Share your stupid moments

[Albert Lee]

Almost 20 years ago I had my first job on a construction site, within a few days the boss gave me a 9 inch grinder to carry out a task.

As I was cutting this long and laborious task, I phased out. Before I could respond, the grinder kicked back, the body of the grinder hit me in the face(extremely lucky) and I was knocked out for 15 seconds or so. I woke up with a big ass cut in my mouth, no teeth lost, no dislocated chin. Went home and forgotten about this after while.

Ever since then I had a lump in my submandibular area(chin-neck). I didn’t mind and didn’t know this lump is related to the accident. 5-6 years after the accident, one night the lump expanded, remember that recent viral thread of a criminal who had a huge neck? My neck was bigger than that. Went to A&E at 3am and was told to go home cos there is nothing they can do for me and told me to go to real hospital at 8am. I was on the operation table by 9am. Woke up with 6 straws coming out of my cheek draining liquid into a bottle. The test result says the liquid was just saliva. After 3 operations and numerous assessment - they didn’t know what caused it. A young doctor asked: were you in an car accident or something hit your face long time ago? That’s when I clicked. That accident. The young doctor said the grinder damaged my saliva gland and has been leaking saliva into my neck. That’s the lump I had for years. And one night, my body couldn’t absorb the saliva anymore.

Ever since the grinder accident I never touched a grinder. Never. And extremely careful when I touch power tools.