I won't be getting any ground meat from my store soon....

[bean]

As most of you know, in a typical full service grocery store, the meat department typically has the most dangerous equipment. Grinders, bone saws, etc.

Several years ago a coworker lost a thumb to the bone saw. Wound up dying 6 months later at work of a heart attack as well, on the clock.

The meat dept probably has the most injuries overall, but usually minor, until a few days ago.

The entire experience is a MASSIVE fuckup.

First... for whatever reason, an employee was running a grinder with several guards (most) removed. I've seen them run with 1 or 2 missing, but not all of them. Even with ALL missing, you have to shove your arm almost elbow deep to get a nick. so when the guy running the mostly disassembled grinder starts SCREAMING and blood is gushing out of the business end, what do you do?

The only thing they did right was hit the emergency off button. EVERY phone in the store, even internal only phones, can dial 911. If there's not an available outside line, it will disconnect all outside calls, then make multiple 911 calls. Instead, they called the customer service desk and had them page the shift manager back there... no mention of an emergency, just "Hey can you send shifty back here?".

Shift manager shows up a few minutes later. Sees arm wedged in grinder, blood gushing out the other side. "WHY THE FUCK HAVEN'T YOU IDIOTS CALLED 911 YET? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU MORONS? ARE YOU FUCKING RETARDED?!" etc etc etc. Store mgr calls 911.... but nobody ever tells frontend "hey, someone called 911". Yeah, if someone dials 911 from a store phone, the customer service phone starts beeping and shows which extension called, but apparently store mgr called from his cell.

So when 2 ambulances and 2 fire trucks show up, all of us up front are like ".... uhm, what?". Thankfully a customer that was up front knew what was going on and told them where to go. It took quite a bit to get the fresh ground tacos, uhm, I mean, fingers, freed, most of the fresh meat was left in the grinder. From the time of the accident to paramedics knowing where to go was over 15 minutes (there's a fire/EMS station less than a block from the store, it's actually on the street behind the store... their normal response time is under 90 seconds from beginning of 911 call until walking in... this response was over 10 minutes, and another 5 to figure out who had called).

So, EVERY fucking protocol of our emergency response broke down. Every.single.one. I've personally contacted OSHA about this - what kind of idiot follows a chain of command in a life threatening emergency? PICK UP THE GODDAMN NEAREST PHONE AND DIAL 911 YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!!!!!!!!

He wound up losing his entire middle finger (not entirely a bad thing, he can't easily flip me off anymore) and half of 2 other fingers. When I asked a coworker when I could give him a hand, said coworker groaned, shook his head, and started laughing and told me that was probably the most morbid thing he'd ever heard.

We're self insured on workman's comp - and even if we weren't, this guy has both short and long term disability insurance. It's a damn good thing that most of our camera system is dead, otherwise someone would have seen the shit he did to get his arm wedged in a 480 volt 3 phase grinder. I do not get anywhere NEAR anything 480, I've been knocked across rooms by 207/240/277 before.

Also, I'm one of few trained civilian first responders in the store, I get re-certified every 2 years by both the American Heart Association and American Red Cross, on CPR, AED, and advanced first aid - I've been getting certified every 2 years since I was 12 years old, I'm 31 now. I do the certs for myself, they're as close to being a first responder as I will ever get, but the store management knows I have them. I didn't know what was going on until the poor guy was in the hospital, if I'd been informed sooner I could have, at the very least, helped control bleeding and shock and helped keep him calm and best of all, cut the fucking power cord to that damn machine. I believe I'm the only one in the store out of nearly 300 employees with all 3 certs.

I can honestly say I will never purchase ground meat from work again. I don't care how well you clean that thing, I know human fingers have run through it and since we handle organics, the strongest chemical that can go through is bleach.

[TelephoneAngel]

Never mind the cleaning of the machines, that's just awful about the lack of emremgcy response and communication

[bainsidhe]

That's tragic, frightening and really sad. And they should certainly have called 911 immediately.

But.

