So, Friday afternoon Mike decided to install our garage opener. Cabinets didn't show up, it was going to be an "easy" afternoon...after putting the opener together, I ran the girls home while Mike prepped the wall for the bracket for the "hanging" portion. As I was on my way back to the house, talking with probuild about some flex trim, I got a call from Mike--"Great" I thought, he is going to remind me to look at my parent's garage, but I was already back & I wonder if he's fallen and hurt himself. Then he called again as I was walking up the garage...I tapped and heard this response, "Dorothy, I need you in here quick. Fast as you can, go through the front door! I need you!!" So I ran in and he's on the ladder, pulled up against the wall with blood all over...I thought maybe he'd been gutted by the spring on the garage, I know those things are wound super tight and knew they are dangerous if sprung incorrectly...I dialed 911, but Mike said not to and to grab the knife for him so he could cut himself loose...I redialed 911 when he said he wanted to loosen the spring...by the time I got through and was giving the address, he'd unsprung it...his dad showed up just then...and then we were off to get stitched up...
Mike's version...he had cut away the drywall, figured out where to connect his bracket, was drilling in the lag nuts when all of sudden the bracket that held the spring to the wall came undone and started spinning around, slashing his chest and thumb and finger...his shirt got caught up in the spring, stopping the spinning...he tried assessing how badly he was hurt...saw his fingers, hoped he wasn't impaled by the screws, tried tearing his clothes to get down...had to reach in his pocket with his cut fingers to get the phone to call me...worried about dropping Ted's nice drill he was using, dropped it anyway and called me...
So, the garage spring wasn't installed properly...they didn't cut away the sheet rock to make sure they were securing the spring bracket correctly...we think it was screwed in between studs, so when Mike started drilling into one of the studs, it vibrated the spring screw loose, causing the incident.
Despite the injury, we are glad it didn't happen to anyone else helping us, namely brothers or dads...that Mike wasn't standing any higher or lower on the ladder which could have been more serious in injuries, that his clothes did get caught up in the spring and didn't knock him off the ladder...that it didn't spring off at a later time--slamming the garage down or flying off the wall...
Lastly, the wounds on his chest: deep scratches that weren't deep enough to stitch up, wound on back from his clothes being wound in spring, wound on eye from when he was holding the drill and pulled back when this happened, thumb--tore the tendon, but was sutured & imobalized-cut may be damaging enough that skin may not heal and may need future skin graft, finger--possibly cut right before nerves branch out to finger, so decrease sensation in the tip-barely missed the tendon in the finger...
