Ever cut the tip off your finger?

JR42

JR42

Joined
Feb 1, 2004
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Who else is a clumsy goob like me? :D Three days ago while slicing onions I managed to remove a 1/4" diameter slice from the pad of my pinky. The cut was clean- the skin removed didn't have any blood on it- but I nicked a couple capillaries and dribbled blood into a paper towel for a few hours. A Curaid bandage and a bit of first aid tape managed to staunch the flow, and it hasn't opened up since. This event made me question my inadequate first aid knowledge, so I now have a question for everyone:

What's the proper response to cutting OFF a chunk of flesh? Of course 911 is an option if the wound is severe enough (which it definitely wasn't in this case). I found direct pressure to be only marginally effective in plugging my slow leak, so just wrapped the bandaid in tape and let it be. What's a simpler or more effective method?

Anyone else missing little bits of skin? Have a story to share?

Oh, the knife in question was a 154-CM Talon, and the onions were for Beef Burgundy. :)

Jeremy
 
I've heard lots of contradicting details on what to/not do once you have cut off something. I used to hear "put it on ice and go to ER."
When my best friend was 12, he cut of the pad of his middle finger whilst trying to cut rope to make a swing. He was high up on a tree away from his house. He ran home and was taken to the ER with out the piece. His mother came back later, found the piece in all the dried oak leaves, put it on ice, took it back to the hospital and it was re-attached. We named it Frankenfinger.
I have heard tales of other people who iced offed peices and that apparently killed the nerves making it impossible to re-attach.

I'm no doctor, so please don't pay any attention to my advice. But if you cut off something like the pad of your finger or a piece of your arm, it is okay to ice it if it does not have a joint. If you can bend/rotate it independantly, then put it into a water/hydrogen peroxide solution and and seek medical help immediately.
please note: I HAVE NO EPHING IDEA IF THIS IS CORRECT OR NOT!!! I'M PULLING THIS OUT OF MY BUTT!!! THIS IS JUST WHAT I INTEND TO DO IN THE FUTURE!! PLEASE ASK A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL!!
-kc
 
The serrations of my brand new Benchmade 31S bali-song took a nice chunk off the tip of my thumb when I first got it. Got some of the nail too, but amazingly it was sheared right off at the base. Missing part of the thumb is one thing, but wounds below the nail are the worst.

Not knife related, but...

My left pinky finger is a good 3/8" shorter than the right one, thanks to my brother shutting a door on it when I was eight. About 3/4 of the finger was removed, but it grew back nicely, fingernail and all. Took a while to get all the nerves back, but it's fine now. I never understood why it was never sewn back on, I guess they figured it wasn't enough (even though 3/4" is quite a bit to lose off an 8 year old finger). No bone was cut off, so maybe that had something to do with it. I'd bet that if it happened when I was older and fully grown, the finger wouldn't have grown back as much.

I don't know if there's a standard way to determine if something can be sewn back on or not. Like amount removed, or if bone is involved or something.
 
left side of my right index finger I sliced pretty darn deep length ways, kinda scalloped the flesh up, I didnt goto the ER or anything, bandaged it with the skin in place with the index to the other finger to avoid me thinking of using it and it healed back into place, a nasty scar but healed.

supprisingly with folders and my non-kitchen cutlery I have never seriously cut myself...but those japanese kitchen knives my mom has must be charmed with a blood lust!!! :eek:
 
I had a customer tear into my middle finger with an axe a few months ago. Was the angle any different, it could have taken the finger off. As it was, it only required 5 stitches. But I still can't feel about half of that finger.
I also got my balisong stuck into the end bone on my index finger. I do mean stuck in, too. I had to pull it out and then it just wouldn't stop bleeding. Didn't do anything about that one, though.
 
I thought with bali's one should expect to drain at least a few gallons in the name of the bali sport ;) if some of the bali guys jumped in here with every cut they could write a book.
 
Robert.B said:
I thought with bali's one should expect to drain at least a few gallons in the name of the bali sport ;) if some of the bali guys jumped in here with every cut they could write a book.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is true. But of the 4 years that I trained (always with a life blade) that was the only note-worthy battle wound. I'm a little bummed that I can't scar. I used to show it to people to derail them from bali palying, but now you can hardly see it.
 
yeah seen pictures posted in the bali forum (new members that can own em proudly showing off the first cut :p), shame i'm in australia for now, I really wanna get training with a nice BM or typhoon.
 
Once I was in the Nevada desert and closed my Leatherman ST serrated blade- it snapped shut and took off the tip of my finger, a good 1/4" slice like you would take off a cigar. I was sure glad I brought the first aid kit along. It healed closed and amazingly, no scars. If it's mostly skin just cover it with antibiotic ointment and keep it bandaged.
 
