Scarred for Life (442 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 1.88 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by ChuckGarlock (View user info) at 2007-02-14 00:48:03 EST
It was just another normal day at work. Me, Bob, Joe, and Musto were working over at the grit building with the summer help supervisor, Ron. We were loading a bunch of shit into the skid steer. The skid steer was an old piece of garbage and always broke. We often had trouble starting it. Today was one of those days.
Ron had driven it over and parked it, with the bucket raised, so that we could shovel into it from the platform above. We had filled it up and now Ron was going to drive it back to dump it. He turns the ignition, and it doesn't start. Nothing new. We figured that the battery was just dead.
Joe goes back to the main garage and gets the jumper cables and drives back in the truck. We hook up the jumper cables and now Bob is in the Skid Steer, trying to start it up. No success. We screw around, trying to start it and wasting time for about 5 minutes when Lee comes over.
We do not know Lee. He's a guy in his late 30s or early 40s. He's wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. He was working on the roof of the grit building for a contractor. He was on his break. He tells us, "yeah, we used to have one of these at my work. We always had trouble starting it too. Let me see if I can help you out."
He goes to the side of the skid steer and starts tapping the starter or something. I don't know anything about mechanics so I go back to shoveling some shit off the ground into the bucket. Bob is in the skid steer, still turning the key to try and start it. It just won't turn over. Lee goes behind it to try something else.
Suddenly it starts up. I hear someone yell and I'm thinking that they are yelling because they are happy that it finally started. I was wrong. I realize that it sounded more like a painful yell. Now I'm thinking that something heated up and that Lee must have burnt himself. I look over to the back. Wrong again. Then I saw the most horrific sight I have ever seen.
Lee pulls his arm out of the back of the skid steer and is walking towards me. I am shocked. All I see is a bloody mess of flesh where Lee's arm is supposed to be. He's holding it up with his other arm and has a painful look on his face. I cannot believe that this is real.
Joe is standing next to me and we both just keep saying, "oh my god, oh my god." Bob is freaking out, as is Musto. It was so weird to see the look of fear in everyones eyes. We are always laughing and joking around, never serious. This was serious.
Ron tells Lee to lay down and raises his arm above his heart. Bob runs back to the main building to use the phone and get help. Ron tells me and Joe to go find something to tie his arm off with. We run upstairs and find a bunch of rags. We come back down and Ron is cutting off the blood pressure with his hands. Luckily he had already had rubber gloves on his hands.
I try to hand Ron the rags. He looks me in the eye and says, "You gotta tie it off." Joe had backed up because he couldn't stand the sight of the severed arm. The blood didn't bother me so much, I just wasn't really sure what I was doing. I wrap a rag around his arm and somehow form a perfect turnicate. Ron asks me if I've done this before. I tell him I have no idea what I'm doing.
Now that I am this close, I get a real good look at the arm. Theres not much left. The arm is is cut down the side, from the elbow to his hand. He has 2 and a half finger remaining. I can see dark, bloody tendons. The bones are broken, because the arm is not bending in a usual spot. It is folded over in the middle of the forearm. It looks so unreal.
After I tie it off, Ron lets go of his grip on the arm and blood shoots out. I pull it tighter, and Ron takes over. I then get on my phone and call 911.
Me: We're down at wastewater. A guy just got his arm cut off.
911: I'm on the other line with someone down there. Where are you exactly?
(I give them exact directions)
911: ok make sure the arm is elevated and keep changing the rags. we will be right there
I don't think that they knew exactly how severe the injury was. You cannot simply change the rags. We weren't holding rags over a cut to stop blood, we were tying around the arm to cut off the pressure.
I keep looking at the guy. He is actually apologizing for what happened. He feels bad that he was so stupid and that we all have to see this.
An ambulance finally shows up. There's people taking pictures of the scene while they load him in. After he's gone, more people from work come over. Some people thought that it was me because they saw the red shirt and blue jeans that I usually wore to work. Thank god I still have my arm.
I look around at the scene. There's blood and flesh all over. It looks like hamburger meat. I do not have any blood on me, other than a little bit on my white shoes. It looks like a scene from the movie "Saw."
The bosses send us back to the main building to sit in the air conditioning for the rest of the day. We had the option of going home, which Bob had to do, as it bothered him the most because he started the engine.
What actually happened was that when Lee went behind the skid steer and opened the back, there was a fan. He tried to spin start it. At the same time Bob turned the key. Lee's plan had worked and the skid steer started, but Lee's arm was still in the fan and he could not pull it out in time. The fan tore the arm apart.
The next few days, every time I looked at my own arm, I saw his arm. I had to feel my arm to make sure it was still there. It was the most terrible thing I have ever seen.
There was somehow a 30 percent chance that Lee would keep his arm. I had no idea how they would do that. There was nothing but some tendons hanging there. They tried to save it, but he ended up getting gangrene and the arm had to be completely removed. He apologized again for us kids having to witness that. He was a pretty nice guy.
I can still picture those tendons just dangling from his arm. I will never forget that day.
User Reviews
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-02-15 13:02:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
safety first, kids
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2007-02-14 21:56:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
gross
Submitted by Void_Where_Prohibited (user info) at 2007-02-14 10:50:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
A lovely Valentine's Day story.
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2007-02-14 07:52:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
severed arm stories rock !!
Submitted by LittleMonster (user info) at 2007-02-14 05:29:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Oh fuck
Submitted by whiskey_jack (user info) at 2007-02-14 04:23:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Fucking ewwww
Submitted by forthewin (user info) at 2007-02-14 03:47:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This was disturbing.
And very well written.
And I'm really tired.
Submitted by particle_man58 (user info) at 2007-02-14 03:02:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Jesus jumped up Christ! Thats fucking terrible.
Submitted by ih8u2man (user info) at 2007-02-14 01:14:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Jesus Chuck.