Mower victim gives warning

Sarah Schwager
A MARYKNOLL man had one of his thumbs mangled when his rideon lawnmower fell on him.
He is now warning others to take care when using mowers on embankments.
Keith Staindl was mowing his 200metre long nature strip which rises to a 45degree slope, while walking beside it when a gust of wind tipped the machine over.
Mr Staindl’s hand was caught in the blades, leaving his thumb ‘hanging by a thread’.
“I was very lucky. It was my left hand,” he said.
“When the motor is coming over like that it’s instantaneous.
“I grabbed for the bonnet but it only came over further until it was completely upside down.”
Mr Staindl’s wife, Eveline, took him to the doctor where an ambulance was waiting to transport him to Dandenong Hospital.
Mr Staindl, who arrived home on Monday afternoon, said the nurses were horrified by the mangled wound and a doctor described it as ‘a sausage hanging on a piece of string’.
“It was very foolish. I won’t do it again, I promise,” he said.
Mr Staindl said he had mowed the bank dozens of times but this time had been overconfident.
“I did it and I paid for it.”
Mr Staindl spent all of Thursday in an observation room until 11.30pm when doctors cleaned up the wound and had a look at the injury.
Mrs Staindl said on Friday that doctors feared he would lose his thumb or, if saved, it would not function.
But after orthopaedic surgery on Saturday, Mr Staindl not only got to keep his thumb but is hopeful he will have most of its use back.
He said it would be about six weeks and a couple more operations until doctors would be certain of the outcome.
“I hope other people will learn from my lesson,” he said.
“It can be very dangerous.
“You don’t think about it when you’ve got 200 metres of nature strip to mow and you don’t want to spend all day doing it.”