Workplace injuries
 

Working construction has lots of hazards. I had my first serious work related injury when I was just 18..... a spliced wooden jack pole snapped while I was working at the top....concussion....broken pelvis...stitches...I was a mess.....I remember them cutting my clothes off with scissors. After I healed up went right back to work...same job
Been very lucky since then and only minor stuff......Have seen others get hurt...but nothing as serious.
I was working on a new house years ago....second floor bathroom.....I heard the masons working up on the roof...and I wondered if they knew how slippery a wood shingle roof is when wet. Nope....I heard some sounds... like boots sliding over the butts of the cedar shingles...looked out and saw a very large man go by the window....couldnt believe it when he got up and limped away.

About 30 years ago, working at a chemical plant, grave-yard shift...
Our task for the night was to finish emptying out a 2,000 gallon tank and prep it for a new batch.Most of it was valve and automatic pump work, but there was always some left behind at the bottom of the tank which we'd then have to fully suit up (Hazmat Suit/Respirator-SCBA device/etc), climb down the ladder inside the tank and clean out manually. The polymer/chemical was very toxic and released a very heavy vapor/gas, it was much heavier than air...so even with the top access hatch open, you really couldn't smell the vapors that lie just below the cover.

Earlier that#^&day, someone had gotten fired and left pretty disgruntled...on the way out, one of the things believed to have happened, was that a crumbled up Dunkin Donuts bag was dropped into the tank.

Later on that night when the gauges showed that the tank was empty, one of the techs inspected the tank via a round sight-window located close to the bottom. All that remained, were a couple of inches of chemical which we'd then add a#^&solution to, in order to help break it down as the viscosity was very high, ...and of course, this strange object resting on top? The technician couldn't make out what it was but knew it shouldn't be in there. He grabbed a spot-light and peeked in from the top...still couldn't figure it out. Instead of suiting up, he thought he could reach it with a rigged pole. As this tank was very tall...the pole was a bit short of the object....so he reached in a little further....so much so that his head and shoulders were now in the tank. Without a respirator on, it didn't take long for him to lose consciousness and fall the rest of the way in. Poor guy landed on his back unconscious in 2 inches of chemicals. Took some time for people to get suited up and get him out...and I'm not sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate...but he survived. He had all kinds of things wrong with him...along with broken bones, skin-grafts, brain damage from inhaling so much vapor, the list goes on and on. Needless to say, he never returned. Probably the worst work-injury I can remember...guy was awesome too, not sure he's still with us anymore.#^&

Close the thread, Bloo wins :eek5:

:eek: Damn Bloocrab, that is depressing as anything.

Bob, sounds pretty bad. I have been pretty high up on one of those more than once and I think I had a guardian angel as I can't believe one of those stressed out 2x4's did not snap. I have had my fair share of pretty ugly accidents, very grateful to still be able to do most everything I like.

I second that
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We were building a house in the middle of winter, ( about 18 years ago) one of the guys decided to head to the roof to clean off the snow from the planks on the roof jacks. Needless to say that was a bad idea. Not only did he slip off the plank and hit the ground, the plank followed. He landed on his feet, broke both ankles, hyper extended his knees and screwed up his hip....all from the landing. The broken collar bone and concussion was from the falling plank.

When I was 18 I was working at a glass studio where safety was quite lax. I was wearing Birkenstocks and someone threw a pipe with a fang of just solidified hot glass on it at me to catch and put in a bucket I was standing next to. I didn’t quite catch it right and the pipe smashed down onto my foot and the fang went right through my foot. Then the pipe fell and the glass snapped off in my foot. I hobbled over to the bench and grabbed a pair of tweezers and extracted the fang that was hissing. From my burning flesh.

It hurt. Man did that hurt.
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I know it was said tongue in cheek, but there's no winning in a thread like this... just a bunch of guys sitting around a camp-fire exchanging stories....Spence, you must have a few hang-nail stories to share with us?? :hihi:


Eben, funny how you say safety was lax, especially at 18... I don't recall OSHA, the plant safety-officer, or anyone else for that matter ever checking on 3rd shift safety practices or lack of. We'd have to attend safety briefings at the end of our 12 hour shift, :yawn: ... I think that,, along with being young, dumb and invincible led many of us to disregard proper safety procedures. For anyone who's worked 3rd shift long enough, I'm sure you'll agree...it's a different world, different life, zombie-like at times. We definitely had our share of chemical accidents, but that's gotta be the worst one I bore witness to.

Gilly.... that was a horrible thing for you to have witnessed. Makes my injury sound like a day at the beach. Good to be young and heal so fast...but 47 years later my hip still aches.
Spence...wasnt intending to start a competition of most gruesome. Ive witnessed a fatality but Id rather not talk about the incident.

Too many. I remember on time heading out for a business trip and putting on my pair of brand new Michael Toschi Bertas...

https://www.mensdesignershoe.com/mic.../pid-4315.html

What I didn't realize was that the shape of the last wasn't friendly with the little bone spur on my right heel. By the time I got to San Francisco I had wore a hole in my dress sock and had a pretty bad blister. I could barely walk. I found a pharmacy and got some of that second skin blister stuff which saved the day.

