"What did you do? Poke yourself with a pencil? Massive paper cut?" My mother laughed after I told her I got injured at work last week.
This particular injury of mine was quite the gusher. It was a pretty dumb injury, so I didn't bother going to the ER (although it probably could have used a stitch or two).
Dumbness aside, it actually WAS work-related. And I've had students do all kinds of things to themselves in lab (mostly unintentionally).
What's the worst on-the-job injury you've seen/had? And does anyone take it seriously when you come home and say "honey, I hurt myself in the classroom....again" ?
8 comments:
I worked in a chain bakery during college. One year the company gave us all turkeys for Christmas. This was nice, except half of the store was vegetarian. My boss and coworkers suggested that the meat eaters each get 2 turkeys, and boss would let us store them in the huge walk in freezer.
I had to help her move the boxes of turkeys (6-20lb turkeys in a box) to the top shelf that was about 5.5 ft of the ground. We both topped out around 5ft2. So as we are putting the box on the top shelf, she loses her grip, and drops the box on my finger, which was then pinned between the very cold wire shelving. Ended up with a hairline fracture.
I haven't worked there in 12 years. I still harass her about it.
So what did you do?!
Nothing major for me, although I had a very close call during my undergrad research project when the dodgy nerves in my left arm (damaged when I broke my arm very badly as a kid, and prone to spazzing out with no warning and making me drop whatever I'm holding) made me drop a massive bottle of conc HCl. I jumped back to avoid the splash and took off my labcoat and gloves and threw them across the room, all in one fluid motion... when I came back an hour later after evacuating the room, my gloves and a patch of the floor were melted, and my labcoat was more hole than fabric.
That was the last time I ever held anything dangerous in my left hand!
Got carpal tunnel syndrome while writing my dissertation.
Oh, and I tripped up the stairs (no, not down, up) during the first week of my MS research internship, with my hands stuck into my coat pockets. I pretended everything was fine but my thighs were so swollen I could barely peel off my jeans when I got home in the evening... and I got bruises matching two steps for weeks.
A steam burn from an autoclave. On the face, luckily not the lungs. It wasn't a malfunction and it wasn't the person's fault either, it was the previous user's fault.
Worst I've heard of: A friend's mom worked in a store, and she was putting items on a high shelf while standing on a ladder. The ladder slipped, and she fell - but her wedding ring got caught on the metal shelf. By the time they got her down, her finger was shredded and had to be amputated.
Worst I've heard of, science category: Shortly before I started at a biotech company, one of the technicians absent-mindedly left their hand on top of the plate they were putting into the robot. Now, this was a cash-strapped little startup, so they hadn't shelled out for the auto-stop device that would have detected this. Instead, the robot obligingly picked up a box of pipet tips, brought them over, and slammed them down on top of the plate, creating a nice 8x12 array of puncture wounds in the back of this person's hand. Worse, the robot jammed in this position and wouldn't restart. The paramedics were called, but they had to wait around until one of the automation people could come in and get the robot working. The person was pinned for at least half an hour.
Worst I've done to myself: In high school, I was running downstairs - as usual, I was late for the bus. Also as usual, I was wearing a backpack that weighed 50+ lbs. I felt something pop in my neck. By the time I got to school, I could not lift my head from my shoulder without yelping in pain. It was a busy time of year, so I simply propped my head up (towels+belt=neck brace) and carried on. I couldn't lift my head for a week, and couldn't use a backpack again for another year.
Most embarrassing: I did one of those five-hour programming contests, and I absent-mindedly sat on my leg. After time was called, I got up to leave, and found that my leg had fallen asleep badly. It cramped up, and stayed cramped for days. I was visibly limping. After the first few times, I realized I needed a better explanation than "computer team injury", but by then it was too late.
I've sliced, burned, and spilled stuff on myself, and seen others do the same, but fortunately nothing worth writing home about.
I've witnessed a few bad accidents (see here for details). Personally, my worst accident was taking 400 V to the hand (my arm hurt all day from all my muscles contracting at once).
A student once spilled fairly concentrated HCl on my dad's hand, which turned green for several weeks (despite following all normal acid-spill procedures).
Of course there is never a convenient time to spill concentrated acid on someone, but semi-conveniently, this happened right before Halloween...
I had a chemistry prof who was missing one finger and part of another as a result of a lab accident.
Like KK, I once missed a stair in a lecture hall and got a really severe ankle sprain that made walking difficult for a week or so.
I like TPA's blog comment about not working alone. Second-hand info says that one HF survival and one low O2 death resulted from the presence and absence, respectively, of other people.
Post a Comment