When my incident happened I was using a community shop provided by Porter Cable- Delta. It had just about every PC/Delta tool imaginable including two unisaws with all the fancy table extensions and what-not. I was using all the safety gear: anti-kickback hold-downs, hearing protection, push stick... but when the board bound at the end of the cut I was afraid the push stick would slip and so I reached behind the blade (gasp) to finish the cut. It kicked back, and my thumb was thrown at me.

There was a guy talking to the shop forum. I calmly walked up and said, "excuse me.... excuse me... I hate to interrupt, but I hurt my thumb pretty bad. I need to get to the hospital." They said, "Let me see it." I said, "No, because I am calm and I've already seen it. It's horrible. If you see it you are going to panic and that's not going to help me stay calm." The other guy said, "It's okay, I'm a doctor." So I said, "OH, well in that case, here... " and he took one look and in a panic voice said, "OH MY GOD!!!! WE HAVE TO GET YOU TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM QUICK!" I said, "You know what, I'll just drive myself." "Oh No," he replied, "You're just in shock. You don't realize how bad this is." I said, "No sir, I am calm. You don't realize how bad your reaction is."

So the guy insisted and he took me to the hospital. The nurses couldn't even look at it. The doctor even winced. I noticed that the nurses were giggling amongst themselves. I finally asked, "what's so funny?" They said, "Well we can't help but ask, if you were hurt, why did you go to Doctor Jones?" (forgot his real name) I said, "NO, I didn't go to him, he happened to be there when it happened." "OOOOOHHHHHH" she replied, "That explains it. You see, Dr. Jones is an OBGYN!"

On a side note, the plastic surgeon supposedly is known for doing sex change operations. I specifically said I didn't want to go under and asked for just a local anestetic for the operation. I didn't want my chart getting mixed up with some other dude's chart and wake up with boobs and a vagina. :-)