Put a nail in my wrist today!!

Fongolio

I install outdoor vinyl decking for a living and today at work had a little accident. I use a coil nailer to fasten outside edge metal flashing on the sun deck and when I was putting the gun down to grab another piece of flashing I must have had my hand on the trigger and touched the gun to the floor with the safety because it shot a 1 3/4 ring nail about a foot right into my left wrist. All the way in. Not quite counter sunk but close. I was 45 minutes to a hospital and my partner drove (a woman but we are not an item). No blood at all but LOTS of pain. I embedded it in a tendon. The gave me a local to freeze the site and then the doc tried pulling it out (after x-ray of course) but the pain was excruciating so they gave me an adavan and a diloted and some different local. He had to cut it out because the barbs from the coil were holding it up. Can you say INTENSE PAIN?!! Holy shnikes that friggin' hurt but it is done. Back to x-ray. Still two barbs in the hole. Now must see an orthopedic surgeon to see if he will open and remove the barbs. I saved the nail and will get the x-rays on a disk tomorrow. Hurts like a mo-fo to type but this is just too good not to share. Off work for at least a week maybe several but have a good workers compensation plan. Moral of the story be damn careful with any tool no matter how much experience you have.

Now the kicker, just ten minutes before this happened the owner of the house where the work was being done backed her truck into the side of mine wrinkling my front left fender and making the door nearly impossible to open. She will pay for all damages but holy crap. Not a great day today. Should have stayed in bed.

ESavinon

Wow. Talk about a hell of a day.
Get well soon.

F1nut

Double ouch!

gdb

I somehow managed to run a bent,rusty 6d finish nail through my right pinky finger while trying to bump a snug fitting partition into place with my fist in the lower case of a built-in that I was installing. Fortunately, I knew that by the time I got to the ER, that the nail would be stuck tight and that they probably wouldn't have any vise-grips....so I took mine in with me. After several lame attempts to pull it out with the cheap-**** type of pliers that women buy, and nearly dis-jointing my finger, I insisted that they use my vise-grips. It finally came out but it took as much pulling effort as it would take to pull it out of 3/4" white pine!!:eek: I've got a FRH framing nailer plus finish and brad nailers and mine are all set for sequential firing only because I'm sure I'd end up doing something like you did if they were set for bump firing. When was your last tetanus shot? Hope you heal up OK !!:)

SolidSqual

Karma took a fat dump on you.

danger boy

dang. sorry you had a rough day.. but hope that you get some time off from work for the injury though.

SolidSqual

At least Ben was decent enough to provide pics. I'm developing pain in my wrist just thinking about this.

Retro152

I remember driving a co-worker to the Hospital about 20 years ago, after he shot himself in the hand with a Spike gun. We were assembling wall's on the deck of a big condo project, goin like hell. Suddenly we hear this guy screaming and swearing like crazy. As he was going along holding the stud's, and shooting them to the wall plate, he grazed the top edge of the plate with the gun safety tip, while having the trigger depressed, and fired a 3 inch spike through the first three finger's of his left hand! I got ambulance duty, and drove him. The Spike had locked all three finger's together, but had missed everything, bone, tendon's. Just through all the "Meat" of the finger's. After a local, they were able to pull it right out without too much difficulty. The guy was back to work the next day! LOL. I have been lucky myself over the last 25 years in the trade, but never take tool's for granted, that's when they turn on ya!!!:rolleyes:


Pat.

ben62670

That sucks. Pics are in order. Seriously I hope you have no tendon issues. I severed 5 in my right hand. Not nice.

hearingimpared

Sorry to hear Kelvin and BTW OUCH!!!!

NotaSuv

ouch.........hope you are feeling better and have a speedy recovery..............

jdhdiggs

I saw the title and immediately thought "Ben, you idiot" But now I'll change that thought process to "Fongolio, you unlucky bastage" Have a beer!

Ricardo

Ouch. Hope you heal completely.

janmike

The pure thought of your wrist Kelvin sends shivers up my spine. Get well soon friend.

John30_30

Oh, dang.

I think you topped Ben.

I remember driving a co-worker to the Hospital about 20 years ago, after he shot himself in the hand with a Spike gun. We were assembling wall's on the deck of a big condo project, goin like hell. Suddenly we hear this guy screaming and swearing like crazy. As he was going along holding the stud's, and shooting them to the wall plate, he grazed the top edge of the plate with the gun safety tip, while having the trigger depressed, and fired a 3 inch spike through the first three finger's of his left hand! I got ambulance duty, and drove him. The Spike had locked all three finger's together, but had missed everything, bone, tendon's. Just through all the "Meat" of the finger's. After a local, they were able to pull it right out without too much difficulty. The guy was back to work the next day! LOL. I have been lucky myself over the last 25 years in the trade, but never take tool's for granted, that's when they turn on ya!!!

