The dangers of 3D printing!! Warning ⚠️ contains blood!

It was an ordinary Friday.

The 3D printer was happily whirring away, little did I know it’s evil plot to take its revenge for all the work it had been doing.

In my defence, it had had a few overnight printing breaks, ready for a fresh print in the morning.

The PC pinged to notify me that the print was complete. Walking over to it I suspected nothing, why would I, it had been nothing but a good hard worker, it had been cleaned, maintained and even had a few upgrades.

I opened the doors on the S5…..picked up the spatula to remove the print from the bed…..but it wouldn’t budge. Okay, I tried around all the edges…..still nothing. So gripping the edge of the print bed glass on one side, I tried again with the spatula. Not realising my strength the spatula slide right across the glass print bed, flipping the print off….but my hand was still travelling towards me gripped hand.

I felt the spatula’s blade hit my thumb, and the instant shock and pain. I’d sliced deep into it, about a 5mm incision by about a 20mm wide! It was a clean cut which was actually worse as it wouldn’t stop bleeding. I had to go down two flights of stairs to the sink to run cold water and try to apply a plaster. Being an ex-first aider, I thought I was doing okay. I knew I needed to sit down but whilst walking back up the stairs, I only made it to the first landing, I had to stop as I could feel the cold wave of no energy or strength wash over me. I thought, I’ll just wait here till it had passed, but all I remember was my eyes closing and then blackness.

Next thing I’m aware off is I could hear the sound of the metal stairs and then one of my colleagues shouting my name from the office, one floor above. The stairwell only services our offices and the steps echo in it. So my falling down them would of been heard!

I came to at the bottom of the stairwell, face down on the industrial carpet floor. Legs facing up the stairs, no glasses on, head hurting (from a carpet burn). I couldn’t feel any pain and checked myself by moving fingers and toes. Phew, all still working! I slowly moved my left arm which was above my head, my right arm was pinned under my body.

My first thoughts were, all the things I should of done from being a first aider, but I knew my own body was ok and managed to roll myself onto my back. Our team of real first aiders where there in minutes, assessing me, blanket, talking to me, and an ambulance was on its way too. 10/10!!

I’d managed to fall down a flight (12) of metal stairs and not broken any bones and thankfully, not my neck!!

I was taken to our local hospital here in Bristol (not blue lights) to be reassessed and observation and a CT scan, due to head trauma. The ambulance crew and all the NHS hospital staff, amazing!! 10/10!!

I was home and tucked up in bed by 10:30pm.

So the moral of this story is don’t be complacent with sharp objects 😣😣😣 especially when using them on 3D printers.