A Moment of inatention can lead to a life altering event...
Fortunately the only person hurt was the person who had the ND and he is healing. I give him a LOT of credit for relating the details of his embarassing story. I appreciate the chance to learn from others' mistakes and fervently hope I don't make this one. I'm very glad he's healing well and wish him luck with the boob job should he ever need it
(Read the story).
There are two parts to this sad tale, the Original incident and the folliow up where we are today. The original author is from the Twin Cities and has a Live Journal under the name new-iconoclast.
Original:
18 October 2006
18:03 - A Cautionary Tale
The reason they call them "accidents" is because they don't happen on purpose, right?
I had an accidental discharge recently. I am not entirely certain what happened, because I didn't intend to do it, but I was inattentive for a moment in a situation where you can't afford to be inattentive. I was going to do some dry-fire practice with my carry gun, a Springfield XD .45. I think that I may have inadvertently grabbed a live round instead of the snap-cap dummy and dropped it in, but I also wonder if it didn't somehow go off as the slide came forward rather than as the result of an actual trigger pull - as I say, it's blurry, and the more I try to reconstruct in my mind exactly what happened, the harder it is to nail it down exactly.
I have a number of things to be thankful for, like the fact that it was after hours at my shop so I didn't have the neighbors all freaked out; the fact that the round struck a sheetrock/steel-stud wall and didn't exit the other side (and that, if it had, it still would have been in my shop and not in someone else's).
I'm also grateful that I am not by nature a panicky person, because I somehow put that 230-grain Federal Hydra-Shok hollowpoint right through the palm of my left hand.
My initial instinct was to run it under cold water, because that's what Mom always had me do when I got an owie. However, I decided to call 911 instead, found a clean shop towel and wrapped it around my hand, and waited for the ambulance.
The police who arrived first were very helpful; they secured my shop and even asked me if it would be safe to leave the gun there (no reason to impound it or anything), and when the ambulance arrived they took me to the area's top trauma center, where the staff was fantastic and a truly gifted surgeon worked on my hand. I lost my left ring finger - the bullet shattered the fourth metacarpal so badly that the finger couldn't be saved, but my marriage is a lot more than just that finger.
The Wonderbunny and the kids are glad to have Dad home OK (Fluffy made me a card that says, "There are nine more where that one came from!"), people at church are working out a schedule of helpers so that I can keep the shop running, and of course, being a firearms safety instructor and all, I'll never live this one down. But I'm fine, not too much the worse for wear (more than a little embarrassed), and I expect to regain the full use of the remainder of my left hand within a few months. The doc was very optimistic, and we'll know more on Friday when I go in to have the dressing changed and the wound checked.
Update on his condition:
Left Hand Update Nov. 1st, 2006 @ 03:50 pm
[info]new_iconoclast, posting in [info]guns
Went to see the doc yesterday, and she pulled the majority of the stitches in my left hand. She just left the ones right on the edges of the entrance and exit wounds and the corners of the stump flap. The incisions are healing up quickly, and the flash-burned skin on my palm is peeling off and healing well. She says I'm doing very well. I'll probably lose a couple of layers of palm, and I'll have to be a little careful while the new surface toughens up, but not to worry - the sloughing is natural.
The wounds themselves are healing nicely. They aren't completely covered yet, but they are coming along, and are a lot less raw and getting smaller. I can see new skin (I think "granulation" is the term) building itself across the gaps. The incisions have closed, and while they are still a little discolored in places, a lot of that is sloughing off with the dead skin and all in all I'm cleaning up nicely.
Since there is an important wrist flex tendon insertion on the lower end of the 4th metacarpal, the bone wasn't completely removed. Measuring up from the wrist joint, I probably have 2-3 cm of that bone remaining. The rest, across the back of my hand and including the entire knuckle joint, is gone. When I try to make a fist, it feels as if that bone stump is trying to poke its way out of the back of my hand. The doc tells me that there's no way for that to happen, she rounded the bone off nicely, and that the feeling is normal. I'm able to exercise considerable range of motion and grip things pretty well now with thumb and fingertips, and I'm supposed to keep working it. I can't really grasp anything in my palm yet due to the wound, but as it heals, I'll be able to do more with it. I already feel more comfortable doing things like pulling a coat on using my hand rather than just my fingertips. I'm working on making fists and also on stretching the hand out backwards.
I may have the option of having a "wedge" of my hand removed, including the stump of my ring finger, leaving me with a more "intact" three-fingered hand (i.e. no gap), but narrower. However, the doc says we'll play it by ear as I heal up. I may decide that I want to keep the width of my palm for gripping purposes, especially since I work with my hands. This doc is good enough that I have no doubt she could make it look almost as if I had been born with a three-fingered hand if I go that route; she's one of the Twin Cities' best plastic surgeons. If I ever have a sex change, I'll have her do my boobs.
I still wear a dressing, just to keep the healing wounds clean - two pads, front and back, over the holes held in place by an elastic bandage. They no longer have to be sterile, just clean. I rinse the hand out every night for five minutes or so under warm running water, and I shower without the dressings. Pain is controlled by ibuprofen, 800mg every four hours, and I am getting through the night without having to get up and take painkillers. I have a precious few Percocet tabs in reserve for times when I really irritate or overwork it, but those are more for "just in case" now. Most of the discomfort, which isn't really pain, is a tingling feeling in the missing finger, like it's waking up from being "asleep." I sometimes ice it for awhile at home in the evenings before bed, which quiets it down nicely.
Gollum, Handgun of Doom, is still locked up at the shop. I feel like I shouldn't be carrying until I'm capable of operating the weapon, and I don't have the grip in my left hand yet to be able to rack the slide (or hold the pistol solidly enough to rack it with my right hand). However, that day is not too far out. It feels better every day.