YOUR NEMESIS THE SNOW BLOWER
With cold weather coming on, it won’t be long before you have occasion to swing into action with your snow blowers. Once winter really sets in, we tend to get weather cold enough to make lighter, dryer snow. However, at both ends of the season when it’s just cold enough to make snow, we can get some really wet, heavy stuff. But deep snow, especially when it’s wet and heavy, will clog most snow blowers. Use a silicone spray lubricant on your snow blower’s chute, auger and impeller (fan) areas before use to reduce clogging, and also on your snow shovel any time you find snow tending to cling to it.
However, when a clog does occur, nothing could be more hazardous to your hand than reaching into the chute to remove clogs of heavy snow. Always turn the machine off, and use a stick or other tool to clear the chute. Never put your hand inside a clogged snow blower, even when the engine is off! Springiness in the drive train can store residual torque that is suddenly released when the clog that binds it is removed. And that short jerk of a snow blower’s impeller has scissored off the fingers of many an unwary user.
Hospital emergency departments routinely see lacerations, finger fractures and severed fingers after major snow falls. Since most injured people have reached into the snow blower with their dominant hand, such injuries can be devastating.
Amputated fingers can sometimes be re-implanted, though only a surgeon can advise if salvage is possible. Paramedics are trained to transport any amputated finger with the patient. They will wrap it in gauze and place it in a chilled sterile container, never directly on ice to avoid chance of further damage.