Garage safety - Please take a second to read

[Benny]

I've been spending a lot of time on my '61 Mini lately, often looking for a few minutes here, and a few minutes there to spend on it. A couple of weeks ago, I painted the clutch arm and clutch cover before going out to dinner with my wife. When I came home, I ran outside to bring them in, and as it often goes, I thought "It will only take 2 minutes to put these together".

I inserted the fulcrum pin, then inserted the split pin, and cut the extra off the split pin. As I cut the split pin, the 'leg' I had cut shot straight into my right eye. I knew immediately that it had gone in my eye, but I only realized how serious it was when I saw clear fluid pouring onto the ground from my eye. I reached up, and just by instinct, I found the pin sticking out of my eye, and I pulled it out.

My wife rushed me to the emergency room, and I was taken straight into surgery. The pin passed straight through my cornea, through the pupil, and into the lens that sits behind your iris. The goal of that first surgery was to clean the wound, stitch up the cornea, and "save the eye". 24 hours later, I had the bandages removed, only to find out that a cataract had already formed, which left me totally blind in that eye (see picture). For the next 5 weeks, I'll have those stitches across my cornea, which feel like hot sand under my eye-lid.

After a week in bed, my doctor decided that I was healthy enough to undergo a second surgery to remove the cataract. After that surgery, I probably have 30% vision in the eye.....I can count your fingers, and tell you what color shirt you are wearing, but that's about it. I will be like this for at least the next 3 months, at which point, I will undergo 1 or 2 more surgeries. At that point, I will receive an artificial lens implant, and potentially a "new" cornea from a donor eye. I actually consider myself very lucky.....I should probably be blind, but I actually have a good prognosis for normal vision.

I'm posting this because I don't want anyone on this board to experience what I am going through. I realize it's easy to say "You should have been wearing glasses", but if we are honest with ourselves, we have probably all done something that SHOULD have involved safety glasses. From this point on, I will never pick up another tool without glasses, and for cutting/grinding, I'll go with glasses and a face shield, just to be sure. If just one person reads this, and does the same, then I've done my job.

Be safe out there, and I'll be in touch when I'm back to working on my Mini.

[Pete]

What a horror story Benny and a lesson to us all. I'm extra careful now after getting tungsten in my eye from a drill bit some years ago but the pain and damage was nothing compared to that.

Best of luck, hope it heals as well as possible.

Pete

[guru_1071]

yikes


i will be the first to admit that ive done some stupid things to my self and collected a healthy collection of burns, scars, bits of metal added etc over the years, but ive got to say i winced a bit when i read your thread, then winced a whole lot more when i saw the picture

ive only ever had to go to a&e once to get something removed from my eye, and that hurt enough to remind me about goggles etc!

[Benny]

Thanks Pete,

So far, all of the news has been positive related to my recovery....again, I feel extremely fortunate.

There were two points during my hospital visits where my blood ran cold. The first was when the ER Doctor told me that my injury was above his pay grade, but then went on to explain all of the possible worst case scenarios. The second was the morning after my first surgery, when I thought the worst was behind me, but the eye surgeon explained "I'm still confident that you are going to get to keep your eye as long as we can fight off any infection".

Moments like that are enough to permanently change your perspective on life.

[guru_1071]

There were two points during my hospital visits where my blood ran cold.

benny

my blood ran cold in the hospital when the doctors told me 'the damage to your foot and lower leg is so bad we have to consider amputation.....wtf! even the dose of morphine i was on didnt help with that particular bombshell

later when they told me at i would never walk without crutches i was just like 'we will see about that'

three months later i was back at work walking (slowly and falling over a lot, but no stick or crutches!)

[Lord Croker]

That is a very unfortunate accident, which should be a salutary lesson to us all, the most unlikely thing can cause a serious injury, no doubt we all use safety glasses when grinding metal, but who would have thought the end of a split pin could cause this? Thank you Benny for posting this, & I do hope that your recovery continues well, kindest regards & best wishes to you.

[Nevsmini]

Wishing you a speedy recovery benny! Thanks for sharing. No more chances for me I've only 40% in one eye so I can't afford to loose the other eye. Sends chills down my spine!

Let keep these on

[Benny]

but who would have thought the end of a split pin could cause this?

I think you just hit on the most important point....you can never anticipate this type of thing, so you can't be too careful.

I was speaking to my uncle the other evening, and mentioned that I have probably cut hundreds of split pins in my life. He's been a mechanic for over 50 years, and shuddered to think of the 1,000's of pins he has probably cut. He said the same sort of thing....."I never would have imagined..."

[JC T ONE]

Hi Benny,


very sorry for your accident, what a terrible thing to experience

I agree with what you wrote about face shield AND Googles , a few years ago I used the angle grinder, wearing face shield only.

