Can fingers be reattached?

[Travis Conner]

Did some research on what to do if you end up losing a finger. Sounds like when the body part is contaminated it can't be re attached. I wonder if saw dust counts as contamination.

[Ole Anderson]

Did some research on what to do if you end up losing a finger. Sounds like when the body part is contaminated it can't be re attached. I wonder if saw dust counts as contamination.

Asking for a friend?

[Frank Pratt]

They reattach severed digits all the time, so they must have a way to clean up the old part before reinstalling it. Probably an automotive parts washer or maybe a sandblaster.

[Ron Selzer]

Have read articles in the past that state only for non smokers. Smokers the blood circulation is bad enough that gangrene sets in an they lose the fingers.

[mike stenson]

It'll also depend on the nature of the injury. Fingers that are crushed off, for instance, are gone.

[Travis Conner]

They reattach severed digits all the time, so they must have a way to clean up the old part before reinstalling it. Probably an automotive parts washer or maybe a sandblaster.

I knew they had a secret up their sleeve.

[Andy D Jones]

Generally, fingers lost to a jointer cannot be reattached...

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[Kev Williams]

Lost finger stories, I got a few--

Generally, fingers lost to a jointer cannot be reattached...

-- Andy - Arlington TX

My dad's left birdie finger went into a jointer to the first joint. He always joked about it being hard to sew hamburger back on...

Way back, 40 years now, my friend who was living with me at the time worked at a paper bag mfr, ran a huge 6-color press that printed 50# Purina Dog Chow bags. One day his co-worker, in a hurry to leave, decided it would be okay to just wash down the rollers while it was running rather than jog the rollers. He was using a basic red shop rag, which he'd wrapped around his first 2 fingers. The rollers sucked the rag out of his hand. He said some swear words and proceeded to shut down the machine-- which is when he figured out he had no fingers with which to push the OFF button! His fingers and the rag ended up in the green inkwell, my friend retrieved them and off to the hospital they went, doctors were ready and waiting to sew them back on. Sadly, the ink-soaked fingers went straight to into the trash can.

My uncle (dad's brother) took off his middle finger on a table saw (how only the middle finger?), about 20 years later he Skil-sawed the tip of his left thumb off...

Back when I was in high school a kid who lived just around the corner sawed off his first 2 fingers on one of the school's table saws, a few weeks later his younger brother blew the tip of is right pinky finger off with a .22 rifle, had his hand around the barrel while killing a bug or something...

One of my wife's ex's table sawed a finger off, they sewed it back on-

Worst finger mishap was my 2nd cousin, a meat cutter-- pushing a side of pig thru a toothless bandsaw, hit a bone the wrong way... blade was against his left forefinger and went beyond his thumb almost to his watchband, the blade never left his hand... he was in a cast to his shoulder for 8 weeks, his thumb is partly held together with screws but it came out okay- that was in 1981 and he's still cuttin' meat!

[Steve Demuth]

Lost finger stories, I got a few--



My dad's left birdie finger went into a jointer to the first joint. He always joked about it being hard to sew hamburger back on...

I lost count after a while of the number of ways my old man lost pieces of his fingers. First was trying to get a combine elevator that had been plugged moving again by grabbing the v-belt and pulling. It moved. Fingers went down and started 'round the lower sheave, but didn't come back up the other side. Hay baler knotter got a piece of one too. He had a way of sticking body parts into farm machinery - I lived in terror when I was a kid and the baler plugged and he would lean into the pickup with his foot to get it moving - I had visions of him coming out in slices in a bale, but fortunately he got by with that maneuver every time he tried it. I know there were some table saw and router "removals" in later years after he quit farming and spent a lot of time in the shop. Worst one though was when an old sow whose nose he was trying to ring bit off a chuck of a pinky. He said it hurt to watch her finish chewing and swallow it.

He died last year at 97, so I guess he got through it all, and I guess too, I can tell his stories as history, without offending anyone.

[Fred Perreault]

....don't ask me how I know that......

[Richard Coers]

I sawed 3/4 of the way through my middle finger on my left hand. The emergency surgeon just toe-nailed it back on with some stainless steel pins. and sewed me up. Went in for the first week followup. He looked at it and said something about it being crooked and reached over and bent it straight. I nearly passed out, 2nd week followup, he did the same damned thing. After I felt good enough to walk, i told my wife to take me straight to our family doctor. I told him to refer me to an GOOD hand surgeon. The second surgery was to square off the bone and get rid of that 1/8" kerf in the bone. I woke up from surgery with a half cast on my arm and a splint running up under the finger to immobilize it. That was in 1984. I did loose a joint and that finger is about 1/4" shorter than what I started with, but it has stopped predicting weather and being sensitive to cold. So not a complete amputation, but awfully darned close.

[Brad Shipton]

I think is one of those questions where the answer is, It depends. Sometimes yes, others, no. Best have some good rules around the big machines.

[Joe Jensen]

Yes, a friend cut 3 fingers off like 40 years ago when he was 14. They reattached them and he went on to play div 2 college basketball. They don't have perfect function but you would not know it by observing him live his life.

[richard poitras]

Instead of if reading up on if it can be attached why not read up on shop safety and how to prevent injury’s ... ?

[Robert Hayward]

I am living proof a finger, thumb in my case, can be reattached. At 14 years old a kickback using a dull wobble dado blade pulled my right hand into the blade. Took off my right thumb at the point it meets the hand. All but the skin on the back of the hand. Small town in Michigan with a really small hospital and a doctor that spent several years on a hospital ship in the pacific during WW2. He had experience doing this sort of repair. I lost movement of the upper knuckle but I have lived my life with both thumbs. Also gained a lot of knowledge about kickbacks and how to avoid them.