A server’s unusual workplace injury shocked the internet, raising concerns around the safety of receipt spikes.
On June 19, Alexandra Belbin (@alexandra.belbin) posted a video documenting her experience being hospitalized. The reason? The palm of her hand was impaled by a receipt spike. The video has received over 12 million views as of Thursday.
What happened?
In the video, Belbin includes several lighthearted clips throughout the night of her injury. This includes documentation of Belbin in the ambulance with the stake in her hand and an X-ray image of it.
Also included is footage of Belbin deliriously laughing, with overlay text that reads, “This is me gassed up as they are yanking it out of my hand.”
The video ends with an image of Belbin smiling from her hospital bed. Her hand finally being free of the receipt spike. It sat in her lap, now only piercing the stack of receipts that it was meant for.
A quiet night gone wrong
In a follow-up video, Belbin clarifies how this happened. “So it was a really quiet night at work and I was really bored and you kind of have a lot of time to think by yourself,” Belbin explained.
She describes talking to her colleague when she sees the receipt spike next to the box of ice cubes. “Not my brightest moment, but I thought to myself, ‘why haven’t the ice cubes got a hole in them? Like maybe I should put a hole in them.’
Belbin explains that she felt comfortable attempting such because she understood the receipt spike to be far too blunt to pierce her hand. “And just to put this into perspective, I would sometimes jokingly touch the top of it and it wasn’t that sharp. […] They’re not sharp, they’re quite blunt on the top. So I wouldn’t have thought that it would have gone through my hand.”
She then detailed how she was attempting to pierce the ice cube through the spike, with no luck so far. “So I put the middle of my hand down on the receipt spike and I pushed [the ice cube] with both hands,” she said. “Next thing I know, it went through.”
Belbin recalls feeling no pain at all and then telling the bartender that she needed an ambulance. The bartender didn’t believe her at first.
She describes waiting 30 minutes for the ambulance, and another 3 hours in the emergency room. She detailed being put in a cast before returning two days later for a checkup, where she underwent surgery that very day to clean out the injury.
People felt for Belbin
The comments of Belbin’s original video expressed concern over the danger of receipt spikes, with some sharing similar stories.
“This literal exact thing happened to me,” said one comment.
“No I’ve always thought this is a weird risk with those things,” added another user. “They’re so aggressively long and for whatttt.”
“Our restaurant changed them all to a rubber material for this very reason,” mentioned a third comment.
Many commenters also chimed in, encouraging Belbin to take steps to ensure she does not lose pay for an injury she received on the job. “Workplace injury!” one comment exclaimed. “Make sure you don’t lose pay.”
While the U.S. does have workers’ compensation systems to cover lost wages from workplace injury, the benefits and guidelines vary in each state.
However, based on Belbin’s previous posts, it appears that this video takes place in Sydney, Australia. In accordance with New South Wales compensation laws, a worker may be entitled to financial compensation if they develop a work-related illness or injury.
Workplace injuries, especially at restaurants, are fairly common. A 2020 report by the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 93,800 employees incurred nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2019.
This report found there were 88.3 cases of reported injuries for every 10,000 restaurant employees. Additionally, one-third of these cases required at least one day off from work following the injury or illness.
@alexandra.belbin Honeslty wish this night was documented more but this is all I have…. Anyways thanks @maya.b27 ♬ No Broke Boys – Disco Lines & Tinashe
The Mary Sue reached out to Belbin for comment.
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