Adam started working at the ranch as soon as he got home from college. Michael finished school a few days early because he didn't have to take any finals. Joe needed help at the ranch pouring cement for a cattle guard. He enlisted Michael and Adam to help. They were in the middle of making it, and Michael needed to lift the cement mixer which had fallen over. As he was lifting it, one of his fingers got stuck in the part that moved, and it moved- tearing off the end of his finger. He got up from where he had fallen with the mixer and looked at his finger and yelled "hospital! HOSPITAL!" Joe was in the tractor so he saw him waving his hand around, but it took him a few tries before he heard what Michael said and could see how severe it was. They cleaned it as best they could and then wrapped it, then came back to our side of town to go to the ER. When Joe called me he said that I would need to go to the hospital with Michael because he pulled off the end of his finger. That was pretty freaky.
Pictures from at the ranch before they cleaned it and wrapped it.
At the hospital, they unwrapped it, put some numbing agent in it, washed it, took some X rays and then looked at it. The doctor asked us a couple of times if there was any piece that was left behind, did we have any parts to give him to add to the finger.
You can see from this picture how it looks like a piece is missing. After they cleaned it, and the doctor looked at it and moved it around a little, he saw that the end was just twisted and there was no piece missing (which he felt was pretty amazing).
The X-rays. He did rip the end of the bone off, but it was still in the finger. With little bones in the finger like this, if the bone is there, it will reattach by itself, so there is no need to splint it or worry about getting it in the right place.
The doctor came in and sewed it all back together. Since he ripped it through the nail bed, and ripped the nail in half, the doctor removed the whole nail, glued the nail bed back together, replaced the growth area of the nail, stitched the rest of the finger back on, and then glued the nail back on top as a kind of split to protect the nail bed.
Pictures right after he did the surgery.
Since it was done in the ER, we made an appointment with our friend the orthopedic surgeon for a couple of days later and he and a hand specialist looked at it and deemed it well done. These pictures are from a couple of days later.
It has now been six months and the finger and finger nail look almost perfect. There was a strange nail that grew in at first, and it took forever for the old nail to fall off, but it has healed very well and he has full sensation in his finger and a perfect looking finger with just a small line of a scar.
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