I worked with a guy who did something similar ( although not with me)
He'd been working with a crew on some apartments, and was reaching up to toenail a piece into a bird's mouth. He's a tall guy, so he's on his toes to make the shot, and he tacks right through his thumb to the rafter tail. The rest of the guys are on the other side, and they've just hollared "Break!", so no one hears him whimpering. He's standing there on his toes for about a half hour, fully extended with his thumb nailed up before someone wanders back to see what's going on.

wingnut4772

Owwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!:eek:

everpress

Holy crap, that's a bad day. You did, on a good note, make my day by comparison, better.

exalted512

i didnt read the whole thing, but pics or ban!
-Cody

ND13

That sucks, but at least they broke out the good **** for ya on the second attempt. Ativan to relieve the anxiety and Dilaudid/hydromorphone hcl (one of the most powerful pain killers) for the pain. I'm really surprised they used the Dilaudid. That's usually reserved for cancer patients and the terminally ill these days.

Hoping for a speedy recovery.

Just remembered that your in Canada. That's likely the reason they used Dilaudid. You can probably still get Qualuuds/methaqualone up there. That was banned in the US in like 1981 or so.

bruss

Chicks dig scars bro.. Glad it wasnt worse.

John30_30

ND13 wrote: »

That sucks, but at least they broke out the good **** for ya on the second attempt. Ativan to relieve the anxiety and Dilaudid/hydromorphone hcl (one of the most powerful pain killers) for the pain. I'm really surprised they used the Dilaudid. That's usually reserved for cancer patients and the terminally ill these days.

Hoping for a speedy recovery.

Just remembered that your in Canada. That's likely the reason they used Dilaudid. You can probably still get Qualuuds/methaqualone up there. That was banned in the US in like 1981 or so.

Dilaudid? Socialized Medicine! Woohoo!!


j.k. don't go getting all political on it, folks.

Face

Get well soon Kelvin.

disneyjoe7

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! You did the right thing BTW you didn't try to remove it yourself, First Aid 101.

Paul in Canada

I hope every thing goes well. It must have hurt like hell. I would have passed out just seeing the nail in my wrist.

NJPOLKER

I can't imagine how much that hurt. Good luck with your arm and vehicle.
When you post pictures you may as well post one or two of your partner too!

WilliamM2

My first job out of high school was building roof trusses for a local lumber yard. We used plates and air nailers on a huge jig, basically a 50' x 30' plywood table. We had a new guy, and the boss kept warning him to get some steel toed boots, he would blow it off, saying he knew how to use a nail gun, no worries.

About his third day on the job, he actually nailed his foot to the table, I imagine it hurt quite a bit, but it was still one of the funniest things I've ever seen. And of course that nail had to be pulled out, no way to move the table!

Airplay355

I recently started using a staple/nail gun to staple some chicken wire around my garden boxes. I depressed the safety with my fingers and shot a few staples out. Those suckers go pretty far.

I will no longer mess with the safety. Thank you for saving my life.

obieone

I hope you have had a tetnus shot?!

megasat16

Good Grief! I am feeling the pain just reading your Post, Fongo! I also play with power tools and nailers are the worst nightmare.

I hope you will fully recover from the incident and be back to work soon.

Take Care!

Systems

Don't feel bad, I nailed two of my fingers together with an air nailer once. 16 penny nail too boot..... I was holding a 2x4 and I "double clutched" the nailer and shot over the top of the plate.. I jerked the nail out of my fingers about as fast as it went in:) Then I had to lay down for awhile:)

Fongolio wrote: »

I install outdoor vinyl decking for a living and today at work had a little accident. I use a coil nailer to fasten outside edge metal flashing on the sun deck and when I was putting the gun down to grab another piece of flashing I must have had my hand on the trigger and touched the gun to the floor with the safety because it shot a 1 3/4 ring nail about a foot right into my left wrist. All the way in. Not quite counter sunk but close. I was 45 minutes to a hospital and my partner drove (a woman but we are not an item). No blood at all but LOTS of pain. I embedded it in a tendon. The gave me a local to freeze the site and then the doc tried pulling it out (after x-ray of course) but the pain was excruciating so they gave me an adavan and a diloted and some different local. He had to cut it out because the barbs from the coil were holding it up. Can you say INTENSE PAIN?!! Holy shnikes that friggin' hurt but it is done. Back to x-ray. Still two barbs in the hole. Now must see an orthopedic surgeon to see if he will open and remove the barbs. I saved the nail and will get the x-rays on a disk tomorrow. Hurts like a mo-fo to type but this is just too good not to share. Off work for at least a week maybe several but have a good workers compensation plan. Moral of the story be damn careful with any tool no matter how much experience you have.

Now the kicker, just ten minutes before this happened the owner of the house where the work was being done backed her truck into the side of mine wrinkling my front left fender and making the door nearly impossible to open. She will pay for all damages but holy crap. Not a great day today. Should have stayed in bed.

lumpy

Jesus - that must have hurt