battery secateurs

[knighty]

battery secateurs ... they're really good... a little too good :-o




I wasn't even really using them at the time, I had them held to my chest with my arm as I used both hands to drag out brambles that were tangled through a small tree.

twig or bramble or something must have pushed the trigger

knew it cut me, I had thick gloves on, peeled back the glove to look at the finger and realised I was peeling back the finger too.


only been here a few months, didn't know where the closest hospital was, was googling it when I realised I didn't know which ones would have a decent A+E department (small vs large) so phoned 111... got.. press 1 for this 2 for that etc. then got put on hold so phoned 999, but they insisted on sending an ambulance.

got me to hospital, A+E checked me out, end of finger only just held on, a surgeon looked at it, they bandaged me up and said come back 10am tomorrow, if the end is still alive we'll fix it back on if it's dead we'll take it off

got there just after 9am to make sure I was front of the queue... waited an hour, they checked it, said it's alive we'll fix it back on asap.... waited 9 hours to be seen to... by the time they saw me the end was dead and they had to cut it off :-(

this is my first time typing without it... it's a bit weird, can type ok but trying to do ctrl+C or ctrl+V freaks me out a little :-o

[drjim]

That's appalling. It's your index finger, should have been straight to plastics to be saved. Where in the country are you?

[Moxi]

I managed to disconnect the tip of my small finger by blunt force trauma when I worked in the steelworks some thirty six years or so ago. They glued it back on but it’s a bit crooked and every cold damp day it reminds me it’s there !

There were too many of us missing bits or with burns and scars at the steelworks but Roy the burner still stands out in my mind as he lost the tips of his three middle fingers on both hand after the chain slings he was holding on some scrap pinched his hands and took the load on a 5 tonne load. I remember because I had worked beside him for three years before I realised !

You will be surprised how fast you adapt to coping without it but I am still very sorry to read your news and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Moxi

[Joeboy]

Firstly,

Knighty... oochabeastie, that's nippy. Hell of a way to review a bit of kit! Sorry pal, I go to humour in bad circumstances. All the best and I hope it heals over clean & fast.

We went back to Bupa a couple of years ago after an early retirement company medical cover hiatus and then a run in with NHS when swmbo needed them for the first time in 30 yrs. Shocked as to how they are now with regard to underfunding and overworked. Sad but true.

In the end I paid privately for a ct scan, physiotherapy, a blood pressure monitor and 6 week massage therapy. At the same time I signed us up for bupa for future treatment if ever needed. I also ended up doing a years worth of neck & shoulder massage every day. The nerve repaired itself but it took two years of headaches to get there.

Even now if she stresses which used to trigger headaches I hug and soothe her and make her go calm and breathe. Years of my own offshore stress management has paid dividends in her. She still tells me to f**k off though.

The NHS put her on a waiting list and after the first year said they had a blood pressure monitor available. Also tried to put her on a depression pill. They got flushed. Never did hear back on the nhs ct scan appointment...

It's one of the few things I'd very happily pay more tax for and not expect or have to use it in my lifetime. Just to help.my fellow man, in particular those at the front line of treatment.

P.S, gon the nurses!

[ivan]

Really sorry to hear about this. That's really bad. I was planning to buy one of those for my wife as she struggles with pruning thicker branches, but think I've changed my mind now. Should be a safety switch on there somewhere to prevent it accidentally being triggered like that. Im sure it's a Trading Standards/ HSE issue, but not going to bring your finger back, unfortunately.

[knighty]

Thanks for the condolences

To answer questions...


I'm in Durham, was taken to Durham hospital... but i think thete must be 2 hospitals here, I was air lifted to a hospital in Durham 20 years ago and that one was much nicer.

They changed the consent form I'd signed to say removing the end instead of fixing it back on and had me sign it.... while I was on the operating table! :-s

They didn't even give me any pain killers! Asked for some before I left, nurse came back saying doctors weren't answering the phone and she was waiting for them to answer to get me some paracetamol!

I've got left over pain killers from previous accidents so just left and went home.

I'm a big supporter of the NHS... don't blame the doctors nurses etc. Fir me it's totally on politicians not giving them the fundung they need.

I think other battery secateurs have a safety button... I have a snall battery chainsaw thing, 18v probably a 6inch blade, that has a button you have to hold in with your thumb for the trigger to work.

[drjim]

I'm amazed they didn't try to reattach it properly straight away. Presumably non dominant hand and hopefully you aren't a concert pianist, but even so I'd expect better. Was it an orthopaedic surgeon or a plastics/reconstructive one?

Obviously it might have been impossible to salvage whatever but generally the ones I see that just get terminalised (as in cut the end off to build a skin flap to cover the hole) have been chewed up by a circular saw, grinder or something similarly messy. A big pair of powered scissors should make a relatively clean cut.

You will manage fine without it of course.

There was a discussion on the MIG welding forum about these implements, described as finger choppers by the initial poster. He was right.

[Tinbum]

I'm a big supporter of the NHS... don't blame the doctors nurses etc. Fir me it's totally on politicians not giving them the fundung they need.

Wow that's horrible, hope you recover well. My father cut the end of two fingers off in a lawn mower back when I was a teenager. He lost them but got on OK, as it was his 2nd and 3rd. Only problem he had was he used to feel the cold a lot in the tips.

I'd have to partly disagree re above as I have seen so much waste and pure incompetence and lack of any plan.

I was a big supporter of the NHS and they are good if it's a life or death situation but otherwise my experience has been pretty appalling. A typical example just from today. My father in law had a CT scan for suspected bowel cancer on Christmas eve and has been waiting for his results. Today my wife phoned to chase them up only to be told that he had been told everything was clear. He has never been told or received anything and has been on tenterhooks believing he had cancer.
This is a hospital that told me I’d have an appointment in 3 months- in November 2023, The Hospital that lost all my cardiac records, The hospital that said I'd missed 2 appointments that I never even knew about. I could go on.

As to the Cardiac services, at 3 different trusts, I’ve just been going round and round in circles.

I found GP's seem to know nothing about B12, folate and vit D deficiencies and dont even follow NICE guidelines. I'm in the process of writing to my GP and about to write to my MP.

It's also amazing the often simple cures / preventions that never get used, they don't get researched/validated, because they don't make big pharma money. Should I get cancer I’ll be seriously looking at Ivermectin, Mebendazole and Methylene blue.

[AGT]

Sorry to hear about the accident, wishing you a speedy recovery and adjustment.

[Stinsy]

Sorry to hear about your injury.

I think we, as a nation, need an honest and frank discussion about our NHS. Hosing more money at it won't change anything.

I needed an operation on my shoulder. I went to the GP, he told me "you need [suchandsuch] operation, but the consultant won't see you 'till you've had 12 weeks of physio, but it won;t be the 'hands on' kind of physio you might be expecting, it'll be them giving you exercises to do, and there is an 8-week wait for the physio". I paid privately, all in cost £450 including 6 weeks of post-op physio and finished before the NHS would've even gotten started. The difference in attitude when I was the paying customer was very distinct indeed.

Unfortunately, there is no alternative to NHS for emergency care, so you have to sit there for 9 hours while your possibly-viable finger slowly dies. I hope you heal and adjust well.