Almost lost my hand today

[MacTractor]

Guys,

I know better and I am sure I am not the first to do something stupid but today I ended up with my hand between a large tree and the ROPS. I was helping out a friend clear part of their property to put in a fence and I was mowing over some small trees with my FEL when I ended up next to a larger one. It had branches that were hitting me in the face to I instinctivley reached out and pushed them back. I then had my hand on the tree itself and when I moved forward the ROPS pinned my hand to the tree. I imediately backed up to release it but the damage was done. Luckly, I didn't break my hand but right now it looks like a clown hand. I am sure tomorrow it will be worse. It looks like I ended up crushing a couple of veins as there was no cut but blood started to come through the skin on the surface.

From now on, hands on the wheel of handles. Thank god I was wearing very heavy insulated work gloves.

I lucked out this time, so I am going to try to make sure there is not a next time.

Well, I'm in pain and it is hard to type so I am off to bed!.

Cheers,

 

[JDeerekid]

If your hand is that bad I hope you went to the doctors. I have seen and heard about to many people having strokes and dying because of blood clots.

Hope your hand heals with no problems.

 

[klrobert]

Sorry to hear about your accident. It only takes a split second to really do some damage. I saw a guy lose his arm once at a place I used to work. It always seems to be something you don't think about until it's too late. Keep that hand on ice and maybe you should get it x-rayed if it is swelling badly.

 

[JOELENAHAN]

Just last week, I was pushing brush into a brush pile. I had the logs all laying lengthwise and decided to push some from the tops of the trees. Wrong thing to do, I started pushing the tops with the top of my fel level with the top of the hood. One of the branches slipped over the top of the fel and smacked me in the head. Wasn't a pleasant feeling. Lucky it wasn't a large branch.

 

[dodge man]

Thanks for posting that. I have been close to trees and will stick my hand out on the tree. I don't know why? It's not like I'm going to push the back end of the tractor away from the tree.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

i've done the same thing........man, i REALLY hate going to the Dr. etc, but it does sound like you should have it checked out.....

i was using my FEL to push some brush in to the woods a couple of months ago, and one of the branches slipped up over the FEL bucket......branch about 1-1/2" in diameter....it stopped about 2" from my nose.....scared the crap out of me!

 

[Thomas]

Yikes...hope you visit the doc if hand still giving pain today.
Nasty events can happen very quickly...speedy recovery to you.

 

[MacTractor]

Well,

It looks a little better this morning. I think I'm going to take the advice of others and my wife and head into the doctors today. I've broken many bones in my life doing other stupid things, so I'm pretty sure it is not broken.

Dodge Man,

I have no idea why putting my hand on the tree when close to it is an instinct but it is. I think it was because there was a hole there and the tractor was leaning toward the tree a bit. Your right though, as if my hand out is going to stop the tractor from moving closer.

Lesson learned

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Sorry about your hand and hope it doesn't have permanent damage. It is so easy to "mess up". I had worked my landscape rake for several hours a couple of days ago to prepare some land for grass seed. Supposed to rain today so yesterday I hooked the Fergueson overseeder to my BX2350 and was laying down the grass seed. I was doing some watching behind me and also trying not to hit my small trees. This one tree was at the edge of my property and I was trying to get close to it and around it. I kept coming up to it and when I would stop the end of one of the branches was about 2" from my face. This happened a couple of times and I began talking to myself of how stupid can I be to keep doing the same thing. Did I want to punture an eyeball? I've also had several small branches smack me in the back of the head when they hit the rops and slide off into my head. I'm always shocked with the old "where did that come from?". Tractors are great tools but we need to always be attentive to how close we are to stuff down low and up high and at face level. The rops can bring the up high stuff to face level really quick.

 

[MarkLeininger]

Thanks for posting that. I have been close to trees and will stick my hand out on the tree. I don't know why? It's not like I'm going to push the back end of the tractor away from the tree.

This is called male super-hero thinking. I do it when carrying a mattress on the roof of my car. I always put my arm out the window and help hold the mattress down, like I could stop something the size of a sheet of plywood from flying off the roof of the car at 50mph with one arm. As Jerry Seinfeld says: Batman, Spiderman and Superman aren't fantasies for men, they're options.

 

[MacTractor]

Too funny! I wasn't wearing my cape so I ended up hurting my hand. Man, if I had the cape on that tree would have been sorry.

I too have held the mattress!

Cheers,

This is called male super-hero thinking. I do it when carrying a mattress on the roof of my car. I always put my arm out the window and help hold the mattress down, like I could stop something the size of a sheet of plywood from flying off the roof of the car at 50mph with one arm. As Jerry Seinfeld says: Batman, Spiderman and Superman aren't fantasies for men, they're options.

 

[BigD23]

All it takes is a second...You've got to be careful out there.

Don

 

[savageactor7]

Sorry to hear about your near miss and hope you recover fully. Had a similar situation happen to me using the brush hog but outside of being scared for a second no personal injury.

 

[BruceWard]

I had the top of a 4" tree come inside the ROPS on my B21 and reached over with my left hand to keep it out of my face. For some reason I wasnt thinking about what would happen when I started driving forward again while holding the tree. I thought I might have broken my hand but it was ok. Glad you are ok. I think we both learned not to do that again!

 

[rdsaustintx]

Well,

It looks a little better this morning. I think I'm going to take the advice of others and my wife and head into the doctors today. I've broken many bones in my life doing other stupid things, so I'm pretty sure it is not broken.

Mac, hope your hand is OK; you might wanna see a specialist. Hands have strange bones and incredibly complicated geometry for all the finger joints.

Broken hands don't necessarily look broken. There are bones you can break which don't heal. I cracked a couple in my right hand and it will never be the same, frozen fingertip, numbness, strumming tendons and lost grip strength. Doctor said surgical intervention would probably make it worse. Been 2.5 years now and it really isn't any better.

Amazing how we take all these little miracles for granted...

Russell in Texas

 

[rbargeron]

Mac - It is really fine that you posted about this - even though you were still in pain at the time. One of our best instincts here is we look out for each other. (Russell's post above is another example) Thank you for having the impulse that if it could happen to you it could happen to anyone here and we all should heed your caution. Hope you have a speedy recovery and somebody in your life makes you some cookies

 

[Reg]

Maybe those thick heavy insulated work gloves gave you some false sense of security ?
I know when I have a burn pile I don't get singed if I work bare handed, but I have some seriously scorched gloves (-:

 

[MacTractor]

I would think that without the gloves, my hand would have been lacerated. I was wearing them not for the protection, but because it was cold out

The swelling came down quite a bit today. It is not broken but the bones are definitley bruised. I did damage some veins on the top of my hand. It is expected that they will heal without any lasting problems. I am just really lucky.

I appreciate the responses and like others have mentioned, I posted this to offer some wise advise as I would hope that others will think twice about reaching out to objects while on the tractor.

Funny, my wife reminded me today that even though my tractor is little, it is still a piece of heavy machinery and can mame you the same as a larger one. I just didn't think of it that way before this. I thought of it as a big lawn tractor with a BH and FEL, which it is not.

Lesson learned, now on to the next project!

Maybe those thick heavy insulated work gloves gave you some false sense of security ?
I know when I have a burn pile I don't get singed if I work bare handed, but I have some seriously scorched gloves (-: