GENTLEMEN...a serious word about safety this year...

I've always worked on the principle that if I cut myself and it doesn't hurt then it's bad. Immediate action is to sit or lie down because I know I'm liable to pass out. Then try to get to a doctor/A&E.
 
I was doing some building work in a hospital A & E Dept.
The manager asked if we could get some signs made up for the entrance to form 3 queues ~
1/ Sports Injuries
2/ Drunks
3/ Stanley Knife Injuries
:)
 
KellysEye said:
You are not the only one to injure yourself, I was cutting a hose pipe with a serrated knife and it slipped and I chopped the end of my index finger off including part of the finger nail. I stopped it bleeding with kitchen roll (sterile out of the pack) then I bandaged it up. Went to see a nurse at the surgery to check it out, she said I had done a good job and it all grew back. One issue with hurting yourself is going into shock if you do put your head down on your legs until it passes.
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When I was about 26 I was trying tp cut a plastic bottle in two with an exacto knife with the blade fully extended.Well, it did a fine job of splitting the bottle as well as nearly chopping my left thumb off.It didn't hurt at all and I had to wait for an hour or so until somebody drove me to the hospital .I was feeling fine until the nurse started stitching the wound ,then I almost passed out.
 
Accidents, one minute all is fine, the next.....

I remember working on a farm trying to remove a broken chain link. My friend wedged a screwdriver under the link and ping! Fortunately, the cut across his cornea healed rapidly.
 
sarabande said:
I'll second best wishes for a quick, clean, recovery.

Also, the use of butterfly sutures (bandages) in the first aid kit.

http://www.firstaid.co.uk/Wound-Closures-CWOUND_CLOSURES/


And on a recent St John course with a oaramedic instructor, I came across "haemostatic powder". If you have a deep wound, the gel is put into the wound, and pressure applied. It acts to provide a clotting medium to help the normal healing process.

http://evaq8.co.uk/Celox-Haemostatic-Granules-35g-To-Stop-Lethal-Bleeding-Fast.html
I gather it (or similar product) is now standard issue to Services personnel. Any medics on board care to comment, please ?
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Comments:

Lucky that the cut was on the back and not the palmar side of the wrist. Much more clockwork to injure on the other side
Steristrips would be good if no access to sutures. If the wound edges can be apposed, then surgical glue can be used
Never come across celox. Could have used it a couple of weeks ago when I had to deal with an arterial bleed from the main artery in the shoulder!

TudorSailor
 
KellysEye said:
You are not the only one to injure yourself, I was cutting a hose pipe with a serrated knife and it slipped and I chopped the end of my index finger off including part of the finger nail. I stopped it bleeding with kitchen roll (sterile out of the pack) then I bandaged it up. Went to see a nurse at the surgery to check it out, she said I had done a good job and it all grew back. One issue with hurting yourself is going into shock if you do put your head down on your legs until it passes.
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Putting it between the nurses would have been better.
 
tudorsailor said:
Comments:

Lucky that the cut was on the back and not the palmar side of the wrist. Much more clockwork to injure on the other side
Steristrips would be good if no access to sutures. If the wound edges can be apposed, then surgical glue can be used
Never come across celox. Could have used it a couple of weeks ago when I had to deal with an arterial bleed from the main artery in the shoulder!

TudorSailor
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In an emergency can you use super glue? I always think ladders and unstable platforms anti fouling a yach are the big risks.

WRT the original injury was the right tool used - should it have been a jig saw? Not trying to be clever with hindsight but often it's trying to do something with the wrong tool that starts the chain reaction.
 
alahol2 said:
Did you mean nurses or nurse's or nurses' ?
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Noooooo

3.jpg
 
Knives
I always thinki a knife is over rated for cutting anything now days. Hacksaw scissors tin snips even secaturs all have a safer cutting action. I am obliged to carry a knife on the boat buty I have never really used one in anger to cut sheets etc and woulkd far prefer the secateurs from the garden. (suitably sharpened of course) olewill
 
Thanks for all these replies, except Lakey's nurse. :eek: :(

It's alarming that the NHS is so unsurprised by Stanley-knife injuries. That stout handle and little blade seem to encourage the use of enormous force on surfaces to be cut, rather than the relatively careful use one might make of a big scary-looking knife.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who suffers a seemingly-psychological near-black-out when anatomical horrors appear or are described...

...it had been a while - I've never hurt myself like that before, but I remember almost fading away while simply listening to my mother's description of a minor cycling accident she'd witnessed. I had the same symptom when watching something in a biology lesson many decades ago, about how vertebrae get damaged. Not a nice feeling, nor easily explained.

