Originally Posted by Margi

Hi - I'm fairly new to quilting, but have been sewing most of my life. I have a professional embroidery business (20 years now) that I run out of my home. So to the finger story. When I first started my embroidery business, was in a warehouse setting, sewing away at 500 stitches a minute with a big professional embroidery machine. Was trimming without stopping the machine and got my pointer finger on the left hand. The needle stopped down in my finger. Got the mechanism to go up and went to the local clinic. They pulled out some thread and needle and I went back to work. About a month later, I felt terrible. Went to a real doctor. He sent me to hospital for x-ray. Guess what? Needle piece still there. He numbed my finger, cut off half nail and put my finger in a pan to soak (about size of bed pan). I'm not exaggerating, pus went over the top of the pan. He said he had never seen anything like it. He put gauze in my finger. Went back a week or 2 later. He numbed finger (did not numb it) and pulled out the gauze. I screamed so loud that we thought we had sent all the other patients running! I soaked the finger for years and it has never been the same - I still feel thread in the finger. I will never trim again without stopping my machine - any kind of machine!