Hydrogen Peroxide and a Band Aid

Or, “I did in 60 seconds what the University of Maryland Medical Center could not do in 3 hours.”

This evening went very different from how I imagined it would go as I was preparing to leave work. I was cleaning out the cryostat from my latest spate of brain-cutting and my hand slipped, slicing my finger against the blade. Due to the way the blade is set up, the cut was about 0.5 cm deep. Almost immediately my finger began bleeding profusely, and I was a little concerned because the blade had been coated with an ethylene glycol solution. While applying pressure to my finger, I packed up my stuff and figured I would head by the hospital emergency room and see if I could get somebody to look at it.

I was prepared to wait for a while, so I kept applying pressure (later, gauze after they took my vitals and handed me some) and got my coworker Kim to look up the toxicity of ethylene glycol. As it turns out, ethylene glycol is harmful because it produces toxic metabolites, which means that as long as you’re not drinking it you’re probably okay. I was a lot less worried, and after an hour of waiting the bleeding had subsided, but I figured I’d wait and get somebody to say I was alright for the benefit of the report I’ll have to file since I was hurt on the job.

As it turns out, I ended up waiting there for over three hours ( ~8:10 PM–11:40 PM) before I simply walked out in frustration. By that time I knew all I needed was a little hydrogen peroxide and a band aid and I’d be fine, but of course there’s no way they can just take you and and do that so you can go. After leaving the ER, I walked back to the parking garage only to discover that it had been completely locked up for the night. That led to more walking over to the campus police station, and more waiting while they contacted parking services to come and let me out. Once I made it home at about 1 AM, I quickly poured some H₂O₂ on the cut, applied a band-aid, and am now typing with all ten fingers.

For the second time, however, (see my MCAT story) there was a little bit of a bright side. The guy who ended up letting me out not only didn’t charge me a fine, like I was expecting, he actually only charged me $4 instead of the usual $6!

Today was by far one of the poorer days to decide not to pack a book. Let that be a lesson to you—always bring a book! Also, once I can start IVs, I’m going to avoid going to an ER for my own ailments unless I’m riding in an ambulance.