A piece of metal bounced off the ear protector, and into the inside of the shield, and then back into my eye it burnt into the eye, so never again do I trust a face shield.

A guy on a farm next to my garage, wasnt as lucky as us, he got a metal piece into the eye, and went to bed, thinking he got it out.
Woke up in the middle of the night, with White stuff poring from his eye, went to the hospital, 15 min later he only had one eye.
The enfection almost cost him BOTH eyes, thats how fast it spreads so think about this guys, next time you "think" you got it out ??????????????????????

Wish you a speedy recovery, and will think of your advice, next time I use a cutter.


Jens Christian

[Pandora]

good grief. best of luck for a speedy recovery.

Obviously in my line of work (HSE Inspector) , I've lost count of the number of times i've heard 'it was a job I do all the time', 'it was a 2 second job' and 'it all happened so quickly' etc etc.

One of the original builders of Pandora (the car from which my forum name is taken) told me he knew it was a stupid thing to do, tightening a Jubilee clip with the screwdriver pointing back towards his eye...... you can guess the rest.

Yes, we've all done it, especially when we were young, but not any more.

Safety glasses might look dorky, but my god are they worth it!

Al

[66S]

Hi Benny,
Reading your story, there are some elements of luck there, both good and bad. I wish you a total recovery and a speedy one as well.

Al

[pad4]

speedy recovery to you sir and a lesson for me to practice what i preach, every day of the week to my employees i go on and on and on about goggles, ear protection , doing stupid stuff then go in the garage and take no notice of my own H&S ranting

A few years back i was filling a canister up with cellulose thinners through a funnel - had a big air bubble that spat thinners back in my eyes (no goggles) and burnt them , i had no real vision for 4-5 days - take care of your eyes guys - dont take chances

pad

[Neal]

Sorry for you accident and thanks for the warning. I have two sets of saftey glasses which have sat on the work bench for years largely unused. Reading your post and I can relate to a couple of times when i thought , that was a bit close. I hope your eye recovers as well as possible under the circumstances.

We lost a well known NZ mini racer a number of years back. Was taking a flywheel off as he'd done many times before. Flywheel popped off and his mid section took the impact. He passed away from complications a couple days after.

[814CWE]

i always forget to wear safety glasses....especially on those "spur of the moment" jobs

wish you a speedy recovery...

now wheres my safety glasses

[Tedwong]

Hi Benny, very sorry to hear such a terrible story. I send my best wishes to your speedy recovery.
It remind me of my own incident few years ago, when I tried to pull the steering wheel off my MG Midget, sitting on the driver seat, use all my bull force! Yes, it came out straight onto my face, smashed my glasses. Rushed to AED and luckily no glass go into eyes, only some bruising. How stupid I was. Never removing the nut completely again!
After hearing your story, I'll wear safety goggle though I don't like to remove the mist it caused frequently.

Ted

[guru_1071]

Hi Benny, very sorry to hear such a terrible story. I send my best wishes to your speedy recovery.
It remind me of my own incident few years ago, when I tried to pull the steering wheel off my MG Midget, sitting on the driver seat, use all my bull force! Yes, it came out straight onto my face, smashed my glasses. Rushed to AED and luckily no glass go into eyes, only some bruising. How stupid I was. Never removing the nut completely again!
After hearing your story, I'll wear safety goggle though I don't like to remove the mist it caused frequently.

Ted

ive done this

it hurts like hell

my nose bleed for england

[chichestermini]

Benny, get well soon to you sir.

Isn't it always the case (I'm guilty), that you don't ever think you will fall prey to one of these accidents. I guess you have most certainly taught me to be more careful in my practice...

I'm considerably younger than most forum members, and already in my 'mini career' I have had to escape from a surprise car fire starting at the rear. (I definitely lost one of my nine lives, and in the time taken to slow the car down to dive out, a large chunk of my hair too!)

Wishing you a speedy and total recovery,

Thom

[814CWE]

on a similar but different note..

i was recently drilling out a washer in the vice,,,,got a little close.....and........

split second later the drill was wrapped round my "crown jewels"

it had cought the tie up lace in my jogging bottoms and in a split second my joggies were wrapped round the drill chuck,,,

a little bruised but lucky i only had the drill at 850 rpm

any faster and i would have lost the lot!

so be careful when wearing loose fit joggy bottoms when drilling items at waist height,,,which my workbench sadly is

[sclemow]

ouch ... hope you recover well and quickly, it doesn't enter your mind that something like this will happen.

[guru_1071]

split second later the drill was wrapped round my "crown jewels"

however, on the upside...

brooks 'castrato' singing career has really taken off!!!