So we all know if you drop a gun DON'T TRY TO CATCH IT!!! Well we should all know the same about knives.....well except my dumb ass. Well whether I knew or not hilarity ensued.

So I spent some time this weekend in ye old emergency room because I was stupid.

I was cutting something open when the knife I was using slipped out of hand and dropped. Did I let it drop to the floor......HELL NO..that would have been entirely too prudent and I like a little strife in my life.

I tried to catch said dropping spinning knife and caught it...YAY!!!! and in the process stabbed myself in the gut....BOOOO!!!.

As blood pooled at my feet I ran to grab some paper towels. I left three pools of blood in the house. I figure I needed to triage myself but wanted to keep the rest of the house clean so I went outside and realized I had a pretty good wound pouring blood out. Well sonofabitch says I.

So I look for some duck tape and gauze to get things at least under control and dammit I cannot find the duct tape. Well shit I guess I need to get to the hospital. So I find some gauze and rags and packing tape and get some pressure on the wound and then think......I can't leave pools of blood on the hard wood so....I keep pressure and change my "bandages" and clean up my mess before heading to the emergency room. I jump in the car thinking "please don't bleed on the car!!!"

I get to the emergency room and the admin nurse and cop look at me and say I see you holding your side what happened. I say "I sort of stabbed myself." They ask..."Did you mean to?" I reply with "If I had, would I be here?" She simply hands me the computer and dead pans "enter your SSN" Geez, whats it take to get an express ticket back loss of a limb?

So I wait a short bit and get brought back. Now I know I didn't exactly run myself through with a gladius or anything and frankly I have a fairly severe laceration vs. a STAB WOUND so I am thinking 3 to 4 stitches or staples and a trip home.

Nope....I get back and like six folks are running IV's into me and working it as traumatic puncture would. They keep asking my pain level I say zero. My wife gets there and hears this and asks what they gave me.....they say nothing. I have a fairly high tolerance for pain.

At any rate I ran it down through the fat just into the muscle. So basically pizza saved my life (that's my story dammit). Had a CAT scan etc. etc. and they glued me back together. Never been glued before.

Well its a couple days later and I am now getting a bit sore from it all. Frankly the IV and tetanis shots hurt more than the stab wound.

Anyhoo....morals of this story.

1-If you ever drop a gun OR KNIFE.....let it fall!!!!!

2-Spyderco makes a MIGHTY sharp blade. Good on em'

Take care, don't be stupid, don't be like me.

Take care, shoot safe and cut safe.

Chris

Unfortunately, it's an instinctive reaction to try to grab something that slips out of your hand. Sucks when the object is sharp or pointy or goes bang. Hope you heal quickly.

Instead of a GoFundMe for cash, you need one for a suit of chain mail.

Pizza... good. Glad you're okay.

As always, coulda been worse. My echo tech a few years ago broke a glass which fell and severed an artery in his heel. Required vascular surgery to get it under control.

"Fitness Protection Program" saves another life!

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:

2-Spyderco makes a MIGHTY sharp blade. Good on em'

Yeah... I did a stupid with one last weekend. I get a large callus on the side of my right big toe. Some times I stone it down, some times I whittle on it.

Did that, no issue. Then I proceeded to scratch/scrap between my last two toes with the blade. Don't know why really, though I've done it plenty of times before. "Oh yeah... I've never done that with a brand new razor sharp knife before." Pain and lots-O-blood. A real deep cut between my toes, good lord I'm an idiot. No way to bandage it, so I end up taping the two toes tight together. Had to do that for a week. Still not healed, still hurts. Stupid ass.

I worked with a cook who managed to catch one with his foot during a busy dinner shift. Dinner suddenly got a lot busier without him.

Related:
In third grade, a newly sharpened pencil rolled off my desk. As it fell, I reflexively closed my legs to catch it before it hit the floor.
Mistake! I stabbed myself pretty deeply and the lead embedded itself in my leg and took years to dissolve.
I did not seek first aid for this episode, but probably should have.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve knocked a knife off my work bench and nearly eviscerating myself, I’d have a fat wallet⚔️.

My usual reaction to something falling is to buffer the object with my foot. I have stopped countless objects from direct impact with the ground and actually saved a lot of things from breakage that way, occasionally painfully when objects had some mass. I’ve never dropped a knife but I suppose I’m living on borrowed time at this point.

Not that I tried to catch it, but an exacto knife fell off the work bench in my garage. Not to worry, it didn't hit the concrete floor. Just sank right to the hilt in the top of my right foot. Took 3 stitches, and a lot of limping for a week or so after.

At my age, I have been hurt enough different ways that I don't want any more of that.

If I drop something, I just step back out of the way, as quickly as I can.

We seem to be running out of glasses in the kitchen.

Also gos with a drinking glass. If you are washing one and drop it, let it fall. Don't try to catch it. Because it will hit the kitchen sink and break anyways and you will just shove a large piece of broken glass into your hand somewhere.

Ask me how I know!


ARman

Basically, it goes with everything after you have enough experience.

I injured myself badly enough to end up unconscious on the floor and in ER for stitches trying to catch a falling VHS tape of the Muppet Babies circa 1991 in a kitchen pantry.

Just let shit fall and step back briskly.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
My usual reaction to something falling is to buffer the object with my foot. I have stopped countless objects from direct impact with the ground and actually saved a lot of things from breakage that way,

As do I, redirecting it sideways works. In fact, I did it with a person once. You wouldn't think you could give a woman a round house kick to the stomach and have her thank you for it, but she did. I was outside holding the door open for her as she exited on crutches. She messed up somehow and started going face first down the stairs. The only thing I could think to do was throw my leg out to slow her down, so it was basically a round house to the gut. But it slowed her down and turned her enough to mostly land in the grass and not face first on the cement. And she was grateful.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
My usual reaction to something falling is to buffer the object with my foot. I have stopped countless objects from direct impact with the ground and actually saved a lot of things from breakage that way, occasionally painfully when objects had some mass. I’ve never dropped a knife but I suppose I’m living on borrowed time at this point.

Ohh Jesus this is me too. When I worked in kitchens years ago. I dropped a 64oz thing of Au Jus. Tried to buffer with foot. WRONG! Limped for a few days.

Who would've thought that getting lucky enough to catch a falling knife by the handle would've resulted in slashing your gut?

Thanks for sharing. Definitely something I want to learn from others rather than learn myself.

Do not attempt to stop a food processor blade. Gravity wins every time.

For lessons learned you might want to assemble a trauma kit. Mine came in real handy when I sliced my leg open with a box cutter.

I had a kit with all my gauze and gear and what not and was able to get everything under control on my end. I just didn’t have any tape strong enough to put pressure and what I had was hard to work with one handed. I always have basic med supplies around.

It’s just that initial getting to it and triaging what exactly is going on that leaves a big mess