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- Apr 8, 2013
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I was reluctant to post this but if it helps someone avoid a similar fate it's worth it. After being a building contractor for 30years with hardly a scratch I retire and chew up my hand doing a freebee for my daughter in law. I was cutting up a dresser to reclaim some nice maple to build doors for a cabinet. A long piece had a projection sticking out straight up and another one sticking out 90 degrees. I was ripping one projection off with the other one pointing straight up at the end of the board. The saw kicked back sending the piece past my hip and smashing it into the back wall of the shop. (I always stand to the side.) I was using a push stick in my right hand but my left was on the far side of the blade just resting on the rip fence. When the piece took off the projection at the end of the board slammed into my left hand dragging it forcibly into the blade. My index finger was cut right thru and dangling by only 1/4 inch of skin. My middle and ring fingers were shredded with multiple fractures. I was home alone so off I drove to the hospital. I had to leave the first hospital because they wanted to cut off the other two fingers leaving me with a thumb and a pinky but I was able to locate an excellent microsurgeon at Yale hospital who was able to save two of my fingers by taking the nerves, tendons and blood vessels out of my discarded index finger and transplanting them to the damaged ones. Three days of having my hand in a heat chamber was followed by three days of leeches (changed every 30 minutes around the clock) and finally blood flow was restored. After 8 days in the hospital (6 in ICU) I got to go home. It was six weeks before it was determined that my fingers would survive. The accident was on March 22, 2017. I'm still going to therapy to get the range of motion and then I go in for one more surgery to release the tendons that are imbedded in scar tissue. It's amazing the way one second can change your life.
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