Oh, how terrible! I hope it heals quickly and that you will NOT be forever reminded! And that the pain is lessening already.

I have no stories at all to add, thankfully, but my mother had a short thumb from a mixer/meat grinder attachment incident. As a child it always interested me. I wish now as an adult she was still around so I could get the details.

Ouch! Not a kitchen accident, but I severed the tendon in my thumb with a quilter's rotary cutter. The physical therapist told me they see patients with serious cuts from simple kitchen acts like putting a glass into the dishwasher.

Applying direct firm pressure for at least 5 minutes and elevating the hand should stop bleeding... if not then you got some serious cut!

Wow! I'm very sorry to hear that. A few years ago I learned the importance of using a potholder to hold down a blender lid while pureeing hot soup. I hope it heals quickly.

Ouch, that sound really painful. Hope it feels much better very soon, and heals up with a minimum of scarring.

Re. kitchen mishaps, only two major ones besides the usual cuts and scrapes and cooking burns. First one, I was cooking a huge amount of apple filling and tried to move the heavy, large pot away from the stove. The pot started sliding out of my hands (hmm, seems to be a pattern with me, ha) and I caught it with the insides of my forearms to keep it from falling to the floor. Should have let it fall because it was very hot stainless steel and the skin from both forearms actually stuck to the outside of the pot. It was pretty gross and very painful, but it healed up just fine and I have no scars or discolorations.

Second one, I had just opened a can of cat food (not the pull-top kind, the kind you use a can opener for) and the top was still attached and sticking up. I carried the can toward the cat food bowl and it slid out of my hand and I tried to catch it. Bad idea, because the edge of the top sliced right through the skin flap between thumb and forefinger. It bled like crazy and was gaping, so hubby took me to the ER and they sewed it up. It's good as new, except for a faint white scar.

The day before Thanksgiving I was chopping too fast and not paying close enough attention. I cut my middle finger, left hand and it took hours to stop the bleeding. I was lucky, I hit my nail and cut it half off. Had it not been for the nail, I probably would have needed stitches. I wore a bandaid on that finger for protection for two months because it was so tender. It will be another couple of months before the nail is completely grown out. Sorry about your accident. I think we'll both be very careful for many years to come.

Gosh Sue, I'm sorry! Time to buy sliced bread?

I always hear that dull knives are more dangerous than sharp knives. The ER doctor said otherwise?

Posted by barnmom "I always hear that dull knives are more dangerous than sharp knives. The ER doctor said otherwise?"

The reason:

Users of dull knives are unskilled in general, therefore they cut their fingers often.

Users of sharp knives are generally more skilled in the kitchen.

Does not have much to do with the knives.

dcarch

A few years ago I got a bad burn while making coffee by pouring water into a Melitta filter holder. That was quite painful.

The other major accident was in my 20s when I put a sewing machine needle through my left index finger....and the needle broke off in my finger. The doc thought he got out all of the needle, but I knew he hadn't. It eventually surfaced weeks later. Now that was weird when it happened!

Teresa

I think the theory is that dull knives are more dangerous because you have to exert a lot more pressure to cut so if you slip, there's a lot more force behind it and into your body.

Barnmom - I did just that the other day, even though I hate getting specialty breads sliced. I'm just a little knife-shy at the moment ;)

Direct pressure, etc. didn't do the job because if the nature of the cut - the ER used a strip of gelfoam, which will eventually disintegrate/fall off on its own. I'm down to a band aid over the gelfoam and it seems to be healing, but I think it's going to take awhile. I'm leaving it alone and keeping it dry.

I'm left handed but never realized how many things I actually do with my right hand!

Ouch! My husband is missing one of his fingerprints because he used improper knife technique while dicing some onions for me.

I got a weird (and fortunately, not serious) injury the other day while making mashed potatoes. I was spooning just-boiled potatoes into the hopper of my (Kuhn Rikon) potato ricer with a slotted spoon. This particular ricer has two disks, and the one not in use is stored in a compartment in the handle. Well, the compartment door wasn't closed tight, and the spare disk fell into the hot water and splashed it right into my eyeball. It was painful and unsettling, but fortunately the burn did no damage.

Kevlar fish cleaning gloves are for all of you who chop, slice, or dice anything with a knife, and are perfect for using when mandolin slicing (no need for a guard). They are about $15 each and come in Men's sizes S, M and L (buy two). Sometimes you can find them in the fishing tackle aisle at K-mart or WalMart. Really, it just takes a second to slip one on your "holding" hand. Also, using two you can clean a whole bunch of potatoes under running water because of the friction of the mesh. I find mine indispensable for scaling and cleaning fresh fish, of course, but very useful for thin slicing anything slippery. Clean up with a swish in dish water.

Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: Rapala Fillet Glove

Last summer I set my bread knife down on the counter, it spun around, fell to the floor but not before landing on my foot just above my big toe (had sandals on) and severed the tendon. Such a tiny cut too! It didn't hurt too much, but I knew something was amiss when I was unable to raise the toe :( A trip to the ER for stitches, a few days later surgery to re-attach the tendon and 6 weeks in a hard boot. Ugh.

I was slicing potatoes on the mandoline when my hand slipped off of the guard slicing a large piece of my ring finger and nail off in the blink of an eye. That hurt like crazy! I wore a finger splint for months to protect it from being bumped. It took months before I used the mandoline again.

May the kitchen gods spare every single one of us from harm this year :)

Another knife accident here. When our son was little, on the evening of his Christmas play at church, I was cutting up chicken and cut down through the joint capsule of my index finger. I made it to the play, though, stitches and all!

For those of you with kitchen burns, I burned myself recently with an iron griddle that had been preheating in the oven for pizza. A wash of apple cider vinegar took the pain away almost instantly. I was totally amazed (and thankful).

Nancy - Thank you for that link; I'm in! As I said, I'm usually very careful, but as in this case, it only takes one time. Since I'm feeling a bit skittish, I think that will really help.

Sue