"Dumbest" Accidental Injury

[CynadoAlley]

Stitches were an awesome way to start the week. After getting my computer fixed and shipped back this morning, I pulled the ultimate no-no and attempted to cut the box open with my left hand on the box to stabilize it. I made an excellent cut, it just happened to be my thumb.

So 10 stitches later, and nothing necessarily hurt but my pride, I was curious if any other fanatics have some "what the hell was I thinking" moments leading to injury? What were they and how bad?

 

[cstrunk]

I was still a trainee in the oilfield about 4.5 years ago. We had a tool that strokes to set plugs in the well, and after it is used you had to unstroke it by slamming it on the ground. The tool has a piston inside a cyclindrical sleeve and it weighs about 120 pounds. I was helping another guy do this. It was cold and wet and hard to pick up. I mistakenly put two of my fingers in some of the holes of the tool, and when we slammed it into the ground the piston pinched those two fingers. They had to get a screwdriver to pry the piston back enough for me to pull my fingers out, and I ripped some skin off in the process. Luckily nothing was broken (or cut off) but I did lose both fingernails (but they grew back). It hurt like hell!

 

[1100011CS]

Last week I was putting a disc sander attachment on my drill. Apparently I had my index finger resting on the edge of the disc when the bit tightened and started spinning. Didn't take many spins for that disk to cut to the bone on my finger. Doh.

 

[bos]

Once ran a knife sharpener over the top of the blade instead of the blade over the sharpener. Sharpener slipped out of my hand and my finger went over the blade instead. Still have the scar to remind myself of the stupidity.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I feel like I could write a book on stupid self-inflicted injuries. My most recent:

- I cut through a fingernail chopping onions because I was listening to music and checked my phone to see what band was playing. It was a super sharp knife, and it went right through the nail like butter.

- Last fall I was verticutting my lawn. While turning around on my neighbor's lawn and going up hill, I hit a slick spot on my lawn and both feet flew straight out behind me as I came crashing down on the verticutter. After I looked up to make sure nobody saw or recorded my misadventures, I laid there and whimpered for a few minutes. My forearms had welts for 2 weeks and bruises for nearly a month.

 

[BoxsterCy]

This thread gives me the willies.

Was at the store the other day and looked at, but did not buy, a pair of those knife resistant kitchen gloves. Think I'll go back and buy them.

 

[cycloneG]

I bite the inside of my cheek chewing gum all the time. It really hurts.

 

[urb1]

Hanging Christmas lights one year. I was finished, but one bulb was not in line with the rest (about the only thing I am OCD about), so I got on the stepladder to straighten it. The ground was not even, but I was careful to shift my weight onto the three level legs of it. Fixed the light, came down, and on the lowest step, my weight shifted. The ladder tipped over, the top of my foot slammed into one of the steps, and I broke four bones in my foot. That hurt so much, I couldn't even cuss.

 

[HARMCYN]

Framing Nailer. Through Index and Middle finger. Missed bone somehow.

 

[Wesley]

One summer I was trimming XMAS trees with a machete. I felt really powerful and good with it after thousands of swipes. The last machete swipe caught my kneecap on the last day. Darn. It was fun while it lasted.

 

[mj4cy]

I once tried to open up a bottle of champaign, I didn't realize how much pressure exerts on the cork and how you have to have a good grip on it or it's going to show out. So it shoots out, hits the wall 3 feet in front of me, bounces back and nails me in the forehead.

 

[dmclone]

When I was in my teens my parents had a car that had a trunk that you just touched down and then a motorized motor would shut it the rest of the way. I had my fingers inside the trunk when my dad closed the trunk and the trunk closed with my fingers in the trunk. I then had to wait until my dad pulled the keys out of his pocket to unlock the trunk.

 

[mj4cy]

Probably the dumbest and most threatening injury was when I was trimming grass after mowing around the edges of the house/ect. A piece of trimming spool snapped and nailed me in the eye. I saw double vision for two days until I went to urgent care the next night. What's worse is I had to take an 8 hour engineering exam with one functional eye pretty much.


