Re: Shop safety
Just to follow up on this;
I got a chance to speak to my (old) neighbor today. His entire left arm is in a cast from the elbow to the thumb. He has some feeling in the thumb but no mobility at the moment.
W/O going into too graphic detail, his injury is extensive--he lost the entire muscle and tendon(s) that extends his left thumb--the whole thing. It literally ripped the entire muscle & tendons completely out of his arm from the elbow to the thumb through a golf ball-sized hole in his wrist, which is why they weren't able to re-attach it.
Yes, he showed me pictures. Yes, it was gnarly.
He's still understandably shook up about the whole thing, but he said that the doctors told him they can utilize one of the extender muscles from his index finger (there are 2 extension muscles and one contracting muscle) and attach it to his thumb so he will be able to have some use of it again.
However, he's going to have to re-learn how to use his hand since his mind will be "telling" his arm to extend the index finger but the thumb will also be responding to the command at the same time.
He told me how the incident happened: he was using a steel bar to wind more tension into the garage door spring when the bar gave way and folded over 90°--naturally the tensioner sprang free and the bent steel bar became a whirling J-hook...you can figure out the rest from there.
I really feel bad for him--he's a young guy with a wife and 2 kids and now he's out of work for an undetermined length of time. Thankfully his wife works, but he's got a lengthy recovery ahead of him.
As bad as it is, I'm thankful for him & his family that it wasn't worse.
Stay focused.
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