2005 - Volume #29, Issue #2, Page #17

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Power Washer Took A Piece Of His Foot

Power Washer Took A Piece Of His Foot CLEANING EQUIPMENT Cleaning Equipment 29-2-17 High-pressure power washers are great for getting things clean, but dirt isn't the only thing they can wash away in a second. When a 3,000-psi stream of water hit Dan Sowers' boot, it went through the boot leather, sock and deep into his foot. "It happened so quick, there was no stopping it," he recalls. "The hole in the boot was about the size of my little finger." Sowers had put his foot on a hog feeder to keep it from shifting under the pressure of the water. When the feeder moved anyway, his foot slipped into the path of the sprayer nozzle. That momentary slip caused a lot of damage. An infection resulting from the hot water penetration caused the skin around the wound to begin sloughing off. Sowers also suffered from frequent sharp pain he describes as something that "just floored you." As a result of possible nerve damage, he doesn't have much feeling in the injured part of his foot. Once the infection was under control, the skin stopped falling away. Ironically, the clinic used a derivative of pigskin to help heal the farrowing barn wound. A year and a half later, the wound is still very tender. Sowers has been told he may never get more than 80 percent use of his foot back. If he stands on it too long, the skin turns purple around the wound, and the skin lacks flexibility. "The foot is a long way from being back to normal," says Sowers. "If I had been wearing steel-toed boots, it might have saved me, but it could have hit somewhere other than the toe." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dan Sowers, 53403 134th St., Vernon Center, Minn. 56090 (ph 507 549-3680).