I wear goggles or sunglasses now anytime I use any type of power tool that could get something in my eye.

 

[jdoggivjc]

Three come to mind.

4th grade, if you remember those old desks with the flip top, I was leaning on one of those, but it was hinged on the inside and my thumb was in the crack. A friend opened up the desk and basically peeled a lot of the flesh off my thumb. Sting like a bastard. Not severe enough where I needed stitches, but as it healed I had to trim off the dead skin.

12th grade, earlier in the year I had basically destroyed my right ankle in football practice with a 3rd degree sprain (I probably needed surgery on it, but never got it, and is probably the reason why it took a decade for it to stabilize to the point where it wouldn't just give out on me walking on a sidewalk). During wrestling practice I had taken to using a laced sock stabilizer to stabilize my ankle, so I thought my ankle was protected. We were doing sprints after practice and my teammates decided to jump off the wall to turn. I figured "what could go wrong?" Apparently a lot - the stabilizer wasn't even close to being enough to stabilizing my ankle and my ankle completely gave out when I landed on it wrong. I figure the only reason why the sprain wasn't worse was because there wasn't much left for me to damage in the ankle.

Final summer at ISU, I was leaving Friley Dungeon. Someone had previously opened the door and for whatever reason I made a big deal about having to catch it before it closed, and as a result, the door closed on the tip of my index finger. I don't think I broke the finger, but the nail went black in a matter of minutes. Ended up losing the nail months later.

 

[oldman]

When I was at ISU, we went to that park just east of campus to play football. I had my softball spike shoes on. To be cool, I climbed over the split rail fence in the parking lot without using my hands. My foot slipped and I came down full force on my left shin, on the top rail. Thought I was going to pass out for a few seconds. Never did get any medical treatment for it, but it still gave me pain six months later.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

Valentines Day 2014 I was replacing the garage door torsion spring(one with the coil spring inside the pipe, not the dangerous one with the coil spring outside of the pipe). I got the tension released on the spring and went to take the cables off the bottom of the door thinking I had the garage door secured enough fully opened. I was wrong....... As soon as I took the second cable off the door started to drop. I went to catch it and in the process the end of my pinky finger got in between two door panels. The door slammed to the ground with my finger in it crushing the ball end of the last bone into a pile of rubbish. Still doesn't bend correctly. Luckily I had gloves on at the time, as the doctor told me if I wasn't wearing gloves I would have lost the end of my pinky. There is an indention on the doors where they meet as proof of my adventure......

 

[oldman]

While in the Navy, I almost had a tragic accident. I was picking up a counter-weighted floor hatch (400-500 lbs). They are on curved hinges that actually raise the whole hatch about 3", then it comes to a rest at about a 60 degree angle with the back end on the deck. When I heaved up on it, my foot was too close to the back end, and it actually bounced off my steel-toed boot. The leather on my boot was cleanly cut to the steel, and the toe had a dent in it. If it weren't for that I'd have cut two and maybe three toes off, including my big one.

 

[jonnyb21]

Framing Nailer. Through Index and Middle finger. Missed bone somehow.

I've sadly done the same thing. No broken bones though but dang near about passed out as I was wearing gloves and the nail was part was stuck in my finger and part way in my gloves. Will never do that again.

 

[CycloneErik]

I was walking to the fridge to get out some milk for our thirsty daughter. Along the way, I stubbed my little toe on a stack of books for my dissertation work. Toe is broken.

It's worthless as an injury. It doesn't really hinder anything, but it looks terrible. It's becoming my favorite odd injury.

 

[SpokaneCY]

I was drinking and had to p. At the time I was driving a manual and happened to be in a parking garage. I stopped while going up the ramp and opened the door, stepped out and proceeded to p. Leaving the car unsecured, I was hit by my open door and knocked into my own p stream. Car wasn't going that fast so I got back in and went somewhere to have another beer and wash my hands.

Only emotional scars.