Big difference there Bob, ....YOU experienced yours, I only witnessed mine. Funny how your pain probably subsided during your youth...and now as you've aged, it's raising its ugly head again....and it ain't going away. Makes pounding the sand that much harder, especially on the hips...be thankful that you've taken care of your body over the years. :musc:


Your spliced wooden jack pole story reminded me of something...no injuries, just comical. My BIL owns a painting company...I picked up some extra work with him one summer. He's not one to maintain equipment, so he too had similar spliced staging. We're painting a 3-story tenement house in FR, staging is already up. I notice the spliced jack poles, doesn't look solid enough for me, so I question it. He laughs and tells me not to worry. I climb to the top and get started...not long into the job, I feel some movement...my thoughts go directly to the spliced poles,...my head starts playing games with me and now I'm concerned... he notices my concern as I've stopped painting and starts yelling from the ground below. I'm still not feeling the love, so he decides to climb up to meet me. Once on the same plank, he starts explaining that I have nothing to worry about....so much so, that he starts physically jumping on the plank.. :conf: :confused: :uhoh: ..."see, I told you" he says....meanwhile, his jumping is making it worse for me, I move over and grab the jack pole for dear life...this throws the weight distribution off and now his timing is off with how the plank is bouncing (he is jumping hard)...he's getting air-borne and trying to stop, meanwhile the paint can goes air-borne, hits the plank sideways and falls off the plank, it not only gets paint on windows, trims, etc...but also on the cars below. :p ...gotta love a show off!

I give tons of credit to guys who spend most days above 2 stories/roofs/etc... definitely not a job for me. I don't have a fear of heights, only of falling...LOL, put me in a bucket truck and I'll paint all day...take me 10x as long too. :hee:

:eek::eek: I actually clicked the link...I don't think I've spent that much money on shoes in my entire life-time??? Not to mention, I could never wear shoes like that...the backs are too non-forgiving for my ankles. I'd have to carry a box of kleenex for padding.
Different strokes for different blokes...

:laugha::laugha::laugha: I never have either, used to have a hobby of finding ridiculously expensive clothing at deep discounts, then flipping it for a profit to fund my personal stash. This was a lot easier to do during the great recession, don't do it any more.

You can be honest with us, Spence. We know you weren’t going to San Francisco on a work trip.
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2013, cut a large Oak in the woods. i always start from the top and limb out. I also always check to see if and "widow makers" are caught underneath.

Yup! Missed one. Cut through a branch and this 3" in diameter sapling hit me square in the mouth. I saw stars but had the presence of mind to throw the saw.

22 stitches and knocked out my 2 upper front teeth.

SFO closest airport, meeting was in San Jose.

Hey aren't you the guy who told me you used to buy MAC cosmetics at Nordstrom from the guy who cut my hair? :humpty:

Gilly, it is not the fall that hurts, it's the landing.

Worked in a brass mill 3 summers in college. The brass that came out of the furnace in coils would get cleaned by dipping/soaking it in acid then go to the guy's area. His job would be to place the end of a coil over a high roller and then feed it into a machine that out clamp down on it and stretch it out by making it longer and thinner (it would end up used as YKK brass zippers and start out in 3" brass rods). After he stretched it, it would go back in the furnace a couple more times and the process would be repeated. A coil came off tangled and he reached up to tug on it to untangle it and his hand got caught. The safety thing didn't work and he got pulled over the roller and his hand got pulled into the machine basically ripping his hand off.

OSHA was there the next day looking at every machine - as they would do periodically.

That must be someone else. I have no idea about cosmetics or the guy who cuts your hair.
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I wear these everywhere I go..... goes with all my outfits too......usually last about a year.

http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...1&d=1597518060http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...1&d=1597518060

Gilly.... your scenario is alot like my situation was.

We were installing a gable end attic fan at the highest point of a two story building....once the staging was jacked up as high as it would go....against the brace....I could see the jack pole bending badly right near the splice. I expressed my concern to my much more experienced boss, and told him I thought we should add another brace...something I already had learned to do as a rookie sidewaller. He scoffed at my suggestion and said.." We'll be done in ten minutes....forget about it" Well... well ...five minutes later as I stepped onto the staging from the ladder...I suddenly felt nothing was there as the whole thing came crashing down. I hit the concrete below on all fours....with my head against the ground I saw a staging plank just miss my noggin then various tools and a can of paint. I managed to crawl about ten feet away and rolled onto my back......I looked up and saw my boss hanging from the roof....he was hollering for someone to get a ladder. My younger brother 15 years old had been hired to clean up old roofing shingles from the bushes around the building as we had re roofed the previous week.....he managed to lift the heavy ladder but it crashed through a second floor window instead. My boss managed to drop onto a portico roof not far below him. People were coming out of the building now to see the commotion. Police came... then the ambulance. Ruined my whole summer:fury:

GEEZ!! I hope you were alright after that fall. Falling definitely sucks. I was climbing a vertical ladder on the side of a building in Providence and misjudged a step, down I went! The fall wasn't very high, maybe 10'-12' or so. The problem was when I fell I caught my right knee on one of the rungs. Is I laid on the ground assessing my injuries I realized i couldn't bend my leg. I reached down and felt my knee cap was ups few inches higher than it should be. I used the handle of my hammer and pushed it back in place. Definitely the worst pain I have ever experienced!! As we share all these stories, makes me think of all the ones we don't hear about. I'm sure the guys who work for OSHA have some stories.

Hooked... Assessing the extent of the injury is typical and not easy to judge in the moment. I had the wind knocked out of me and couldnt breathe normally for a few minutes...I felt the need to move away from were all the tools and stuff were falling so crawled a few feet away and rolled over. No way I could get up or even move after that....Just watched as my boss dangled from the roof....my kid brother putting the ladder through the window......people coming out wondering what the hell was going on. Paint.... blood....tools all over the nice tile paved terrace.

When they finally loaded me in.....I could hear the ambulance guys talking to the emergency room about my injuries. When I got settled in at the hospital they gave me a phone to call my mom.
Poor mom....with eight children she went through so much of this kind of stuff.

Yeah, no.... I don't even want to type anything here....