Member III
- 2,827
- First Name
- Joshua
- Last Name
- Downs
- Member #
-
20468
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- KK6RBI / WQYH678
- Service Branch
- USMC 03-16, FIRE/EMS
Was working on my new CJ5 project out in the garage trying to cut the horribly built front bumper/winch setup off. While cutting an upright on the bullbar the grinder (with cut off wheel) got caught and it ripped it out of my hands and fell to my shin. It cut me quite deep and the bleeding started off pretty heavy. I managed to scoot across the shop and get ahold of some Kerlix from the shop kit and press it into the wound. After that I scooted over to my Jeep XJ popped the hatch and grabbed my go bag. From there I recovered a CAT Tourniquet. I briefly considered applying the tourniquet but it looked like I had control of the bleeding with just pressure. I did wind up using the CAT because I couldn't move and hold pressure on my lower leg at the same time. I put the tourniquet around the Kerlix roll and gave it one turn on the windlass basically making a pressure bandage.
At that point my wife happened to be walking out of the house towards my garage and I was able to get her attention since she didn't answer her phone when I called after getting Kerlix on it. Our neighbors rushed over to watch the kids while she drove me to the ER.
I eventually went into the OR where they did a deep cleaning of the wound and made a repair to a Tendon that was grazed by the cut off wheel. I'm currently wrapped up pretty good with a vacuum device/dressing on the wound. I have a follow up tomorrow to look at it some more (by one of the same guys that did the surgery) and change the vacuum dressing and hopefully get some kind of timeline on healing. After the operation the doctor told my wife (I was zonked out on Ketamine and Versed) that I had missed a nerve bundle and my artery by about 3CM.
All this to say. Have equipment even at home, have some kind of plan in place. I had bought some cheap FRS radios just for this kind of thing where one radio could be left inside and the other with the garage to make communication a little easier.
Below is a picture and one video (in the instagram link) of the wound plus a picture of the garage floor where the injury initially happened.
At that point my wife happened to be walking out of the house towards my garage and I was able to get her attention since she didn't answer her phone when I called after getting Kerlix on it. Our neighbors rushed over to watch the kids while she drove me to the ER.
I eventually went into the OR where they did a deep cleaning of the wound and made a repair to a Tendon that was grazed by the cut off wheel. I'm currently wrapped up pretty good with a vacuum device/dressing on the wound. I have a follow up tomorrow to look at it some more (by one of the same guys that did the surgery) and change the vacuum dressing and hopefully get some kind of timeline on healing. After the operation the doctor told my wife (I was zonked out on Ketamine and Versed) that I had missed a nerve bundle and my artery by about 3CM.
All this to say. Have equipment even at home, have some kind of plan in place. I had bought some cheap FRS radios just for this kind of thing where one radio could be left inside and the other with the garage to make communication a little easier.
Below is a picture and one video (in the instagram link) of the wound plus a picture of the garage floor where the injury initially happened.
