Page 1 of 1

Dick Olson injured

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:49 am
by TheCollector
Hey folks,

I know Dick has been in contact with tdt.com as well where he's known as "DOLSO"...last week Dick had a serious accident in his shop

Friday AM I was cutting the french cleats for the "final Four" on the table saw.... the blade had to be raised about 3 inches in order to cut through the bases... the wood "bound up" & 'kicked back' (basically instead of cutting smoothly, the blade got turned cock-eyed & the saw threw the chunk of wood back at me) which drew my left forearm into the blade

I didn't immediately know that it had gone into the saw blade, I thought the wood had just hit my arm until I looked at it.......pretty much hambuger over 2/3 of my arm. Luckily, there was another guy working at his shop fairly close by & he called 911 while holding a tourniquet on my upper arm. The emerg room dr determined that the local doc's couldn't help enough so they found a specialist in Denver willing to take me, put me & my wife on a "flight for life". I cut the arm about 9:30 and by noon I was in the ER in Denver. Went into 4 1/2 hour surgery about 2:30 & got into a room about 9:00 that eve.

Turns out I shattered the ulna (smaller of the 2 long bones in the forearm), shredded the artery, muscles, ligaments and nerves. I guess there's 3 arteries in the arm & I got 2 of them in the saw...if I would have gotten the 3rd they would have just amputated it. The dr took a portion of the vein from my leg & used it to patch the one in my arm,,,screwed a piece if metal to the ends of the arm bone to hold it solid while healing,,,& did what he could (I'm not sure what that was) for the nerves & ligaments

The way it stands now, I can slightly move my thumb & 1st finger, have some feeling in the middle & ring finger & can't tell if my little finger is on my hand or not (it is, just can't tell it by feeling) Dr says it'll be 3 months before we know if the bone will regrow or not & the use of the fingers is also a wait & see situation.


Please keep Dick in your thoughts and prayers!

Clearly projects will be on hold ofr a while. To those few that still have cases waiting, if you received an e-mail a week or so ago that your case would ship out, it will be shipping out this week. For the last 4 cases left, Dick has brought a helper in that will be wrapping up the cases but it's going to be a couple of weeks at least. I will be e-mailing those people directly with updates.

Re: Dick Olson injured

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:54 am
by ur2ndbiggestfan
That is so tragic, I hope Dick makes a full recovery.

Re: Dick Olson injured

Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:10 pm
by fleggett
Ugh! I've had wood "kick back" on me while using a table saw and it is a FRIGHTENING experience. It sounds like the absolute worst (or near to it) happened to Dick.

I'm guessing I'm one of the "final four". No hurry, though, as I still have yet to pay off the book from Centipede (it'll be my second).

Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

(I've been out of it for awhile, else I would've posted sooner.)

Re: Dick Olson injured

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 7:19 pm
by fleggett
Sorry for the necro, but how is Dick doing? The injury he sustained sounded absolutely ghastly.

Re: Dick Olson injured

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:39 am
by TheCollector
He's better, thanks for asking.

Dick has had a couple surgeries and still goes to physical therapy on a regular basis but has regained some feeling and mobility in the injured hand. He's back to making projects...as good as before, from what I've seen although at a much slower pace.

Re: Dick Olson injured

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 2:39 pm
by jimimck
Please pass my thoughts on to Dick. Here is hoping he recovers well - soon!

Re: Dick Olson injured

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:48 am
by TheCollector
Will do! I know he appreciates the support from everyone.