I was having a nice quiet morning....

[Charlie Lyman]

It's a rainy morning. Typical fall day for south west Idaho. I drank my coffee and went to my small first job. I clean this lady's living room and stairs about every 6 months. She is deaf and has a bunch of little kids running around.

I cleaned the stairs and then went into the living room. I see a red spot so I head out to the van to get the Red Zone.
I come back in and find one of the kids with his arm stuck in my vac hose. He has a terrified look on his face. I run over and try to pull his arm out. He looks like I'm hurting him. I see his other hand has a car in it and he has a tight fist clenched around the car. That's when I realize that he has made a fist inside the hose and I couldn't get it out. I had to calm him down enough to let go. Finally his arm is free.
Mom couldn't hear anything so she had No idea of what happened. I found her and surprisingly instead of getting mad at me she apologized for her kid getting in the way.
Poor kid's arm was red.
My heart is still beating hard.

 

[davegillfishing]

Holy crap
No doubt!!

We have a rule if vac is hooked up there must be a tool on the end

If he put his mouth over the end that would have been really bad


....

 

[Steve Lawrence]

Wow, Charlie. Thanks for the story and I hope you will heed Dave Gill's excellent advice from now on.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

I'm glad he's ok. I am aware of a number of pets who went to their final reward when they investigated the open end of a vacuum hose, or a sadistic child let them "go for a ride" to the recovery tank.

Dave's rule is the one I go by as well.

 

[Mikey P]

Been there.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Didn't you save that Vets life at MF10?

 

[hogjowl]

One of DooDaddy's favorite things to warn against, back in the day when he posted, was sucking a kids eye out.

 

[Art Kelley]

What?

 

[J Scott W]

You probably have a toy car in the waste tank.

 

[Charlie Lyman]

You probably have a toy car in the waste tank.

When he released his fist, I didn't hear anything go through the hose. I listened for that.

 

[Steve Lawrence]

Hey Charlie, one thing that crossed my mind (total hindsight) was--if his arm was totally in the hose, seems that pulling it out could really scrape the flesh off the little guy. Perhaps breaking the suction downline by either disconnecting a hose probably 25' or 50' away, or whipping out your pocket knife and cutting the hose several feet away from him to relieve the suck might be a better option. Charlie, I am so glad the little guy is okay. I think you handled your screw-up pretty well and this incident is a great alert to many cleaners out there that do not take due diligence in caring for their powerful suction hose hazards. See "Dave Gill" above.

 

[Ralph Pastorelli]

Years ago we were cleaning a sofa and living room carpet and a customers little dog kept barking at the hose. I asked the customer several times to put the dog away and she would put a gate up. The dog kept jumping the gate and when I un hooked the furniture tool to hook up the wand I set the hose down on the floor for a few seconds. Well the dogs nose got sucked up by the big number 4.7 White Magic CDS blower. By time I got it off the dog had a bloody nose. She took the dog to the vets and tried to make us pay a $230 bill and refused to pay the $160 cleaning bill. I sent her to collections and got paid and she never got her vet paid by me. HEY I WARNED HERE! several time with witness.

 

[hydracat]

I have never heard of leaving a tool on for safety but I did just that today. Little girl too interested in what I was doing. Had to run out to the truck and thought of all the things the paramedics would say to me and just threw the stair tool on to be safe.

 

[Charlie Lyman]

Hey Charlie, one thing that crossed my mind (total hindsight) was--if his arm was totally in the hose, seems that pulling it out could really scrape the flesh off the little guy. Perhaps breaking the suction downline by either disconnecting a hose probably 25' or 50' away, or whipping out your pocket knife and cutting the hose several feet away from him to relieve the suck might be a better option. Charlie, I am so glad the little guy is okay. I think you handled your screw-up pretty well and this incident is a great alert to many cleaners out there that do not take due diligence in caring for their powerful suction hose hazards. See "Dave Gill" above.

I thought about unhooking the hose, but I didn't want to let his arm go to get over to the cuff. I didn't have my knife handy. I did have my .380 in my back pocket. I could have shot the hose.

 

[gln]

[emoji106]

 

[Vivers]

Glad everything worked out. I've always wondered if the kid put that to their face or an animal got on it what might happen. I too also always trying keep the tool connected to the hose

 

[bob vawter]

i had a chipmonk scamper in on me once.....so i threw the hose at it.....wow lucky shot!
by the time i could shut down and open the lid.....he was belly up....

 

[Desk Jockey]

Chipmunk? This isn't anything like the alleged Wolf you captured, is it?

 

[Lonny]

Gotta be one of my biggest fears! Glad he's ok.

 

[BLewis]

I tool the hose if I see pets or children in the house, but we need to start doing it every time. Curtains and bedspreads are easily sucked up and wrinkled lol

 

[GCCLee]

Holy Moses !

That is one of my biggest fears.
Thank you for sharing this!!!



I would love to have a screen cap for mine as there are those rare cases

 

[GCCLee]

i had a chipmonk scamper in on me once.....so i threw the hose at it.....wow lucky shot!
by the time i could shut down and open the lid.....he was belly up....

Bees are fun to case : )


Got two last Thursday lol

 

[bob vawter]

Chipmunk? This isn't anything like the alleged Wolf you captured, is it?

every board needs a smartass Doc....thanks!

and jus for the record the conservation officer that picked up the cage called him a "hybred".....you know anythin about that......he HAD a coyote ass..................smartass
and 'cides...the sucker was stalking my Peke.....i could see his little "coyote" ears sticking up from the ditch he was hiding in........I COULDA HAVE HIT HIM!