Yowch! Glad to hear you're OK. This could have been a tragedy. Car parts are easier to replace than body parts although neither are fun.
While I was breaking in a new cam just this last Saturday I started to reach over the front of my truck to pull the vacuum line from the timed vacuum port on the carb and thought "whoa brother, what if you're yanking on that hose and it lets go putting your hand right into that cuisinart looking flex fan you got there?". Needless to say, I waited until break-in was over to set my total timing.
