As the metal grinder cut half way through my foot, the first thing I recalled was the famous phrase of Forrest Gump: “Stupid is as stupid does.” Working with power tools with no protective gear is and always has been STUPID but that’s the oxymoron reality, if I were not stupid I would not have landed in the hospital for four days and three nights, seven shoe string style stitches not to mention a six- to eight-week recovery period. Trust me, I’m not fishing for sympathy as I am really grateful to God that the steel cutting blade did not hit a tendon, vein or bone. They actually washed out a 2-inch piece of the 4-inch grinding wheel that I did not see or feel in the wound. Had I opted to do home first aid, things may have turned for the worse in terms of gangrene, tetanus or sepsis.
Aside from the realization of my utter stupidity, I learned from the attending surgeon Dr. Villanueva that there are many more such accidents and serious injuries that come to the hospital and all of them resulted from the patient not wearing proper foot wear (workshop shoes or boots), not using gloves and not wearing eye protection such as safety goggles or face shields. The potential face and eye injury never occurs to many of us DIY folks but apparently some have lost an eye or gained the nickname scar…
