Last week was rough as we dealt with a kitchen accident. Janna somehow got her left index finger stuck in the business end of our new Cuisinart hand blender.
Janna was cleaning the blender and, due to the large, convenient, touch-sensitive switch, she somehow touched that switch while her finger was near the blades.
In the flash of a second, the bloody business was done and I was on the hunt for pieces of her finger in the kitchen sink.
I was able to find her thinly sliced fingerprint sitting on the cool stainless steel. I plucked it from the wet surface with a pair of tweezers, put the print on an ice cube and -- with her finger bleeding, but our minds intact -- Janna and I walked to the emergency room of the hospital a block away.
Four hours later, we learned the Cuisinart had taken not one, but two, pieces of her flesh and also sliced her finger in two additional places that didn't result in a through cut.
The first cut was the whisper-thin fingerprint I found. The other chunk of her finger was a deep, missing, gouge that must've fallen down the kitchen sink drain.
Since the larger chunk of her finger was missing, the fingerprint I'd so carefully saved could not be re-attached.
Janna was wrapped up with thick bandages and given a prescription for Percodan and sent home to heal.
A week later, her finger is doing better -- I think I see signs of her fingerprint returning to life -- and I am left with the ringing warning by triage nurse gave us as Janna's finger was examined: "You'd be surprised how many kitchen emergencies we deal with every day. The kitchen is a hot, sharp, and dangerous place."
Please be careful in your kitchen, and please know hand blenders have double, sharp, blades that spin at an incredible speed. You should certainly unplug any hand blender before you clean it, but when the best way to clean such a blender is to run it in a glass of clean water, you can see how the danger of being cut begs the price of getting clean.
In the flash of a second, the bloody business was done and I was on the hunt for pieces of her finger in the kitchen sink.
I was able to find her thinly sliced fingerprint sitting on the cool stainless steel. I plucked it from the wet surface with a pair of tweezers, put the print on an ice cube and -- with her finger bleeding, but our minds intact -- Janna and I walked to the emergency room of the hospital a block away.
Four hours later, we learned the Cuisinart had taken not one, but two, pieces of her flesh and also sliced her finger in two additional places that didn't result in a through cut.
The first cut was the whisper-thin fingerprint I found. The other chunk of her finger was a deep, missing, gouge that must've fallen down the kitchen sink drain.
Since the larger chunk of her finger was missing, the fingerprint I'd so carefully saved could not be re-attached.
Janna was wrapped up with thick bandages and given a prescription for Percodan and sent home to heal.
A week later, her finger is doing better -- I think I see signs of her fingerprint returning to life -- and I am left with the ringing warning by triage nurse gave us as Janna's finger was examined: "You'd be surprised how many kitchen emergencies we deal with every day. The kitchen is a hot, sharp, and dangerous place."
Please be careful in your kitchen, and please know hand blenders have double, sharp, blades that spin at an incredible speed. You should certainly unplug any hand blender before you clean it, but when the best way to clean such a blender is to run it in a glass of clean water, you can see how the danger of being cut begs the price of getting clean.
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Sorry to hear about this. Funny how those obvious disclaimers "always unplug appliances before cleaning" just slip away from our minds when we think we can just quickly wipe something and rinse it.
Hope the finger gets well soon
-Simon a.k.a. fruey
The kitchen is a pretty scary place sometimes. I cut my finger twice in the last month on simple canned food!
Great to hear from you, Simon! I hope you are doing well. Janna appreciates your good wishes and you're right that electrical things are alive when juiced and it's up to us to maintain them only in a decommissioned state.
Crazy, Gordon! Someone told me a dull knife will cut you quicker than a sharp one -- because you have to force a dull knife to work instead of just letting it do its job. Did you cut yourself on the can?
I did, David - twice. When I was in Seattle I had what is called a Magican - it opens cans by undoing the seal a can has instead of cutting it. Now I have a more inexpensive can opener which cuts cans - and causes cans to cut you, if you're not careful!
Yikes! No good, Gordon! How does the Magician unseal a can? Did you sell it in Seattle?
I think I left it with friends - or maybe it's in a box somewhere?
Anyhow, it actually works in a pretty simple way. The way that 99% of cans are manufactured is that top and bottoms are not part of the can but are seamed on through a basic technique.
http://www.cannedfood.co.uk/how-cans-are-made-today
Because of this, what the magican does is basically puts its metal digit between the lid and can and releases the seal. No sharp edges at all because when it is originally made, there are no sharp edges - sharp edges only come from cutting the can.
Can't wait to check it out.