How much damage can a drill press do to a finger?

[Conrad]

I was actually told I could stop screaming as they had it out....  My wife was ashamed of me, but then she has a higher pain threshold than me.   I tend to be overly dramatic in those situations.

Knowing you, she would have to have a higher pain threshold wouldn't she?   

[MAN OF BLUES]

There you go Rich! That's what a real man does, stitch himself up. Either that or just rub some dirt on it to squelch the bleeding till you finish up with the saw.

You don't know how close to Correct that statement IS.....

the scenario took place at my old deer camp/farm in southern Ohio, Noble county...out in the boonies. We were about 45 minutes from the nearest place to get medical intervention.
We'ed been cutting Firewood for almost 8 hours prior to the incident, and we already had cut and hauled 5 truck loads of logs per man, between 6 of us working ....so after 30 truckloads, around 5ish I was pretty freaking t'ard.
I got a bit lazy cutting an overhead limb, and brought the ProMac610 with the 20" bar down on my knee....just sharpened the chain.......about 3 teeth whacked a hole in my jeans, and I just set the saw down and began to freak, because my pals saw it happen.....didn't bleed right away, and I rolled up my pants to look....ewwwwwwwwwwwww....it wasn't a "cut" it was a "groove"...no flesh, clean as a whistle...
my pals were ready to rush me off, but there was NO WAY I was not getting my 5 loads of wood, so, with a roll of black electrical tape, and couple McDonalds napkins salvaged from the truck, I taped it up, and we loaded the last 5 loads.......heheheheh
We got back to the house, and I asked one of the guys to retrieve a full bottle of Tanqueray Gin I had on the shelf.....for medicinal purposes....he pulled off the cap, and handed it to me and I had to take a pull on it to make sure it was the "highest' quality.....f'ing guys in my deer camp had already drank the Gin, and filled the bottle with water.......argggggggggggggggggg. So those stiches went in sans sedatives.....
One of the guys freaked out watching me stitch, and blew lunch right in front of me, all in all the rest of my pals found it worth watching, and took me to the bar, forced the owner to slip me glasses of Wild Turkey for a couple hours, and picked up the tab...
I went to my docter about 5 days later, and asked him if he wanted to re-stich it, but he said, "no, good job, leave them in for a couple more days...looks good.....I really like the RED Thread...classy"....
My emergency medical kit now contains almost 100 assorted sutures, and associated equipment for "remote emergencies"....actually I've had 3 people ask me to stich them up in the last 20 years, after watching that.

oh, the guy that 

went out the next day and bought these:


 

[OCK913]

15 stitches and tendon damage later.

I dont know what kind of tendon damage you may have had, but if you actually severed it..... take it seriously. Trust me! In a work related incident (thank God it was workers comp) I had a tendon get torn loose from where it attaches to the bone at the tip of my pinky finger. I was trying to get a drunk handcuffed (not as easy as it may sound) and during the "altercation" my finger got bent completely backwards. The tendon apparently couldnt stretch that far and tore loose. It was pulled so tight when it snapped that it retracted back into the palm of my hand. You will see in the picture how far down they cut and then used the equivalent of a crochet hook to fish it out. So far, I have had 2 surgeries and there is a third one coming up in a couple months. If that one doesnt fix it, I may opt to have it removed. In order to keep this concise I will just reiterate how serious something as simple as tendon damage can be. I never thought that in this day and age, when a person can have organs transplanted from another body, that my little pinky finger could not be repaired back to normal.

[Conrad]

I dont know what kind of tendon damage you may have had, but if you actually severed it..... take it seriously. Trust me! In a work related incident (thank God it was workers comp) I had a tendon get torn loose from where it attaches to the bone at the tip of my pinky finger. I was trying to get a drunk handcuffed (not as easy as it may sound) and during the "altercation" my finger got bent completely backwards. The tendon apparently couldnt stretch that far and tore loose. It was pulled so tight when it snapped that it retracted back into the palm of my hand. You will see in the picture how far down they cut and then used the equivalent of a crochet hook to fish it out. So far, I have had 2 surgeries and there is a third one coming up in a couple months. If that one doesnt fix it, I may opt to have it removed. In order to keep this concise I will just reiterate how serious something as simple as tendon damage can be. I never thought that in this day and age, when a person can have organs transplanted from another body, that my little pinky finger could not be repaired back to normal.

Wow! I hope that you heal up right and proper and get to keep that finger where it belongs.

[Conrad]

Hey Rich, were those assless chaps?   

Years ago a friend and neighbor of mine did the same thing that you did with his chain saw. He took a nice clean groove out of his leg but didn't want to go to the ER. He came down to our house for help. We tried to get him to go see the doc but he refused. It was VERY ugly but we fixed him up as best we could and sent him on his way after a few drinks, for medicinal purpose only of course.