Inspired by the All The Jobs You Ever Had thread. Work can be sometimes be dangerous. What's happened to you at work?

Let's see, for me, some of the worse ones:

~While working at the Nansemond wastewater plant, I was covered head to toe in digester sludge once. I wasn't injured, but it was a pretty horrible scene. I couldn't even take a bath right away since the sludge clogged the loading area drain and was headed for the storm drain - that had to be cleaned up asap, or we would have violated permit.

~Whiel working at the York River plant, I was trying to pull a non potable water hose inside a building. I yanked hard on it, and ran my elbow into a heat exhanger. That was painful!

~While doing maintenance at the hotel I was at, I was shocked on several occasions. The worst one was by a dimmer switch. I got hit hard enough that it knocked me to the floor... and that was only 120V. My arms were sore for two weeks. I don't work on electrical circuits now (any voltage) unless the power source is tagged out and I can check to make sure the circuit isn't hot.

~Same hotel, I was drilling a steel plate which spun in my hand, slicing the web in my palm which required three stitches. Good thing I was outside because blood went everywhere.

~Working at the job I'm at now I've already had two fairly bad accidents. I was cutting a piece of carpet with a carpet knife, which uses those ultra thin ultra sharp double sided blades. The knife hit a staple, and my hand slid foward slicing my thumb to the bone. Not much pain, but I bled badly.

The other was last Monday when one leg of my ladder buckled, leaving me dangling 2' in the air by my left arm which was caught between a 36" steel fire door (read: very heavy with a hydraulic closer) and the doorframe. The bruise doesn't look bad now, but my shoulder was muffed up for three days.

Ant

As I mentioned in the other thread, I did a temp job helping to put a new roof on the old apartment building. I was down below and the guy who was actually putting the roof on, threw a board down-not realizing that I was right there. Sure enough, it hit me square on the head-OUCH!!! I was seeing stars BIG TIME. I am glad that it hit me square rather than on the side or corner. I hate to think of the results if that happened. With that job, I had to climb up & down stairs a lot. I discovered that my knee did not like that after a while, my knee was KILLING me. The only other time that had happened was a couple of weeks ago when we helped my step-daughter move from her 3rd story apartment. It took about 10 times up and down those stairs for my knee to start acting up (going up was fine but going down was a killer).


When I was in the A.F. and I was in tech school learning to type on a teletypewriter. I felt it go up one arm & down the other. Come to find out the teletype wasn't grounded so I got hit with a jolt of electricity.  :o :o :o


Oh yeah, I also broke many nails & got many paper cuts, too. Do they count?  :D ;D ;D



Cat

As I mentioned in the other thread, I did a temp job helping to put a new roof on the old apartment building. I was down below and the guy who was actually putting the roof on, threw a board down-not realizing that I was right there. Sure enough, it hit me square on the head-OUCH!!! I was seeing stars BIG TIME. I am glad that it hit me square rather than on the side or corner. I hate to think of the results if that happened. With that job, I had to climb up & down stairs a lot. I discovered that my knee did not like that after a while, my knee was KILLING me. The only other time that had happened was a couple of weeks ago when we helped my step-daughter move from her 3rd story apartment. It took about 10 times up and down those stairs for my knee to start acting up (going up was fine but going down was a killer).


When I was in the A.F. and I was in tech school learning to type on a teletypewriter. I felt it go up one arm & down the other. Come to find out the teletype wasn't grounded so I got hit with a jolt of electricity.   :o :o :o


Oh yeah, I also broke many nails & got many paper cuts, too. Do they count?  :D ;D ;D



Cat


Board to the head: ouch!

Broken nails and papercuts count. Remember, all on the job injuries must be immediately reported to a supervisor!

I forgot what must have been the funniest (if it happened to someone else):

While working at that hotel in housekeeping, I was carry a enormous box of TP into a store room. It had like 100+ rolls in it, so it was quite heavy and large enough that it obscured my vision. I get to the store room and the box hits the doorframe on both sides, stopping me dead in my tracks and smashed my face into the corner of the box. I was dizzy after that.

I also found out that you never unplug a TV while touching the picture tube. The tube discharged into my thigh, which felt like a stun gun. Had I had the TV a few inches to the left, it would have 'shocked the monkey', so to speak.

