Sheesh I'm going to bleed to death

DallanC · Site Admin Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 3572 Location: Utah

So doing a "honeydo" for my wife today and I cut my pinkie finger on the sharp edge of a stamped piece of metal. Cut might be an understatement, I quite litterally lopped off the entire top of the knuckle... about the size of a dime.

It immediately started gushing blood. I've had some DANDY cuts in my time, but nothing has bled like this... I'm litterally blown away how much blood can come out of a pinky!. My wife immediately freaks out and wants me to head to the ER for stitches. I calmly state "there aint anything to stitch back together" and bend over and pick up the hunk of skin that had fallen to the counter and show it to her.

I wash the finger off really good and wrap it up with a paper towel while she digs out the bandaids. I peel off the towel and stick on a bandaid... hmmm seems my blood pressure might be a bit high as I immediately see big drops of blood squirting out of both sides of the bandaid, AND out of the tiny holes in the plastic.

No problem, I wrap up the bandaid with a folded paper towel and stick some tape around it... nuts, its still bleeding like a son of a ___. Need more pressure! I had a hose clamp handy and stuck it on and tighted it down, not enough to make it numb but just right to slow the flow Very Happy

.

I finish the honey dos.. do my own thing for a while. Well 4 hours later I'm getting ready for bed and decide to change the bandage. I carefully take off the clamp, cut through the tap and carefully peel off the paper towel... so far so good... AH NUTS! As the final wrap comes loose blood again comes a gushing out of the wound.

I clean it out yet again and tried to get another bandaid on it... have trouble because its bleeding so much I cant get the paper towel off and the bandage on before blood is all over the place. Several tries and wasted bandaids I get one on. Crud... Blood still squirting out the bandaid in every way possible. I wrap it up again with a paper towel and tap the hell out of it. It doesnt seem to be leaking out of the towel... so I think I'll skip the hose clamp Rolling Eyes

I've waited another hour to see if it will hold (wife wont forgive me if I bleed all over the bed Yuck

).

I actually find this very comical... I doubt anyone has bled to death from a fatal pinky wound... but holy smokes this thing bleeds like crazy. Guess I'll tape a ziploc around my hand for the night incase of leaks (man that sounds wierd) and check it in the morning. If its still gushing I guess I'll have to visit the ER.

Crazy!

-DallanC

Vince

DallanC wrote:

So doing a "honeydo" for my wife today and I cut my pinkie finger on the sharp edge of a stamped piece of metal. Cut might be an understatement, I quite litterally lopped off the entire top of the knuckle... about the size of a dime.

DallanC wrote:

It immediately started gushing blood. I've had some DANDY cuts in my time, but nothing has bled like this... I'm litterally blown away how much blood can come out of a pinky!. My wife immediately freaks out and wants me to head to the ER for stitches. I calmly state "there aint anything to stitch back together" and bend over and pick up the hunk of skin that had fallen to the counter and show it to her.

DallanC wrote:

hmmm seems my blood pressure might be a bit high as I immediately see big drops of blood squirting out of both sides of the bandaid, AND out of the tiny holes in the plastic.

DallanC wrote:

No problem, I wrap up the bandaid with a folded paper towel and stick some tape around it... nuts, its still bleeding like a son of a ___. Need more pressure! I had a hose clamp handy and stuck it on and tighted it down, not enough to make it numb but just right to slow the flow Very Happy

.

DallanC wrote:

I finish the honey dos.. do my own thing for a while. Well 4 hours later I'm getting ready for bed and decide to change the bandage. I carefully take off the clamp, cut through the tap and carefully peel off the paper towel... so far so good... AH NUTS! As the final wrap comes loose blood again comes a gushing out of the wound.

DallanC wrote:

Guess I'll tape a ziploc around my hand for the night incase of leaks (man that sounds wierd) and check it in the morning. If its still gushing I guess I'll have to visit the ER.

Crazy!
-DallanC

Dallan...place the sharp pointed tools on the table and move away from them slowly. Very Happy

Mate, reading your story I was flinching every few words...I reckon I could feel every little twinge of that cut. It sounds horrendously painful.

I gotta laugh at your attempts to stem the flow of "claret"...mate, you are a classic. The hose clamp Shocked

and ziploc

got me...I'm surprised you didn't get a zip tie out to use as a tourniquet. Full marks for ingenuity though mate.

What you really needed is a lotion called Benzoin Tincture... my Mum always kept some in the medicine cabinet. It was a liquid that thickened up and would form a coating over any cut or abrasion and stop the bleeding. It is also used as an inhalant to clear your head when mixed with hot water when all bogged up with a head cold. The downside to it was that it stung like a mongrel and you could be heard screaming about 3 miles away.

You should record all of your "adventures" and put them in a book for later generations to read.

Hope your pinky heals quickly mate. Damn painful, finger injuries.

Cheers, Vince

shrpshtrjoe

Let us no how it go's buddy. I get cut a lot at work from sheet metal duct work sometime it can be tough to get them to stop bleeding.
Joe

Bushmaster

OW! OW! OW! You might splint it to prevent bending the knuckle. Swinging wrenches all my life has garnished me a few good (read bad) cuts and gashes...Customers don't like blood splotched fenders either.

