On Mother's Day, 2001 I suffered my first and only serious woodworking related injury and it jsut goes to show that even when you are being diligent and careful this can be a dangerous hobby. The saga begins with using the router table and a 1" pattern bit to trim a curve into the feet of my monitor stand project. I was using a special clamp to hold the workpiece and the template was secured to the stock using two sides woodworker's tape. Toward the end of the routing I began to make a climb cut (cutting right to left on a router table, into the spin rotation). Knowing that this is a precarious maneuver I had a very firm grip on the clamp. Just as the piece made contact with the bit the left vertical handle on the clamp snapped off throwing the workpiece and my left hand into the bit. Although I couldn't see the extent of the damage, I knew this was one of those moments I needed to get to the hospital ASAP. Consequently, I turned off the router, took off my tool belt, and went inside to ask my wife to drive me to the hospital (while throwing a few curses in here and there). 

During the short trip I think I spent more time calming her down than being worried. Upon arriving at the emergency room they promptly seated me in the waiting room and after about 40 minutes I finally get an x-ray. Fast forward another 30 minutes of waiting and the doctor showed up. He began telling me about the extent of the injury and all he would have to do is simply put a few stitches in. At this point I felt it was necessary to inform the doctor that I was a pianist and hardly more than a second after the words left my lips I noticed another doctor's head pop in around the door frame. The original doctor left and doc #2 scooted in to examine my finger. After a few brow furrows and a disapproving grunt, she went off to call a colleague at the Curtis National Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, MD (about 40 minutes away) and got me transferred to their facility. 

During all of this time there was next to no bleeding and it wasn't until the ambulance ride to the Hand Center when the wound caught up for lost time, bleeding profusely. Once at the Center a specialist examined my finger and gave me the real story. The worst of it was that I had severed the extensor tendon on my index finger, all in all not too bad given the circumstances. He then reattached the tendon and cleaned out the injury. The operation took about two hours and during that time the surgeon and I had a great conversation about the china cabinet he just finished for his wife. Yes, he was a woodworker too. (Doesn't it seem odd that two professions that rely on their hands take up woodworking as a hobby?) Click here for a picture of a similar surgery (WARNING: Graphic Picture Content).

It took about five months to recover the use of my finger and for all intensive purposes it is now fine. The Curtis National Hand Center is THE place to go if you have a hand injury, regardless of where you are in the country. Fortunately I only missed a single day of teaching but playing was put on hold until the fall. My insurance covered everything, how many times do we hear that scenario?

On a side note I suppose that no matter how cautious we are accidents still happen. I do have to say that upon returning to woodworking there was some post-traumatic anxiety the first few times at the router table but it went away after a few weeks. I did finish the monitor stand project, which you can go take a look at on the projects & pictures page.

1/28/03 FOLLOW-UP: I recently underwent some additional surgery to remove a cyst that was forming on one of the original incisions. At the surgery the doctor also removed a bone spur that was under the cyst. All in all it went perfectly and my finger is better than ever!