My use of a Stanley knife was completely mistaken, for cutting really tough 5mm plastic chopping-board. A jigsaw would have been perfect. What can I say? I'll know next time. :rolleyes:
 
vyv_cox said:
Maybe a timely reminder of the risks associated with ladders. Almost three years ago (Feb 24 anniversary) I fell about 3 ft from a ladder and broke both of my heels. The accident was partly my fault for setting the ladder on a slope, but also due to collapse of one of its legs. My feet will probably never recover - I can walk no more than a mile, slowly, and carrying out normal activities like walking around LIBS leave me crippled for the following 24 hours. Take care with ladders!
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AMEN! A friend had an even nastier accident iof the same general type - but instead of falling 3 feet, he must have fallen 9 or 10 feet. He was lucky to live, has totally wrecked both feet, broke his back and pelvis and other odds and ends - I think a tibia or fibia. He'll never walk without pain, despite the surgeons doing a wonderful job of solving the jigsaw puzzle of his feet. He was working alone on a single story roof level job; something like clearing gutters. What happened isn't clear; he has no memory of the incident itself. But the moral is NEVER work on a ladder without someone to ensure the stability of the support.
 
Iain C said:
Whilst stepping the mast on the Sabre a few years ago, I was banging the pin in through the tabernacle. It wouldn't go. I got a bigger hammer. And started hitting it really hard, swearing a lot. Unfortunalty, my thumb got in the way. The operative word was "burst".

Also slightly sailing related, I can confirm that in a fight with deck shoes and toes on one team, and slippery glass bank and a flymo on the other team, the flymo wins.
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alahol2 said:
I've always worked on the principle that if I cut myself and it doesn't hurt then it's bad. Immediate action is to sit or lie down because I know I'm liable to pass out. Then try to get to a doctor/A&E.
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I once had a similiar incident in my late teens when I got my little finger between a hammer and an anvil. I was lucky; the hammer missed crushing any bones, so all I have is a bent finger and a scar. Local anaesthetics in the finger are VERY painful when administered! Four shots in the base of the finger were bad enough - painful but bearable - but the last in the tip of my finger was absolutely excruciating!

And the same incident made me aware of the effects of shock - I actually went on doing the job for a few moments until I noticed blood dripping. I then went very faint, and was made to sit down as colleagues came on the scene. The thing I noticed was that I really wasn't aware of pain until we reached the A&E department, and they had to administer the local anaesthetics to stitch it. I was sufficiently "with it" to take an interest in the knots the doctor used to tie off the stitches (yes, he used the proper knot!), but the nurse telling me it wouldn't hurt so much if I relaxed while she stuck a needle like a 6" nail in my backside was hard to take!
 
nigelmercier said:
Looks very much like the gash above my knee where a Stanley blade skipped past the end of something I was cutting. I did a DIY job with Steri-Strips: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000R2FMU4/dolcetto-21
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Followed your link and ended up buying these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Butterfly-C...ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1HDHLN8X1KZZC

mainly because when I use the skinny strips, there is not enough surface area of the 'sticky bits' of plaster to stick to skin and they fall off. Will see if these butterfly ones are better than steri strips (or hopefully I won't need to).

I am a big fan of knives on board ever since a chap nearly died when a large catamaran capsized with him under netting; he DID have a knive and didn't drown.

No single knife will do all jobs but this one has AMAZED me at its quick cutting ability - clever design. Stainless stanley knife-like blade. Not cheap though at £20, but I love it (along with my others) and it came with 2 replacement blades - very clever design.
View attachment 39169

First saw the clotting agent powder in a macho Matt Damon film when he 'self healed a bullet wound'.
 
I was helping my 9 year old grand daughter pad up her Oppie trolley with some foam pipe lagging this weekend.
She measured it and I was going to cut it, so reached for the Stanley knife, then realised that I would have shown her how to cut my thigh open.
So gave the lecture "don't do it like Grandpa, it's dangerous",
Out came the Workmate and a hacksaw to cut through some foam. Overkill, but hopefully set out some safety thinking.
 
sarabande said:
I'll second best wishes for a quick, clean, recovery.

Also, the use of butterfly sutures (bandages) in the first aid kit.




And on a recent St John course with a oaramedic instructor, I came across "haemostatic powder". If you have a deep wound, the gel is put into the wound, and pressure applied. It acts to provide a clotting medium to help the normal healing process.



I gather it (or similar product) is now standard issue to Services personnel. Any medics on board care to comment, please ?
Click to expand...

I shall be getting some of that stuff - sounds a VERY good addition to home, car AND boat First Aid Kits. And the other products shown are also "on my list"

Thanks for the link.
RW
 
well chopping boards and knives are often for chopping meat. so chopping ur hand was the right material i guess...
 
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