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Tonchi · 02-09-2006, 10:54 PM

You have tempted me to tell a power tool story

This takes place in Albuquerque in the early 70's when I was part of a rather large group of singles who skiied and did a lot of the same things. Our "Social Chairman" was a guy named John who owned a house with a pool as opposed to most of us who lived in apartments, so the action tended to end up around his back yard. To say the least, everybody drank. A LOT. Especially John. Which is probably why he put up with the constant crowd coming and going at all hours, but he was a really nice person about it.

John decided to build an extension to his house and do it himself to save money, but he managed to work that in with the partying around the pool at the same time because he was usually up on a ladder in the same general area. Thank God I wasn't there when it happened, but you can see where the story is going. Even if you get down off the ladder to do it, it's not the best idea to use a power saw to cut the framing when you've had about 6 beers by then. Lucky for John, when the saw slipped and cut off all his fingers on the left hand there were several other men there who caught him and tried to render the appropriate first aid. Except nobody KNEW what to do and everybody was drunk on their ass, including the victim, and their "aid" didn't exactly meet Red Cross standards. They did tourniquets and wrapped up his hand in towels and rushed him to the nearest hospital. As everybody was getting in their cars, one of them realized the fingers were still on the patio and the scramble to find them and take them to the hospital began. These guys were so drunk that while going back out the door with the severed digits, the person carrying them tripped and everything ended up in the flower bed. They couldn't find one of them afterwards so they took what they had to the hospital. I don't remember all the details, but it seems that the ones who stayed behind to search finally found the missing finger hours later, but it had not been on ice and could not be reattached because the tissue had deteriorated. Even in the early '70s when this took place, the surgeons in Albuquerque had experience with injuries like these (it was at the military hospital and a lot of veterans of Vietnam there) and they amputated one of John's toes to act as the 4th finger when they sewed it all back on. It was a blessing that it looked as normal as it did, all things considered. I saw John again on a visit to Albuquerque about 10 years after his accident and he was using the hand pretty well although it never recovered 100%, which was to be expected. I don't remember if he said he had built his own house up near Rio Rancho or not

02-09-2006, 10:54 PM	#9
Tonchi Victim of gravity Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Hiding in plain sight Posts: 1,412	You have tempted me to tell a power tool story This takes place in Albuquerque in the early 70's when I was part of a rather large group of singles who skiied and did a lot of the same things. Our "Social Chairman" was a guy named John who owned a house with a pool as opposed to most of us who lived in apartments, so the action tended to end up around his back yard. To say the least, everybody drank. A LOT. Especially John. Which is probably why he put up with the constant crowd coming and going at all hours, but he was a really nice person about it. John decided to build an extension to his house and do it himself to save money, but he managed to work that in with the partying around the pool at the same time because he was usually up on a ladder in the same general area. Thank God I wasn't there when it happened, but you can see where the story is going. Even if you get down off the ladder to do it, it's not the best idea to use a power saw to cut the framing when you've had about 6 beers by then. Lucky for John, when the saw slipped and cut off all his fingers on the left hand there were several other men there who caught him and tried to render the appropriate first aid. Except nobody KNEW what to do and everybody was drunk on their ass, including the victim, and their "aid" didn't exactly meet Red Cross standards. They did tourniquets and wrapped up his hand in towels and rushed him to the nearest hospital. As everybody was getting in their cars, one of them realized the fingers were still on the patio and the scramble to find them and take them to the hospital began. These guys were so drunk that while going back out the door with the severed digits, the person carrying them tripped and everything ended up in the flower bed. They couldn't find one of them afterwards so they took what they had to the hospital. I don't remember all the details, but it seems that the ones who stayed behind to search finally found the missing finger hours later, but it had not been on ice and could not be reattached because the tissue had deteriorated. Even in the early '70s when this took place, the surgeons in Albuquerque had experience with injuries like these (it was at the military hospital and a lot of veterans of Vietnam there) and they amputated one of John's toes to act as the 4th finger when they sewed it all back on. It was a blessing that it looked as normal as it did, all things considered. I saw John again on a visit to Albuquerque about 10 years after his accident and he was using the hand pretty well although it never recovered 100%, which was to be expected. I don't remember if he said he had built his own house up near Rio Rancho or not __________________ Everything you've ever heard about Fresno is true.