Eye injury; very lucky it wasn't worse.

[aquan8tor]

Hey there. I'm sorry, and embarrassed to report the person injured was ME, but I'm happy to report that my vision will be fine, and my injury was a one-in-a-million kind of situation.

Tuesday, I took down a 10" nice straight cedar for shed posts. Felled it exactly where I wanted it to land, wearing steeltoe boots, chaps, longsleeves, leather gloves, STIHL combination helmet/mesh visor/earmuffs. I even wear earplugs underneath b/c I'm a musician, and I want my hearing to last as long as possible. My big mistake was not wearing goggles UNDERNEATH the visor. I wear them when milling b/c of the fine dust, but I didn't bother this time. Needless to say, I won't EVER make that mistake again.

I started limbing the tree, and about halfway through, I cut a small branch that was under tension, which snapped up and hit me. I was standing at just the perfect angle for the branch to come to the left side & knock the visor up and hit me in the eye itself. I don't know whether my eye was partly closed or what. It happened so fast, I really didn't have any time to react. Went to the ER right away, and waited to get seen for a while until somebody recognized my mom (she had to drive me b/c I was holding an icepack on the eye) then they brought me back right away & washed it out & used tweezers & sterile q-tip swabs to get the pieces of bark & sawdust out of my eye. They did numb it up a bit, but the drops hurt almost as bad as the branch. Felt like somebody gave me an electric shock. Anyway, I'm one lucky mug, let me tell you. A few mm higher and I'd be blind. Hopefully my arrogance and ignorance for that matter, can be a lesson to other folks out there who think that PPE is just for wussies or professionals, or whatever. EVERYONE needs to wear full PPE; EYE protection, chaps, steel toed boots, gloves, helmet, and hopefully a face shield. Don't take chances.





Warning: these pics are closeups, so if you don't want to see, don't open them.

 

[Semi-Hex]

It looks like you wacked yourself a good one. They claim if your carefull enough a accident cannot happen. Hope your well soon.

 

[Adkpk]

Sorry to hear that, agua. Hope it heels up well for ya.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Ouch. Yep, those who take safety precautions are just sissies, right?

Right.


Glad you're going to be okay.

 

[rmihalek]

A friend told me he was cutting a limb under tension and when it let go it grabbed the saw right out of his hands and threw it 25 feet away. There's quite a bit of power bound up in those limbs!

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Yikes! A running chain saw? Even if it were a pruning saw, having one fly that far could do some serious damage to someone, say, 20 feet away.

:jawdrop:

 

[salman]

To be frank I did not have the guts to see those pictures as I feel weird looking at any sort of injury. But yes it should be admitted that you have got a lucky escape so please be more careful the next time you do this. I can recall the loss of one of my friends although not in the similar situation as you but he lost his life due to the avoidance of mere precautions.

 

[aquan8tor]

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend. I was definitely very lucky; I am always very very careful, but this was a one-in-a-million type situation, that happened even though I had protection on my face. It just happened that the Stihl helmet/metal face visor/earmuff combo was not quite enough protection in this particular instance. I bought a pair of polycarbonate goggles that are for competition paintball games; if it can stop a competition grade paintball gun at close range, I figure it can stop a stick the next time. These goggles are overkill. I'm truly sorry about your friend.

about the pictures, they really weren't that bad. Also, the eye is apparently one of the quickest parts of the human body to heal, says the opthalmologist that I had to see about it. There was very little of the cut just a week and a half after it happened. Thanks for your concern.



Nate

 

[Log Splitter]

I'd bet small springpoles injure new chainsaw users more than anything else. People just don't think that the result of cutting them is the same as cutting a fully drawn bow. Make several small cuts and let the tension release before cutting them all the way through.

 

[aquan8tor]

I hadn't noticed the response to the thread. This has nothing to do with springpoles. I was cutting a straight, standing tree, dropped it within a foot of where I said it would go, and was limbing it on the ground. I am not a new chainsaw user. The point of me posting this thread was to show just how easy it is for even an experienced user to have an injury, even when protected. I should have been more clear about the limb; the weight of the other, uncut higher limbs (I was cutting from base to tip, to make poles to hold up a shed roof) uncut higher limbs caused tension on a lower limb......the branch sprung up when cut, and was THROWN at me; the limb was on the ground, and wouldn't have been able to get to eye level even if you stood it on end. I wasn't hit by a kickback or spring pole action. Should've been more clear. If I'd been cutting and it springpoled and hit me, it would have been my dumb A$$ fault & I wouldn't have posted the pics, which really weren't that bad. You should've seen the eye before the ER docs removed the embedded chips.

 

[buzz sawyer]

I'd bet small springpoles injure new chainsaw users more than anything else. People just don't think that the result of cutting them is the same as cutting a fully drawn bow. Make several small cuts and let the tension release before cutting them all the way through.

Log Splitter, you took the words right out of my keyboard! When I read RMI's post about the chainsaw, first thing I thought of was a bow.

