[TheForge] fingers -- re-attachment best practices??

Sun Jan 13 13:31:06 EST 2013

They are so much better at that than they used to be..good for such as us.
When i crushed my thumb and finger tip to 1/8" thickness,, with my big treadle hammer, i dripped on the floor of the ER waiting room for 2 1/2 hours, and they took another 1 1/2 hrs to flub, to take,then retake Xrays. Finally they called in a plastic surgeon recently moved to the area from Wisconsin, who said that he'd had lots of practice because of wood splitting accidents.
Turns out that plastic surgeons are the docs who study all the details of the mechanics of hands and feet in the finest detail in school.
He did a good job and let me trade metalwork for his personal fee. Thanks Dr Thornton (RIP).

On Jan 13, 2013, at 12:23 AM, <Marc3rd at marc3rd.com> <Marc3rd at marc3rd.com> wrote:

Aloha,
Ouch! Brings back memories~ Bad ones.
Stop me if I have told this one but in 85 I had my index and middle finger on my right hand crushed and severed while operating an electric wench. (not the girl kind) someone had removed the guards and had replaced the direction lever with a long bold. I had my hand on the bolt ready to stop or reverse it if it got stuck. Two guys were riding on the cable (not exactly legal) and we didn’t want any accidents to happen. (guess that didn’t work.) my fingers went numb (might have helped with the pain for a few minutes) and slipped off the switch and into 3 side by side pulleys. When I looked at my hand it looked like they were missing. they were actually hanging by the tendons and ligaments on the other side of the palm. I start screaming get down here I just cut my fingers off. They in turn scream for me to reverse the wench. ( again not the female kind) and after about a minute or two of us screaming at each other a crowd starts gathering and some people start figuring things out. As I now start screaming "they are gone. Look for pieces" and the pain actually kicks in. same crazy ride to the hospital 20 min away, they meet me at the door with a morphine shot and I am off to lala land. asking everyone if I will be able to play the piano (even though I have never played one before)
So every thing goes into a pan of Iodine and water while the doc comes up and starts checking things out. The anesthesiologist tells the dr he is just going to use a local. I am starting to realize how bad it is and  I yell "no you are not. you're gonna knock me out!" After a minute of arguing with him the doc says you will knock him out.
So as It turns out I am being attended by a resident from the Townley Clinic in Port Huron. ( I am told they invented several joint replacement and limb saving techniques)
So when I wake up the doc (Doctor James Bolz) tells me that everything was crushed and exploded. nerves, joints bone and muscle. He actually found and separated everything and recreated the joint, channel that the tendons slide in and nerves themselves.
I have full use of both fingers, the tip of one is bent at 45 degrees but does straighten when I use it and bend when I flex. I have feeling in both fingers. one side of the index (it was the worst) has some hyper sensitive spots and only about 75% feeling. but all in all they both work very well.

Aloha
Marc V Davis III
Marc at marc3rd.com
313 205-2855
3626 Honoapiilani
Lahaina, Hi 96761
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Spencer
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2013 11:04 PM
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net Subject: [TheForge] Re: fingers --  re-attachment best practices??

In the 70s, a guy here got a finger whacked off in a fish processing
machine.  His mates stemmed the bleeding, threw him into a car and
went tearing off to the hospital, 20 miles away.

In the fish plant, they partially dismantled the machine, found his
finger in the accumulated fish scrap, bagged it, put it on ice
(plentiful in a fish plant) and sent a second car tearing off to the
hospital.

Word was that reattachment was successful.  Never heard the final
outcome re. recovered mobility and control. That kind of surgery has
advanced enormously in the last 30 years so yes, bag and ice any lost
parts.

In the 50s, my friend saved my life by applying a tourniquet after a
failed rocket experiment.  A piece of metal had passed through my
middle finger at the medial/distal joint, nearly severing it and
others severed my ulnar artery. Happily, my friend had Scout
training (tourniquet managed correctly) and an orthopedic surgeon was
on call so I kept the distal phalanx, albeit with a frozen joint. I'm
very grateful to those guys.  The only thing I can't do that I'd like
to is finger-pick a banjo.

My advice: Check first for arterial exsanguination. (Well, airway
first, then exsanguination, but the OP asked about injuries to
extremities, not face/neck.)

FWIW,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
                                                         /V\
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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