that sponsors it is missing partial on two fingers because of the table saw. At any rate, he has the SawStop, and even bought one for his son, who dabbles in woodworking as well. I've been looking at the SawStop for a while, and decided to pull the trigger this past weekend. Your story certifies my decision as correct, because no matter how safe you are, I don't think you are ever in full, complete control. Hope your healing goes well and quickly!!

[Mark Grotenhuis]

I am also going to buy the sawstop after this experience. Which one did you buy and how much did you pay? I'm looking at the cabinet saw with the 30" fence for $3607. Man that's a load of cash, but now I think its worth it. My medical bill for this accident is going to be around $2000... after insurance.

[Warren Clemans]

I'd be curious to know more about the miter gauge that let go. Was it a stock gauge that came with the saw, or a fancy aftermarket thing? Any luck in figuring out why it loosened?

Just trying to learn as much as possible from your bad luck. Glad it wasn't worse. I hope it heals quickly!

Cheers,
Warren