In emergencies people do funny things. People freeze up. They freak out. And they're not thinking straight, even if they're not the one gushing blood. Add to that many stores strongly discourage (and threaten with firing or disciplinary action) if the chain of command isn't the one making 911 calls. I'm disappointed to say my former store MalMart had such a policy. If someone faints or starts gushing blood, management is supposed to become involved and make the decision to call 911. Only exception ever was if a small child was left alone in an overheated car.

I'm sorry to play the devil's advocate because I wholeheartedly agree many things should have happened differently. I don't blame you for not wanting to eat anything processed there again.

[Rantsylvania 6-5000]

Add to that many stores strongly discourage (and threaten with firing or disciplinary action) if the chain of command isn't the one making 911 calls. I'm disappointed to say my former store MalMart had such a policy. If someone faints or starts gushing blood, management is supposed to become involved and make the decision to call 911.

I can't help thinking this is exactly what happened here. We've all been programmed for so long to say and do whatever management tells us, and to be robots who don't think for ourselves. You can't even blink without checking with a manager first! If these people had been in a different situation, I'm sure someone would have whipped out their cell phone and called 911 immediately. I believe this is a horribly tragic result of those kinds of policies.

[Seshat]

One of the reasons for training first responders is to counter precisely that freeze-up effect.

Anyone who's reading this and hasn't done at least a basic first aid course, go and book one. Now. It's the best thing you can do for yourself and your family. (The second best is a tie between making sure your car has good tyres and brakes, and your house is fitted with sound electrical wiring.)

[Hyndis]

I've seen all too well the results of just blind and unthinking panic in the face of an emergency, even a relatively minor one!

When I was little my sister had managed to slice open her hand with a pair of scissors. Looking back at it, it was rather hilarious. My sister was running around the house screaming (she was about 10 years old at the time) and my mother was in a panic calling my father on the phone while crying.

I finally managed to corner her so she would stop running around so I could actually look at the injury. It had cut through the skin obviously, but didn't go any deeper. It was basically just a very nasty papercut. I cleaned the wound and had patched it up all by myself, stopping the bleeding as well all within 5 minutes, all done calmly and methodically. It healed without even the tiniest of scars.

I was 14 years old at a time.

Go boyscouts!

Though perhaps I do take the self sufficiency a little too far. I've even set my own broken bones before, and everything healed up fine.



I do strongly agree that during a crisis remaining calm is by far the most important thing. Running around in a blind panic does not help anyone. And sometimes rules should be broken. Company policy says you need to go up the chain of command so the store manage can (eventually) make his way over to access the situation while someone has his arm stuck in an active meat grinder? Yeah...not doing that. Yank the plug first off to turn it off in order to prevent further damage. Then call 911. Then send someone else to alert management while you try to keep the person calm to contain the damage.

[Racket_Man]

in my youth (like 14 or so) I took the US Red Cross swimming Lifesaving course to get certified to be a life guard (never did follow through and get the lifeguard's job). in this course they teach basic emergency first aid. kinda cool to learn some of that stuff.

when my daughter was 2 years old she was running around in the alley behind my parents house. as she was not really paying attention to where she was running, she ran into one of the garbage dumpsters and split the skin on her forehead open. now as we know minor flesh head wounds bleed like the dickins.

My Dad freaked out, picked her up and ran into the house. My Ex AND my Mom both freaked out too. they started screaming about stitches and the ER and OH MY GOD THERE IS A LOT OF BLOOD!!!!!! total panic.

I on the other hand stayed calm and cool. I told my Mom, in a commanding voice, to get me a wet towel, some peroxide, a couple of bandages, some gause and the anti-baterial powder. I calmly proceeded to wash down the wound (not much more than a scrape and not all that deep) clean and bandage it. while they on the other hand were hyperventilating and still taking about stitches and the ER.

[Food Lady]

I always say I'm good in an emergency, having been through many robberies, earthquakes, and car accidents, but I don't know what I'd do in THAT situation!

[bean]

During my training with the company, and also in the employee handbook, it does state that minor injuries are to be handled through the chain of command. Even the smallest of injuries are supposed to be reported to the shift leader.

"Major" injuries mean call 911 NOW, then management. Management is supposed to inform customer service so they know where to direct the first responders. When you call 911 from a store phone, whoever's at the service desk knows immediately which phone has dialed 911, and the phone starts squawking (sounds like a siren).

