Warning: Gore
Nothing drives home the fragility of the human body like a life-changing injury. Or from witnessing one. My old butcher shop job drove this point home with exceptional gravity, as all the equipment was specially designed to dismember and dissect mammalian bone and flesh. The band saw in particular terrified me. Half a second to cut through a cow femur. I remained on guard with that doomsday device. A coworker – not so much. His mishap involved reconstructive surgery.
The meat slicer was also a cruel machine. I never caught a finger on it while in operation, but dismantling it for cleaning was a constant potential for injury. Pulling a large circular blade out of a recessed mount was an awkward maneuver. The clumsy shape would have made the action difficult even if it wasn’t sharp – which it was. Very. I suffered many a nick. But ultimately it was freehanding a knife that finally did me in. A slip on lamb fat severed my fingertip. Nothing like getting that stitched back on without anesthetic, because injecting the wound site would have swollen it beyond stitchability.
Between that, a couple swordfighting mishaps, and a couple home knife-cleaning sessions; I’m no stranger to lacerations and sutures. It comes with the territory of my hobbies. However, these were all due to manual tools, not mechanical. My healthy fear has so far kept me from horrific injury.
But these lessons are learned. My daughter had not yet learned them. Until The Day of the Hedge Trimmer.
Warning: Gore
I was mowing. Liz was trimming the yew bush hedgerow at the front of the house. She enlisted the kid.
Oblivious to all this, I noticed The Coffee Bean making a hasty exodus. Then I received an explanation via this image:
Further assessment in the hospital revealed the extent of the injury: the hedge trimmer had sliced through skin, fat, and muscle. Threads of elastin hung from the wound:
If any of my own wounds had been that deep, I would not have been fully aware of it as mine were clean knife incisions. The hedge trimmer, however, was less surgical with its damage, leaving more of a gash than a cut.
Fortunately, no tendons or bones were damaged. She’s incredibly lucky, as this could have easily resulted in permanent loss of mobility. The attending nurse’s expertise was also encouraging, as she took a mangled scrap of human flesh and Frankensteined it back into a recognizable hand.
The kid’s lingering surrealism from the experience will hopefully remain as a lasting memory and cautionary tale. Pay attention, and use gloves. Man has built destructive machines, and they’re equally destructive to ourselves.
She’s since pointed out that we could all easily die at any moment from a multitude of body system failures. I think the lesson hit home. I didn’t even have to yell.
–Simon