Koyie Hill's Unfortunate Table Saw Mishap

[Outshined_One]

For those of you who missed the story.

 

Link

 

Last October, Cubs catcher Koyie Hill suffered a freak injury when he cut off four of the fingers on his throwing hand. The injury happened as Hill -- an avid carpenter and general handy man -- was cutting a piece of wood with a table saw. The blade hit a knot in the wood and ... well ... you don’t need the gruesome details. Because playing baseball with six fingers is next to impossible, Hill was told he’d never play ball again.

[Derwood]

The table saw always scares the hell out of me. I try to get someone to help me whenever I use mine. I've known too many people who had bad injuries because they were too impatient and decided to rip a 4x8 sheet of plywood by themselves

[jersey cubs fan]

I cannot be the only one who thought about For Love of the Game.

 

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=231787&src=152

 

The 29-year-old Hill, a jourmeyman catcher, was making a wood window frame for his house last Oct. 16 when he suffered a horrific injury, one that nearly cost him four of the fingers on his right hand.

 

"I don't talk about it much," said Hill, the son of a master carpenter. "It's just an accident with a table saw, something I've done a million times before. I was using a saw that's really bad about grabbing, and grabbed, and there it went."

 

There went Hill's thumb, his pinkie finger, his ring finger and half of his middle finger. Although Hill said he didn't have to pick any of his fingers up off the floor, he said some were hanging by small pieces of skin.

 

"This one, this one and half of this one," he said, matter-of-factly, pointing at the mangled digits. "It cut my thumb off first, went through all the muscle in my thumb, and it went back this way and turned it and cut all four tendons and all four fingers and all four ligaments. They don't move anymore."

[Bruce Miles]

I cannot be the only one who thought about For Love of the Game.

 

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=231787&src=152

 

The 29-year-old Hill, a jourmeyman catcher, was making a wood window frame for his house last Oct. 16 when he suffered a horrific injury, one that nearly cost him four of the fingers on his right hand.

 

"I don't talk about it much," said Hill, the son of a master carpenter. "It's just an accident with a table saw, something I've done a million times before. I was using a saw that's really bad about grabbing, and grabbed, and there it went."

 

There went Hill's thumb, his pinkie finger, his ring finger and half of his middle finger. Although Hill said he didn't have to pick any of his fingers up off the floor, he said some were hanging by small pieces of skin.

 

"This one, this one and half of this one," he said, matter-of-factly, pointing at the mangled digits. "It cut my thumb off first, went through all the muscle in my thumb, and it went back this way and turned it and cut all four tendons and all four fingers and all four ligaments. They don't move anymore."

 

He's turning into one of my favorite people. He came up to me afterward to say thanks. I asked him why he didn't say anything in spring training, and he said, "Because I wasn't a major-leaguer." This guy would be a nice backup on a lot of teams. But he wanted to be a Cub, even if it meant playing in the minor leagues most of the year.

[Little Slide Rooter]

I knew I should have gotten Bob Howry that table saw for his birthday.

[CubinNY]

How in the world does he hold a bat?

[Electron Blue]

How in the world does he hold a bat?

 

why would it be different?

[CubinNY]

How in the world does he hold a bat?

 

why would it be different?

His fingers on one hand don't really move and he doesn't have muscle in them?

[Ski]

They reattached the fingers, you know. It's not like a table saw left them all mangled.

[rynefan]

Pat Hughes interviewed him before the game Monday (radio), I think it was. It was really interesting, and they did one of those "disclamers" that the story could be graphic, etc. I guess his pinky came all the way off. I wouldn't get near a table saw if I had a potentially hot career ahead of me.

[jersey cubs fan]

How in the world does he hold a bat?

 

why would it be different?

His fingers on one hand don't really move and he doesn't have muscle in them?

 

I'm guessing he was making a joke about Koyie Hill's pre-injury prowess with the bat.

[BleedCubbieBlue81]

They reattached the fingers, you know. It's not like a table saw left them all mangled.

"It cut my thumb off first, went through all the muscle in my thumb, and it went back this way and turned it and cut all four tendons and all four fingers and all four ligaments. They don't move anymore."

Probably pretty hard to hold a bat when you're fingers don't move. But like has already been said, he never really was known for his offensive prowess.

[Post Count Padder]

Holy mother of God. I'm cringing right now. Best of luck to Hill in recovering but I guess it's safe to assume we won't see him in a game again.

[Brian]

Holy mother of God. I'm cringing right now. Best of luck to Hill in recovering but I guess it's safe to assume we won't see him in a game again.

 

This happened in the last offseason, he's played the entire season after it happened.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

So is his nickname "Two-Fingers" Hill now?

[Yeti]

ive seen this injury happen before, in fact i had to pick up 2 of the fingers and pack them in ice. it was a very gruesome scene.

 

for all of you homeowner wanna be carpenters, dont ever use a table saw with out others being present, there are several ways that a tablesaw can injure/kill you, especially if you are alone. i am a professional and have many years of experience on a table saw under my belt and i rarely ever use one w/o someone else being present, especially not if my work piece is something i cant handle with one hand

[Post Count Padder]

Holy mother of God. I'm cringing right now. Best of luck to Hill in recovering but I guess it's safe to assume we won't see him in a game again.

 

This happened in the last offseason, he's played the entire season after it happened.

Oh wow, I completely missed that. Man, now I look like an idiot.

[BigbadB]

I think I read in that article that he's hit 17 home runs this year. Did I read that part of the article wrong?

[treebird]

my dad did something similar about six years ago. he was using a planer and the board slipped and he cut the ends of three fingers off of his right hand. all the way down to the knuckle on the first two and just a little on the third. unfortunately, they weren't able to reattach any of them.

 

i think i'll send him that article, i'll bet he'd like it.

[Laura]

I think I read in that article that he's hit 17 home runs this year. Did I read that part of the article wrong?

 

Now all the kids are going to do it.

[sweetpeteman]

I think I read in that article that he's hit 17 home runs this year. Did I read that part of the article wrong?

 

 

Nope:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Koyie%20Hill&pos=C&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=425542

[imb]

birthplace: tulsa, ok, what the hell? NEW FAV

[David]

They should sprinkle that magic powder on his hand that regrew that other guy's fingertips from North Carolina.

 

 

Seriously, the medical advancements we're going to see in our lifetimes because of stem cell research is going to be amazing (don't remember if that powder was stem cell related.. I think it was from a pig or something, anyone know what I'm talking about?)

[badnews]

They should sprinkle that magic powder on his hand that regrew that other guy's fingertips from North Carolina.

 

 

Seriously, the medical advancements we're going to see in our lifetimes because of stem cell research is going to be amazing (don't remember if that powder was stem cell related.. I think it was from a pig or something, anyone know what I'm talking about?)

 

We're going to see a lot of crazy things in our lifetimes. I can't wait until people refer to Oswego and a close-in suburb.

[rynefan]

I don't think it will be long until Oswego is considered a close-in high school. BTW your new h.s camps (East) is the most amazing h.s. facility I've ever seen. There's some jumbotron thing in the gym.