Customer injuries are a whole 'nother ballgame. If someone falls, but is otherwise alright, notify manager, let manager make the decision, and do not apologize as this can potentially make us appear as if we are responsible. Major customer injuries, fainting, or something that would normally make you think "gee, I should call 911", means call 911 first, then management.

I've had a couple of iffy customer situations. Both times they were complaining of low blood sugar. Both times, the first thing I said was "Would you like me to call anybody? Friend, family, paramedics, doctor, anybody?", both times they said no. Next thing I did was get them some orange juice (since it's high in sugar) and a chair, and had someone nearby notify management. I made sure the customer had staff next to them the entire time, until they either felt better or decided they should go to the hospital.

One felt better after awhile, but I still suggested she wait for awhile, and asked again if she'd like us to call anybody, either to pick her up or take her for medical care. Eventually we called family for her and they picked her up. The other made the decision to go to the hospital, and we called her family to let her know what was going on.

The ONLY reason I dealt with those situations the way I did is I've had plenty of first aid training. Also managed to help coworkers with some nasty cuts/other injuries while waiting on paramedics, at least to get the bleeding stopped and calm them down.

[Food Lady]

I'm so worried for your CW and so glad it didn't happen to you!

[bean]

I'm so worried for your CW and so glad it didn't happen to you!

Hah, I absolutely hate handling raw meat anyway - I helped fill in in the meat dept briefly, and the only meats I could handle without wanting to puke was beef or buffalo. I'd be dry heaving after handling raw chicken.

Coworker is out of the hospital and I understand he's doing well and in good spirits. I'm sure the company is wishing they weren't self insured on workman's comp now though, he's going to be out of work for several months, minimum, getting paid for it, plus of course the cost of his treatment and physical therapy.

[Seshat]

I suspect bean would have refused to operate it with so many guards removed.

[Salted Grump]

And here I am, scarfing down a cheeseburger. Yum. you can just taste the long pork.

[PepperElf]

but... will his insurance actually PAY him for the damages?

i would think that they would investigate and say "WTF!" when they realized he was operating the equipment without the safety gear applied.

and then investigate why there was no safety equipment engaged. if it was his own choice i would not be surprised if they refused the claim. and if it was a manager who made him do it, then it would be a lawsuit against the company, perhaps.


but that's just me.


and yeah... i'd say "hell no" to being ordered to break safety.
Hell i did that to one of my officers once. flat out told him "no"

the moron wanted me to wrap a fuse in tin foil and put it back into the system. (and it wasn't even a vital system)

[bean]

From what I understand, injured CW was the one who removed the safety equipment, as he was in a hurry. Believe me, I've seen enough accidents up close that I will NEVER remove a piece of safety equipment. Sorry boss, I know you need 50 pounds of fresh hog ground up, but it looks like the grinder's safety features are malfunctioning.

Also, I found out today that we are no longer self insured on workman's comp claims. Apparently HR didn't feel like spreading the love when they found out, but I noticed it when I stopped to read our latest cleanliness reports (we get audited monthly by an independent company) and why my original dept - deli - failed so hilariously. You need at least a 90 to pass, one dept got a 100 (first time in the 16 year history of the store that any dept except "admin/mgr" got a 100), deli got a 78. If it'd been a real health dept inspector, the deli would have been shut down entirely and all product disposed of ASAP. One of the "less severe" items they found was half of the salad bar cooling had called it quits.. the storage portion (lower) was 35, but one side of the top (customer side) was 60 degrees.

Unfortunately for the company, the ENTIRE camera system has been dead for nearly 2 years. The people most pissed about this are the local PD. The cameras themselves have power, but the entire DVR system crapped out and it hasn't been replaced. We just dropped $75,000 on new HVAC units and $50k on new carts, though those were also massively overdue for replacement....

I'm still not lending a hand to the meat department, or lifting a finger to help them out. They grind my gears too much.

edit: tin foil has a relatively low fault current. It would have melted pretty quick - and if it didn't, the wiring going to it would have. You could have tossed a Zinsco breaker in and it would have proven to be more reliable... to keep the power on, no matter what. Had one of those bastard panels at my old place.