Morax

sounds like ya mighta clipped a vein in there big guy.. couldnt hurt to go get it checked out, specially with all the new bacteria floating around.. specially on sheet metal like that nothing more that a super duper sized paper cut, and we know how those suckers hurt!!

Bushmaster

Hey Dallan...Just a flap of skin? Hope you never see the end of your finger bounce across the floor...Now that is an eery sight...What went through my head at the time was "That's me bouncing across the floor." It was kind of an "out of body" experience...

It was the middle finger on my left hand. Now I have a short finger for those who aren't worth it and a long one for those who are... Very Happy

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

Hydrogen Peroxide works wonders.

Also instead of trying to cut the blood supply above the wound. Try applying pressure on the wound itself after you immobilized the finger as movement will cause it to open back up again.

Dimitri

Bushmaster

Hydrogen Peroxide burns and kills new cell tissue. Not recommended...Dallan is using the best method. Direct pressure...

I believe he got rid of all the "bad" germ when he bled all over the place. Now he just has to keep it clean...Any antibiotic salve will do.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

It may kill new tissue but when I had a 4.5" Diameter piece of metal, approximately 10 feet long hit my middle finger on my left hand in early September (if I remember right may have been August) leaving my nail totally damaged (fell off a while later, broke it deep in the skin so the skin was holding on to it for a while till the skin started to go) with about a 1/8" gap from all the blood rushing out.

The bleeding stopped almost instantly with Hydrogen Peroxide and let me tell you I sure made a mess of the shop floor with blood that night!

Mind you I was doing over time for things needing done early the next day, and after I bandaged myself up, reported the incident I finished what I wanted to get done before I got hurt and went home. Laughing

Dimitri

Bushmaster

Like I said Big D..."Burn" as in "coterize"...Not recommended...Great for ruining your hair when bleaching it out though. No I've never bleached my (use to be) red hair...

vint2

If you have been taking aspirin for anything you will bleed like no tomorrow!!!! Dallan, I hope your pain is minimal and that you heal really fast!!!!!!!

popgun

Suck it up and go see the doctor. Embarassed

Tetanus is nothing to fool with. No cure and a convulsive death. Shocked

Then there is the infection sources. Don't play with it, get it fixed right! Go see the Doc. Very Happy

popgun speaks!

rdncktink

Well if you would've grabbed the kneckle and went to the doctor he could've put the stupid thing back on. When I was about 4 or 5 my dad, yes dear old fireball, was sharping a knife, hit an unseen knick in the blade, and sliced the top of his kneckle off. Mom grabed the towel and told me to go get daddy's skin. I grabbed it from the sink and for some reason put it in a baggy. After afew stiches it was like new.

After several stupid moves we've learned that most things don't need a doctor but when skin is fully removed or blood has turned into a pretty fountain a doctor is needed.

So next time, doctor first, than here to tell how great of a slick move you did.

Hope it all works out though.

gelandangan

I was told by my First Aid instructor to stick the chunk of meat back into the wound .
Chances are the body and body parts will recognize each other and starts to grow (heal) towards each other.
Of course for a long term solution, stitching it back on would improve its chance.

On the cleaning up wounds, provided that the wound is not too dirty, it is always best to leave it alone, instead of washing it using other substances, your blood is best used to clean the wound from inside out.
Then, applying direct pressure on to the wound to stop the outward flow of blood.

Torniquets such as hose clamps and rubber bands may be used but only for short period of time.
You may get bigger problem if you cut the flow of blood totally to your appendages.

So I was told...

I hope everything turns out allright with your pinky Dallan.
It is hard to type with a bandage on the finger.

Uh an one more thing.. if your wound takes a "long" time to stop bleeding, you may want to check your blood sugar level.

ElyBoy

Dallan,

When I was a Supervisor at a large Woodworking place [430 employees,] I was the only guy certified to fix wounds, and send guys to the Doctor when I saw fit. I even picked up missing fingers, and cleaned up the mess afterwards.

I would advise you also to go to the Doctor and have it looked at.

This fall, I was about a half of a mile back in the woods doing some cutting with my chainsaw at the deer stands.
It was the first time in my life that this has happened, but my bad leg slipped, and my left leg came up at the same time my Huskey 65 went down.
I felt the bump bump bump of the chain on my leg just above me knee.
Well Vint, I DO take an aspirin every morning, and all that I could think of was "Oh Sh*t", "How in the hell am I going to get myself out of this spot?"
I looked down and my duck pants were in tatters, but sense they were two layers at the knee, I only had a wound that I could put a butterfly bandage on.
I finished my cutting, and a couple of hours later, I headed back to the lake.
I was lucky.

Sounds to me Dallan, that your luck the past couple of years hasn't been as good as mine, so instead waiting for infection or anything else to go wrong, I would take our advice and see the Doc.

Good luck.

Eric