Federal OSHA recorded a severe workplace injury
at Eastern Maine Medical Center, 489 State Street, BANGOR, MAINE 04401
on — Fractures, affecting the sacral region.
Final narrative
An employee was sitting at their computer when they fell off their chair, resulting in an S4 compression fracture in their spine.
HospitalizedSacral regionChairs
More severe injuries at Eastern Maine Medical Center
An employee was completing a sensor replacement on an air-cooled chiller unit and went to sit on a 5-gallon bucket during a rest break. He experienced sudden stiffness in his left knee, causing him to fall backward and strike his back on a pipe hanger. The employee sustained three broken vertebrae in their lower back.
An employee was sitting on a tall teller chair in a bank drive-through. She leaned forward in the chair when it rolled out from under her. As she fell, a metal footstool that was positioned under the teller station was knocked over. The employee fell on top of the footstool and suffered a puncture wound on the right side of her abdomen from one of the metal legs on the footstool.
A switchboard operator leaned back in her chair and the chair tipped over. She fell backward and struck her head on the floor, sustaining a subarachnoid bleed.
The employee had clocked out for the day and was leaving the facility. As the employee was going down an exit ramp to the parking lot, their wheelchair struck a bump and the foot plate became jammed. The employee was ejected from the wheelchair onto the concrete/pavement and sustained a hip fracture.
More severe injuries in this industry (NAICS 622110)
An employee slipped while descending in a stairwell, fell, and suffered multiple contusions/bruises to the head, neck, shoulders, knees, and back. She was hospitalized.
A security employee was responding to an urgent call from staff regarding a violent patient. The employee tripped and fell on the floor outside of the stairwell. The employee sustained a closed head injury, contusion of the cerebrum without loss of consciousness, and a closed fracture of the distal end of the right radius.
A crew was installing drilled micropiles alongside an outdoor covered deck foundation. The injured employee was working the front of the drill when a loose section of casing dropped onto the tip of a rig wrench and pulled the wrench down to an embedded casing. The employee's left little finger was caught between the rig wrench and the embedded casing and was amputated above the top knuckle.
Two employees were working to change a tire on a mobile slasher saw. The slasher weighs around 2,000 pounds and is towed. Employee 2 was lifting the saw while the injured employee was placing a block of wood under the frame for support. The slasher then lowered onto the block and the injured employee's left thumb was crushed between the slasher frame and the wood block, leading to an amputation at the first knuckle.
An employee was using a crane to move a 44-foot, 3,343-pound I-beam. As the beam was moving west, it straightened out (north to south), beginning to swing south toward the northwest corner of a building. The crane then sent the beam southward, directly toward the corner of the building. The beam caught the tips of the employee's left index, middle, and ring fingers against the building. The last joints of the middle and ring fingers were amputated, and the last joint of the index finger was partially crushed.
An employee was standing on a step stool, removing the nuts and bolts from the frame of a solar panel that was being replaced. The employee's cheek made contact with a connector with damaged insulation. The employee was shocked, briefly lost consciousness, and fell to the ground, suffering an injury to the left shoulder.