A welder has shared gory photos of his injuries after his THUMB was torn in half – when his glove got caught in a drill machine.
Jason Paint was drilling holes into a steel beam at work when disaster struck.
Instead of switching off the machine to push a plug near the drill-bit, the experienced workman left his glove on and did it while it was still spinning as he always did.
But on this occasion the material became caught in the Mag Drill machine, dragging his hand inside – and the thick metal drill-bit sliced straight through his thumb.
Jason’s glove was left in tatters, while stomach-churning photos show the bloodied, mangled remains of the appendage after the accident.
The 46-year-old’s sickened workmates rushed their pal to A&E but were in for another shock – when other colleagues found his KNUCKLE on the metal beam.
Single Jason, of Guernsey, later had 18 stitches to repair his thumb and says he’s still off work after the gruesome ordeal.
He said: “It happened so quickly that my hand got pulled in and luckily my glove broke, so it pulled my hand out.
“But the damage was already done.
“The knuckle of the thumb got ripped out and the thumb was broken in three places.
“To be honest, I didn’t feel any pain. It was a small bit of pain, but I was expecting a lot more. It must have been the adrenaline.”
He added: “As soon as I did it I looked at my thumb and all my skin was pushed up, and there was blood dripping out.
“My workmates got a towel and wrapped it up.
“When I saw it I was just in real shock. I said, ‘You’d better take me to A&E straight away,’ and they did.
“I got in the car and it was quite funny because I got a phone call from one of my workmates.
“He said, ‘I’m not sure I should tell you this,’ so I said, ‘Go on then.’ He said, ‘They found your knuckle on the steel beam.’
“The hospital said to wrap it up and take it there to see if they could put it back in, but there was no chance.
“I’d done this so many times and never had a problem.”
Jason later underwent an operation at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital on Guernsey, near his home in Vale on the island, to reconstruct his thumb.
Eighteen stitches later and after having his thumb in a cast for six weeks, he’s been left with a huge scar – and he still can’t use it properly.
Jason never took action against his bosses because he should have turned the machine off, but he said he thinks it should have had a guard on it and it didn’t.
The company he was working at at the time, New Way Fabrications Ltd, has closed down since the incident in September 2013.