Aquan8tor, am I seeing a reflection in the cornea or do I see abrasions?
Glad you're going to be ok, that was close.

 

[aquan8tor]

Yeah, log splitter's post was dead on; I just wanted to distance myself, I got a little defensive about not being a newbie......
The pics do show a corneal abrasion, and a really good conjuctival tear through to the sclera; the clear layer was gouged several mm deep into the scleral (white) tissue. I kept it taped up except for adding antibiotics for almost a week. Really lucky. The opthalmology attending said had the corneal abrasion been 1-2 mm. deeper, I would've ruptured the corneal dome.
I've seen pics of someone that did almost the same thing; their eye was literally hanging out of its socket. They didn't lose the eye completely, but vision was down to movement I'm sure. I can't remember the site, but I think it was OSHA related.....

 

[aquan8tor]

Yeah, log splitter's post was dead on; I just wanted to distance myself, I got a little defensive about not being a newbie......
The pics do show a corneal abrasion, and a really good conjuctival tear through to the sclera; the clear layer was gouged several mm deep into the scleral (white) tissue. I kept it taped up except for adding antibiotics for almost a week. Really lucky. The opthalmology attending said had the corneal abrasion been 1-2 mm. deeper, I would've ruptured the corneal dome.
I've seen pics of someone that did almost the same thing; their eye was literally hanging out of its socket. They didn't lose the eye completely, but vision was down to movement I'm sure. I can't remember the site, but I think it was OSHA related.....

 

[aquan8tor]

Yeah, log splitter's post was dead on; I just wanted to distance myself, I got a little defensive about not being a newbie......
The pics do show a corneal abrasion, and a really good conjuctival tear through to the sclera; the clear layer was gouged several mm deep into the scleral (white) tissue. I kept it taped up except for adding antibiotics for almost a week. Really lucky. The opthalmology attending said had the corneal abrasion been 1-2 mm. deeper, I would've ruptured the corneal dome.
I've seen pics of someone that did almost the same thing; their eye was literally hanging out of its socket. They didn't lose the eye completely, but vision was down to movement I'm sure. I can't remember the site, but I think it was OSHA related.....

 

[Log Splitter]

Sorry, Aquan8tor, I did not mean to imply that you were a newbie.

Lot's of people get hurt when starting out by not thinking ahead about what will happen when the forces are released when something is cut. The guys that are occasional chain saw users that I send to this site seem to all end up here, and your post was a great place for me to make my point since these same guys always mention this part of the forum and the injuries they read about. The reason for my post was so that maybe somebody reading it in the future might think about what he's doing and save a trip to the ER. I did use the term 'springpole' loosely (as in anything under so much tension or compression that it is bent).

Injuries happen to the most seasoned professional loggers, and lots of them happen when dealing with tops. Tops are dangerous places to run a saw, there are plenty of ways to get hurt when cutting there.

Thanks for sharing your misfortune, I hope somebody reading it will avoid a similar (or worse) injury some day because of what you've written. I really hope that eye gets better soon!

 

[aquan8tor]

no worries. Geez, I don't know why it posted the response three times.....I didn't need to drill it in that hard!

:deadhorse: :deadhorse: :deadhorse: :deadhorse:

The eye is back to normal, almost can't even see the spot where the branch hit. I've been sawing since; the new goggles don't have a lot of venting, and I need to get an antifog cream or something to put on the inside, like for a scuba mask. PITA! Damned if I don't , and unfortunately damned if I do.....

 

[buzz sawyer]

no worries. Geez, I don't know why it posted the response three times.....I didn't need to drill it in that hard!

:deadhorse: :deadhorse: :deadhorse: :deadhorse:

The eye is back to normal, almost can't even see the spot where the branch hit. I've been sawing since; the new goggles don't have a lot of venting, and I need to get an antifog cream or something to put on the inside, like for a scuba mask. PITA! Damned if I don't , and unfortunately damned if I do.....

Knowing it wasn't a springpole simply reinforces the importance of wearing eye protection - which I believe was your original intent. I can't imagine keeping your eye closed and bandaged with that much abrasion and damage. Good post. As for the fogging goggles, have you thought of power vented goggles? they can be pricey but maybe worth it. Just google "anti-fog goggles".

 

[SmokinDodge]

A pair of bugz eyes might also do the trick.

http://store.baileys-online.com/cgi-bin/baileys/408?mv_session_id=A5IISum7&product_sku=35750

 

[aquan8tor]

A pair of bugz eyes might also do the trick.

http://store.baileys-online.com/cgi-bin/baileys/408?mv_session_id=A5IISum7&product_sku=35750

I opted for the paintball goggles because I do a fair amount of milling and shop woodworking, and don't have very good dust collection there. The fine dust irritates my eyes, & I wear contact lenses. Otherwise, the bug eyes are a great option. I'd jump for them if they had interchangeable lenses. I looked all over at different ones available; Stihl makes some that they apparently don't send to the US; I saw them in the safety products online page, but they don't have them at any local stihl dealers, and they don't list them as available in the US web page.