Injured man hitch-hikes to hospital

Press, 24 March 1988, Page 6

Injured man hitch-hikes to hospital

PA | Hamilton I i ■ I A man with jblood dripping from an almost-severed thumb hitch-hiked to Waikato Hospital i last week after tauranga Hospital doctors Itold him they could do nothing.

I Mr Craig i Brown, of Hamilton, could not gain satisfactory medical help in Tauranga | and a car accident soon after left him without transport to Waikato Hospital. | Last ! Wednesday, Mr Brown almost severed his left thumb while cutting firewood for his employer. The (thumb was hanging by a j small shred of skin and he was taken to Tauranga I Hospital yvhere two doctors said (hey could do nothing to! save the thumb) | "They gave; me a painkilling injection) reband-! aged the thumb and told l me to go to Waikato Hos-i pital," Mr Brown said. I “They had only one am-| balance available and ; couldn’t spare that to! bring me over,” he said yesterday from his hospital bed. "Solmy brother-(n-law offered to drive me over.” J | However, while driving to Waikato Hospital, the pair drove into a bank to miss a car driving on the wrong side of the road. Mr Brown’s; only course of action was !to hitch-! hike. “It was about 8 p.m.

by then alnd I was dressed only in Imy shorts and singlet. About six! cars stopped but they ail told me they I weren’t going to Hamilton; “After I about half ah hour I managed to | get a - ride. I don’t know who the man was but he: very kindly brought nie right into the| hospital,” Mr Brown said. ■ | He doesn’t remember much after that. “I had lost , a lot of blood and, with the pffects of the painkillers, I wasnT too aware of what wais going on.” Mr Bijown is full of praise for the prompt attention he received at Waikato. | ! “I got | there about 10 p.m.,— I was in theatre before midnight aifid the surgeon performed micro- ' surgery on my thumb for about seven hours.’! Vein grafts had]to be taken from his wrist to replace those crushed in his thumb, and he;has a steel pin to keep the bone in place. | The surgeon had been: “very oplen and honest” with him! |

. ! I L : ■ 1 I ■ !' ‘(He said he couldj not guarantee the ; thumb coild be saved, and if the (brood) circulation ! was go,rig to return it would take, about 72 hours,” Mr Brbwn said.; However, five days after surgery, the tip :of | his thumb looked a i healthy colour. The surgeon said that with a severed digit it was imperative the part be “put on ice” as soon as possible. : ’ “The part should be reprieved, placed in; a plastic bag, then wrapped in ice,” he advised, as puling the part directly on. ice can cause frostbite. ’’lf a digit can be cooled !it can survive 6 i to 12 'ihours, but if it is warin it lean! become irretrievable after six hours,”! the [surgeon said. ; ! ‘ln Craig’s case, | becaise the thumb; was I still attached by a strip ;of Skin it could not be packed in icd, and was still warm.” Mr Brown will;remain in hospital for another week or so, then he will visit Tauranga ! Hospital ; regularly for physio- - thSrapy. i