My Mandoline Injury Story

Yep it happened.  My Mandoline lopped off the tip of my middle finger and a chunk of my fingernail causing my first major kitchen accident!  For some of you that don’t know you’re probably thinking, “So what I chopped off an 3/16″ of skin how bad can it be”?  Let me tell you after that experience I understand why Chinese finger torture was so effective!

So what happened exactly?

I was preparing for a private chef gig for the next day and making Ratatouille.  This takes time and I altered my evening to make dinner for somebody else at the same time.   NO, alcohol was not a factor.

1. I DIDN’T USE THE $#@#@ GUARD!

2.  I was rushing like it was a race or something.   

I just won a Darwin kitchen award!  Grrrrr

 

 

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Can You Find The Fingertip?

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 The Consequences

First off let me tell you I felt an immediate sting of pain and burn.   My first action was to run it under cold water and try to use my thumb to pinch off the pouring of blood.  GUESS WHAT?  I might as well stuck pins in my raw finger when the water hit it.  And, what am I exactly going to pinch?  lol

Paper towel and a rag was the only thing that could contain it.  I sat down for an hour to see if it would stop.  It didn’t.   So I went to a walk in to see what need to be done….why would I want to wait in ER for hours on end for a finger wound?  Dr.  Said hey man you cut into a vein and this won’t stop….so off to ER.

I got to the nursing station to check in….no time to wait so she had to put a temp bandage on me.   Well….this nurse didn’t have the hands of a delicate flower…no…she had the hands and strength of a Gorilla.  I’m sweating buckets at this point!   30 sec’s later I’m gushing through the gauze.  She said oooops.  We got to do it again!   Lord have mercy!  Twice I had to endure somebody sticking their thumb on my open tip with pressure!

So now I get called up to see the doctor and he said you’re the third person today with this injury!   What the heck were you cooking he asked…followed by a belly laugh! lol

So the guy said this is simple and stuck a needle twice into the wound to freeze it…clearly I have a high tolerance for pain!

Then he leaves and this guy nurse who was totally cool had to wrap me up.  He said the freezing should last about 45 min….um more like 10 min!   As we are waiting for the gauze to start creating a seal he says my blood stinks!  lol  Thanks bud!

The end result I have to walk around for three days with my middle finger up in the air.   My Ratatouille had a odd taste so I think I’ll just remake it.   My private chef gig just got smoked.

I hate you Mr. Mandoline!