Abstract: At 6:00 p.m. on January 2, 2020, an employee was working at a full-service restaurant. He worked in the kitchen, and he prepared food. He was feeding ground beef into a 115-volt, 13-ampere Patty-O-Matic model number 330A patty-forming machine, with serial number 4251. The machine formed a patty from the ground beef that was fed into the top of the machine. The patty was formed by a part of the machine called the "knock out cup," which stamped the ground beef through a mold plate. The mold plate and knock out cup had a guard installed around them that would guard the point of operation when the machine was used correctly. The employee would catch the patties as they were formed and ejected from the machine. To catch the patties, the employee would place his hand below the mold plate and knock out cup which placed his hand inside of the machine's guard. All employees were required to wear cut gloves (metal mesh) while working in the kitchen. The mold plate and knock out cup were located 5-1/2 in. (5.5 in. or 140 mm) from the bottom of the guard and 4-1/2 in. (4.5 in. or 114 mm) from the front of the guard. The guard itself was 10 in. (254 mm) wide and 8-1/2 in. (8.5 in. or 216 mm) in depth. In this incident, when the employee reached to catch a formed patty, his left hand was pulled into the machine. His left middle finger was amputated to the first knuckle. The employee left the area to look for help, when he came upon his supervisor. The supervisor contacted a ride sharing company (Uber) that transported the employee to the emergency room of a teaching hospital associated with the state's largest public university. He was hospitalized. The employee did not know if his finger had been caught by a component of the machine or if there had been some kind of malfunction.