Ant

I have had a black eye and a cut cheek from a large book falling on me. I have pulled my back and a muscle in my chest (very painful), I have run over my foot with a rolling bookcase, fallen down the stairs knackering my wrist and got concusion tripping over a foot stool. Libraries are dangerous places!  ;D

I have had a black eye and a cut cheek from a large book falling on me. I have pulled my back and a muscle in my chest (very painful), I have run over my foot with a rolling bookcase, fallen down the stairs knackering my wrist and got concusion tripping over a foot stool. Libraries are dangerous places!  ;D


:o

I never would have thought libraries were so dangerous!

Ant

(Looks at Red's list) Ow! Pain!

Well, I've been pretty lucky, but that isn't to say I haven't had accidents...


At the first job I worked, I was trying to pull a button on a water fountain back out(it was dented in). Well, I got my finger caught in there and it turns out the edge of the button(made of metal) was sharp and sliced several layers of skin off. I just took the loose skin off and let it grow back on it's own.

My second job I was more fortunate, I was shocked once while changing a bulb in the bakery(not bad enough to not knock me down) because I accidently touch the spot where the current was active. Wasn't injured by it, but it was a small surprise. I don't know if this second one counts, but I was also stung twice by a yellow jacket(which somehow got under my shirt without me knowing), I'm not allergic to bee and wasps stings, but man, that hurt like hell. Another bad thing about that was that it happened during my break.

My current job, year before last after Thanksgiving, I had emptied trash and put the bags in cart. I get to where I take it outside and stop the cart with my hand, when doing that I put my hand on a trash bag. It had broken glass in it, which stabbed the side of my left hand around the palm. Talk about bleeding, it took alot of pressure to stop it(I could have gotten stitches, it was pretty deep, fortunately that didn't have to be done). I've had other minor things happen there as well, but nothing really worth mentioning.

I haven't had any serious accidents, though I did cut my finger on a UPS Parcel at a Job Placement I had in high school.  I was bleeding, and all my boss could say was "Watch you don't get blood on the carpet" >:(

1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns, a hazard of welding.

Numerous stitches in my hands, a hazard of sheet metal. (If it doesn't need stitches, it doesn't count as an injury.)

Multiple herniated discs in my lower back, a hazard in construction in general.

When I was working as a cook I was running my hand over a deep fryer to see if the oil was hot (I had just changed it) and skimmed my palm and all my fingers over it (yes, it was hot.)  It was an incredibly stupid thing to do, and I had to go to the ER and get treated for second degree burns.  They drug tested me right then and there because they couldn't believe that anyone could be that dumb.  It was a lot more embarrassing than it was painful!   :-[

Crowbar, slipped, beam, bounce, face, orbital socket, ouch!

;D

That really, really, really hurt. I was prying some old fascia boards off a house and my crowbar slipped, hit a beam and bounced back toward my face, went straight through all the flesh and came to a stop just touching the bone around my eye.

Loads of cuts with Stanley knives, like Kevin said, they don't count unless they require stitches and of course, hammers to hands - I was knocking out a cast iron down pipe once and managed to smash my hand with a lump hammer, that was painful to say the least.

Fell off the scaffold once, that was actually scary enough to shake me up, it's an absolute miracle that I didn't hurt myself that badly seeing as it was a long fall.
We were working on a school building that day and I remember we had 4 levels of scaffold up, I have no idea how many feet high, but it was certainly high enough to wind up killing yourself if you fell wrong, somehow I managed to fall and basically crumple and roll, which is of course the right thing to do, let your legs take some of the impact and go down to your side so your hip and shoulder absorb the rest.

No major accidents, thank goodness:

I have had a whole frozen chicken fall on my head when I was working at a small cafe a few years back.  That hurt like....

Recently I dropped a platter on my foot while I was marking/destroying broken items out of stock.

Smashed my hand between two hummer carts.

A few minor cuts from broken glass and bruises from various objects.  I walk quickly so I always bump into things.

Lots of papercuts.

let's see..

I have burned myself while waitressing
twisted ankle
dropped something heavy on my fingers at my current job

A few pigeons obstructed my view of cart collecting and while I wasn't looking,I rammed my head into a pole. :o

I really have not had any serious injuries, but when I use to work remodeling I could really get scraped up. And my knees would hurt quite bit bending down often or helping lay tile. I remember one time we removed some wood with rusty nails, and one of the nails went through my skin. I tried to clean it as quickly as possible. That was a bit of scare for me.