Never happened to me with a press, but I did have a piece of shrapnel get fired out of my 20 Ton bottle jack lifting my big tractor. I was only trying to attach an impliment. Some piece of something must have gotten trapped between the jack and tractor frame. There was a huge bang, and the tractor dropped a sixteenth or so. I sat there wondering what happened till I noticed a growing puddle of blood on the floor. Not from the hand closest to the jack, so I looked at my left hand which was a good 2ft away. The end of my pointer finger and half the nail had been shot off and blood was gushing out of it.....
Funny story to follow:
I called the wife and off we went to get it fixed up.
The emergency doctor looked at it, got x-rays done, and said the bone was shattered but the finger might be ok in time if she splinted it because the joint was intact. However she had to pull the rest of the nail off in order to get enough meat to hold the stitches.
Of course, I am a highly skilled emergency doctor so I challenged that. "No way will there be enough skin there - it can't possibly stretch that far - your gunna end up just bandaging it and letting the skin grow over in time." Ya, she loved that comment. We argued a while longer and I finally relented and said "ok, do what you think is right". She got this big winning smile on her face and immediately set about trying to pull the nail off. No way was it budging. She yanked, pried, and twisted. All that happened was more blood gushing out. Finally, I suggested she take a good look at my size and then let me pull it out for her. She laughed and said go for it. So I pulled it out almost with ease. Her gloaty smile disappeared.
Then she set about trying to sew the skin together. Another exercise in futility. Again, I offered to sew it up for her. This time she flat out rejected my offer and went and got the senior guy to look at it. He took one look and then asked "why did you pull the nail? It's never gunna close. Just bandage it up and let it grow over on its own." Then he walked away. I never said a word but she did find a way to avoid meeting eyes with me.......
In time, it did grow back. Even the nail grew back. The bone also fused in time. The finger tip has no nerves in it so it has no feeling, and it's a bit lopsided but it's there and looks more normal than I ever expected.
I never did find the bullet. Nothing was missing on the jack or the tractor frame. Best I can figure is that a stone or a piece of metal just happened to get between there somehow.
I can also say I'm glad it was just a finger. Could have been my chest, guts, head, or even worse one my testicles. I can just see her telling me she has to pull parts of that off......
I have a neighbor that has first hand knowledge.
