I hate seeing stuff like this happen to people. Log splitters are just evil man, but necessary! This previous new years eve I learned the hard way, some days you should just stay inside but I'm stubborn. Went out to split and not long after I started the girlfriend came out to help. Well seeing as how I always take the ***** work I thought I'd let her run the lever, her first, and last time ever. My mistake was getting in a routine but being on the opposite side of the splitter, and she was runnin that lever awesome IMO! Fast, no waste of time waiting. When I hollered " I just lost my finger", I though even I was kidding, until I ripped my glove off, which you're not suppose to do. I really thought I was kidding though, just felt a little smoooshed.
It's amazing the the amount of energy stored in a piece of wood, and not just for burning. We've split rounds before that just POP right out, so of course the following 10 splits have us standing there with one hand covering our junk, jokingly of course but you never know. I stand back and let the machine do the work now but with my hot rod attitude it was a matter of time. Will it change how I operate? Maybe, hopefully that comes with more maturity. Either way I was out splitting the next day, I hate down time.
Hope you heal fast!