Rescuers! nail through the foot

Y

Yorkshire Boy

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Sep 27, 2008
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13yrs ago, while fishing on the Leeds Liverpool canal, I stood on an old iron railing and it went straight through my shoe and into the arch of my foot.
It was rather painful....

So, I read that in 1982 in Marion, Illinois, there was a tornado and 50% of all the injuries happened in the rescue attempts.
Nearly 1/3 of these injuries were sustained from people treading on nails.

I was wondering if any of my American friends have thought about this problem?
 
I stepped on a nail that was through a piece of wood running on the beach, something I will never forget! What do you think of the caltrops they used during war? OUCH!!!
 
Backpacking once I kept getting a stabbing pain in the bottom of my foot. I adjusted my weight onto the side of the boot to avoid it, but that quickly became tiring. So I sat down, took the boot off, and pulled a nail out of the bottom of the sole. It was an old rusted nail, probably 'collected' at the ruins of some historic cabins.

The boots were Danner Mountain Lights, not super-heavy work boots but not exactly flip-flops either.

I wonder how my mine boots would handle the same nail? You'd think post-storm rescue workers would have something like these:

12216_Matterhorn_Mens_16-Inch_Black_WP_Lace_Metguard_Mining_Boot_450_xl-1.jpg


Mesquite thorns in the desert feel just like a nail when embedded into the bottom of your foot. They don't go through my Danners, but I sure as heck wouldn't wear anything less out there. One fellow had some super-lightweight slip-on 'hiking' shoes, and the results were predictable.
 
Good reason to keep up to date on your tetanus shots. Safety sole boots have their place as well(although not practical all the time) I've never stepped on a nail. But I've treated people who have, its really not fun. The decision to remove the nail, or leave it in for the hospital is not an easy one to make, but sometimes just yanking it out is better than having it flop around if securing it is not an option. That can be a bit of a wild west, bite your wallet kind of show! Good irrigation to clean it out, and then ER attention for antibiotics. foot wounds don't bleed much, so they don't flush themselves like other wounds (also why tetanus is a risk with foot wounds but rarely for others)
Also one of the reasons I don't wear flip-flops away from home.
 
Simple. Thin metal plates in the soles of your boots. They'll be too heavy for extended hiking, but you could walk around on almost anything.

I believe some Viet Nam combat boots had sole-armor like that.
 
I stepped on a nail once when i was a kid. it went right through my foot. i had to climb a chainlink fence to get to my house. my socks was soaked in blood!:eek: after we got home from the doctors I was grounded.... :mad: I'm pretty sure Danner or matterhorn makes puncture resistant boots. I bet a lot of those injuries during the tornado were from people wearing tennis shoes
 
Grease, all my wookboots have had sole puncture protection, and I know that some versions of SWAT and Magnum boots have overlaping composite plates in the sole for that allows for some flexibility as well. Not sure if US certified safety boots have that, or if its a Canadian thing (can't see that though)
 
I ware Matterhorn 12900 boots everyday. they are rated for nails up to a weight limit. if your 400lbs the nail might be pushed through the steel plate. the boots fit like a glove but they are hot, wool socks are a must and it took 6 months strait to break them in. iv used them everyday all day for 6 years strait.
 
Grease said:
I believe some Viet Nam combat boots had sole-armor like that.
Click to expand...

I read that they would ad plates themselves to protect against certain traps. But then the VC started using a trap that was basically a piece of bamboo or a tube and there would be a round of ammo in the tube sitting on a nail. When they stepped on it the round would go off and shoot through your foot and the metal plates turned to shrapnel and just made it worse, so they got away from the plates. Now this is just some article I read in a men's magazine years ago, don't know how accurate it is and I'm not even sure if that would work. The question is: would you rather have your foot turn to hamburger or get impaled through the foot with a few spikes that some small jerk took a dump on? :eek::confused:
 
bigghoss said:
I read that they would ad plates themselves to protect against certain traps. But then the VC started using a trap that was basically a piece of bamboo or a tube and there would be a round of ammo in the tube sitting on a nail. When they stepped on it the round would go off and shoot through your foot and the metal plates turned to shrapnel and just made it worse, so they got away from the plates. Now this is just some article I read in a men's magazine years ago, don't know how accurate it is and I'm not even sure if that would work. The question is: would you rather have your foot turn to hamburger or get impaled through the foot with a few spikes that some small jerk took a dump on? :eek::confused:
Click to expand...

I read that during the Oman campaign, SAS soldiers would often lose a leg when standing on anti-personnel mines. The local forces fighting alongside the SAS didn't wear boots, they wore sandals, and the damage done to them was a lot less. Something about the explosion taking the least path of resistance (I'm sure others know much more on this subject than me).

Given the number of tornadoes that happen in the US and the destruction done, I'm a bit suprised I've not seen this topic come up before.

Both Danner and Matterhorn, while obviously top notch boots, would be a bit expensive to kit out a family (and I don't think they make them for children either).
 
Steeped and fell on quite a few- though penetration is often under an inch or so. They are very sore wounds, I always keep a fresh tetnus and have blessedly had few infections from them. I stumbled and fell backwards once while de animating a wall and got up with a chunk of sheetrock stuck to my back up by the shoulder blade.

Barbed wire blows as well. Catcus thorns are even worse! Never tangled with a porcupine but I understand they are misery.

Bill
 
With respect. It's really not much of a topic for concern. Anyone who has worked disaster clean-up work is well aware of the injuries that can happen. You try an prepare for it the best you can. Proper footwear, gloves, helmets, goggles, etc. I am not sure what point you are trying to make. Overall disaster scene safety?

thanks
 
When I was a roofer - and when doing tornado cleanup last year in Joplin, I wore Mil-Surp Altama Combat boots -- the steel plate in them is only an inch wide and doesn't weigh much, but the vulcanized sole goes a long way towards stopping a nail from going all the way through.
They also make good hiking boots.
 
I work construction and I see people step on nails all the time ,mostly guys wearing athletic shoes have that problem . As funny as it can be it does suck ,I wear a decent pair of boots and they almost always bend over before getting to my foot . On the rare chance that the nail reaches my foot I can feel it pushing through my boot and I stop putting downward pressure and they always seem to just touch my foot without a wound.
 
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