Nope. They were pulled off and remained in the machine. I lost my index finger down to the big middle joint, my middle finger, ring finger and little finger all just below the middle joint. My index finger has enough of the joint that I can still move it some. Kindof cool looking.

 

Glad your wife is ok. May I ask what the trucking company sued you for?

 

They said she caused the pile up by crossing the highway. When she crossed there was a 1/2 mi. to the nearest car! They cited a law against "pedestrians on the interstate".-Jack

 

So I suppose any of the emergency workers could have been sued as well for the same reason. Damn lawyers.

 

I've had a few close calls on the farm... worst one was when I was unloading corn from a metal storage bin. It was getting close to harvest season, so I wanted to empty the old corn in the bin.
I was alone, loading corn into a wagon at the base of the bin. I almost have it emptied, when all of a sudden the flow stopped. So I climbed to the top of the bin and enter it from the top, climb down an inside ladder, and find that there is a hard crust about 5 feet down from the top. This bin is about 30 feet tall and around 10 feet in diameter, and the crust is completely covering it. I did'nt have anything to break the crust loose, so I climbed down on it, holding on to the ladder, and tried to stomp a hole in it, figuring that once I had a small hole in it, the rest would break loose. Well, after about 3 good jumps, it went all of a sudden, caused me to loose grip on the ladder and fall to the bin floor. Fortunately there was about two feet of corn there, so it only cost me a broken ankle, but I laid there in pain for what seemed like an hour. Finally I realized that no one would be looking for me, so I crawled out of the bin (back up the ladder and down the outside ladder), got in my truck and drove it in low gear for 3 miles to my neighbor's house, since with the ankle broken I could'nt use the clutch. Once I got there I honked the horn until his wife came out, and she called the ambulance.

After that I never did try to stomp a crust loose again. My ankle took four months to heal, and still gives me some pain to this day (this happened fifteen years ago). My neighbors all pitched in to help me get the crop out that year.

 

Grain augers have caused more missing fingers then anything else I have seen. I lost the tips of fingers (first knuckle) while sliding an auger back into the flighting (about 12 years old). Somebody pushed when I said stop. My wife's nephew lost most of his hand and only had his thumb and half his pinky left after trying to ****** his glove out of one.

 

Big Jack, Glad to hear that you wife is doing okay. She is lucky to be alive.

 

I used to work with a guy whose 6 yr old grandson was riding on the fender of his uncle's tractor as they were baling hay. The GS fell off and before his uncle could shut down, he was inside the baler. Unfortunately, he didn't survive. This all happened last summer.

 

WOW what a bummer nice to hear the near misses and what we did when young and inexpreieced, but thats one post that I would have left out. What a senseless tragedy.....

 

that guy should be charged and thrown in jail!!

 

Things like this make you realize whats important in life.It's not new trucks or big houses or promotions. God can bring good out of any situation if you turn to Him.--Jack

 

A guy where I grew up had a bulldozer flip on him, not once but twice. (Several years apart). Each time he lost one leg. I heard from people who were there the second time that he was conscious the whole time while they were waiting for something big enough to lift the dozer off him and begging for someone to shoot him in the head to put him out of his pain. Good thing they didn't- he went on to become the owner of the largest sawmill in the county. He never used a wheelchair, but walked around on his hands (he lost both legs at the hipjoint). He became so strong he could grab someone by their belt buckle with one hand and lift them over their head. He wouldn't let anyone treat him differently or with kid gloves, or he might beat the crap out of ya!

 

glad to hear that he made the best of the situation he was dealt with!!

 

Isn't it funny how you look at this thread and the common theme HERE is how everyone overcame their problems. In another place and time or another web page they'd be talking about how to "slide one by. I've had a few close ones and I figure it's just part of life. If it doesn't kill ya it makes you stronger. I think the original question asked though was "why do they treat him with kid gloves?" MY opinion is that if you haven't been challenged in that way you don't understand what that person can do AND society today is more than willing to say you can't do a dang thing anymore...here's some goverment money, sit on the couch and live off of it. Such a waste when all of those people who take that route lose all of what they could be. I believe most people don't take that route and they go on with thier lives. Look at amsnss and what he's accomplished. He is not his "hand" or rather his fingers...they are but an extension of what he is and he's not letting it slow him down. amsnss, I'd just sit dwn and talk to your friends and family and give it to them straight. There's my pennies worth. ;-)

 

In the mid 1970's my father was driving an F-150 as a work truck. He was out driving one day, in the rain. He came up to an overpass, hydroplaned, and lost control. His only choices were to run up onto the guardrail, or go off the edge. He chose the first. He ran up onto the guard rail. He was traveling 55mph when he hit it. The engine broke through the firewall, and was literally in his lap. The tranny was pushed up through the floorboard. The dash was pushed forward, and steering wheel sliced his neck open, and blood was squirting everywhere. The E-Brake handle went in his left knee, and stuck out the back of it. On top of all that, he had to walk over a mile to the nearest house, with one hand on his neck to try and control the blood and the E-Brake handle still in his knee. The doctors refused to tell him the condition of his leg. They were, however, able to save it. My dad has several scars on his neck and knee, and has major problems with his left leg. They had to lift his truck off of the guard-rail with a crane. His doctors say it was a miracle that he kept his leg, let alone survived.