Three things happened to me while working at Neutron Products that required that I go see the local General Practitioner, Dr. A (I will not publish his full name)
This is injury # 3
Nail Gun Accident
We used wooden crates to package the product that we produced in the chemical plant. These crates were wired together and set on top of a wooden pallet. The sides were nailed to the top of the pallet and once filled; a wooden top was nailed onto the crate to secure the product inside.
We used pneumatic nail guns for this task. These nail guns were really good and you could shoot a nail a few hundred yards if the conditions were right. There were 2 key conditions. 1 – No one in the path of the shot. 2 – the boss was nowhere around.
The boss harped on us to be careful with the nail gun. However one time I failed to be careful enough.
I was putting the top on one of the crates and I had my left hand pushing the top down onto the product so that I could shoot a nail in the side and then into the side of the top. My hand was directly over where I was shooting the nail, horizontally; at least this is what I thought. The nail hit a knot or another nail and shot straight up into my hand.
Picture this folks – my hand nailed to the top of the crate with a spiral nail designed not to back out. I yanked my hand off the nail and stood there watching my life juice drip all over the crate. Truth be told, I started moving my hand around over the top trying to draw a cool picture before the boss saw me and started yelling.
OK – Let’s pick up the pace of this story now.
Off to see the company Doctor to get cleaned up and for a tetanus shot. Guess who the company Doctor was – Yep, Dr. A.
One of my buddies drove me to his office. There was no nurse there that day so Dr. A took me back to the examining room. He took a look at the hole in my hand and told me to follow him over to a sink. Here is where it got really strange.
He unwrapped a sponge that had antiseptic on it, handed it to me and told me to start scrubbing the hole in my hand.
Now, I kid you not about this – His office door was open and I could see into it from the sink where I stood. He walked over to his desk, sat down, picked up a glass of what appeared to be bourbon and took a sip of it. He picked up a magazine and started reading it.
He looked over at me and in his very clear Asian accent, told me to keep scrubbing. He then picked up a bottle and poured more drink into his glass. Before he took another sip he yelled over to me, “Keep scrubbing, you need to get it real clean.”
It seemed like 15 minutes of scrubbing before he got up and came over to me. He took some paper towels out of the dispenser above the sink and whipped the antiseptic off my hand (did he just contaminate me again?). He put a Band-Aid over the hole in my hand and told me to keep it dry for a few days as he walked me out of the building.
I told my boss about this and all he said was, “He we sent you to the Dr. We did our job. Now get back to work and be more careful next time. That Doctor visit cost us $130.”
Anyway, I learned a lot back then. Be careful around needles especially when your butt is involved. Expect an X-ray when you hurt your bones and wow, I wonder if today a Doctor only charges a $130 and if he drinks cheap bourbon or good single Malt.
This is part 3 of 3 / This has been another story shared by Teddy Burriss. I hope you enjoyed it.
Teddy Burriss 