I ran into a former co-worker today. As I reached out to shake his hand, he
offered me his left hand to shake and held up his right. That's when I saw
the bandages on 4 of the fingers on his right hand.

A few weeks ago he was finishing up the remodeling of his bathroom. He
had 3 cuts left, just some trim for around the door. After he finished
ripping a board to width, he reached over the unguarded table saw blade
to retrieve the piece. One second of carelessness and his fingers are now
a little bit shorter than they used to be.

In his panic, neither he nor his wife even thought about looking for his
fingertips. They just jumped in the car and sped to the hospital. His middle
finger tip was still hanging on and the plastic surgeon offered to try and
reattach it, but said it would be an 8 hour operation with no guarantee that
it would take. In addition, that finger would be so much longer than the
other 3 that it would end up being more of a hindrance than an advantage.
He opted not to have it reattached.

After about 3 hours of "bone retraction surgery" so that they would have
enough skin to close up his fingertips, they sent him home.

The next day, SWMBO was sweeping up the garage workshop. Lots of bloody
sawdust. She found one fingertip on the hood of her car and another on the
floor. The 3rd one was either swept up or is still in the garage someplace.

She said she was OK with the blood, but finding body parts almost made
her puke.

Let's be careful out there, fellas.