Took the tip of my left thumb off while slicing lemons discs with a fillet knife. Ouch!
 
I think I’ve told the story before on this forum so I won’t take up space with that again. Yes, I chopped the end of my left little finger clean off. There was the tip with a piece of fingernail lying on my cutting board. Un fortunately, I had a large audience that was drinking wine and watching me cook. Lesson #1: Don’t drink and chop, get a designated chopper. Couldn’t get the sucker to stop gushing so I went over to a friend that happens to be my doctor. He had a hell of a laugh and eventually got it to stop bleeding. It took a long time to heal.
 
I cut off the tip of my thumb while trying to catch a falling knife. I drove to the E.R. It healed up nicely and you can't even tell now.
 
While I haen't, a good friend of mine appears cursed in this respect... At my wedding this summer, he managed to slice his thumb open trying to open his "best man" gift - a Kershaw Double Cross. Last week, less than two months later, while using a BM 942 which he was borrowing from me to see if he wanted to trade for it, he sliced the last 1/3 of an inch off his Left thumb. He was skilled enough to leave a thin hinge flap of skin intact just under the thumbnail, to eliminate the need to look around on the ground for the errant digit-bit. Seven stitches later, he has no sensation in the tip, but it seems to have re-attached well. Needless to say, after that bloodletting, I made him trade me for his Random Leek - I wasn't going to clean out that knife!

BTW - care for amputated parts: Find the missing bit, knock off the big chunks of dirt, put it in a waterproof baggie, place the baggie on ice, and head for the nearest ER. Do not expose the piece, or the surface that it was formerly attatched to, to water, Iodine, or Hydrogen Peroxide, as these will kill the tissue and make re-attachment problematic.
 
Knifeclerk said:
If you can bend/rotate it independantly, then put it into a water/hydrogen peroxide solution and and seek medical help immediately.
Click to expand...

ACK! NO! Hydrogen peroxide has a nasty habit of killing healthy cells in the cut, causing slowed healing and increased scarring. Wash finger with clean, non-antibacterial soap and lots of hot water, apply direct pressure to the wound, and place in the severed bit in a paper towel, then in a container with one cube of ice.

Not a doc, but I keep up on first aid procedures as much as possible.
 
I have no idea what to do if you cut your finger off, but I have found that for normal cuts, including ones where a flap of skin is cut off, rubber bands work great. This is standard procedure for me now, I put a bandaid on, and stretch a rubber band around in order to put pressure and hold the bandaid in place. Once or twice that wasn't enough to stop the bloodflow completely so I also rubber banded a plastic bag around the end of my finger to collect the dripping blood.
 
Im a histotechnologist by profession. This means I get to use a mocrotome on a daily basis. A microtome is a machine that slices human biopsy tissues samples at about 5 microns thickness in order for the samples to be places on microscope slides. The blades on this machine are the sharpest blades Ive ever seen, period. They are sharper than surgical scalples (very delicate though)
Ive never cut myself, probably because Im deathly afraid of doing so am very careful.
A few years back, while I was training a new tech on the use of a motorized microtome, I had the displeasure of watching him remove all the flesh from the tip of his left thumb. As we were rinsing the wound, prior to taking him to the ER (the lab is also in the hospital) I could actually see his bone. :eek:
He should have listened, My first instruction was DO NOT TOUCH THE MACHINE. The second I turned around to take a phone call I hear AAAAAHHHH.
This type of thing requires medical help. For more minor cuts, we wash them in running water and dissenfect with bacitracin. We use either butterfly bandages or fingertip bandaids to hold them closed. Then we then do is cut the pinky finger off a small sized nitrile or latex glove and put it finger to apply pressure on the cut. This will usually be enough to keep the bloodflow away and allow the cut to seal with9in a few hours.
 
I once sliced a good bit off my thumb while testing the edge of a AFCK on paper. I chewed off the bit of flesh (probably not the best idea), and went off to see a play with some friends with my thumb still dripping blood (yeah, I know I'm a weird guy). It healed up fine in a few weeks, with no scars.
 
I worked in deli's as a teen, so my hands have many scars with stories. My fingertip story involved a piece of hard grating cheese and a big chef's knife. We sold "Locatelli Romano" cheese either grated or by the piece, for folks who like to grate it themselves. It is a rock-hard cheese that comes in a big wheel, and we cut it into pie-shaped chunks. A customer wanted a small piece, so I took to sub-dividing a chunk. Like I said, it's very tough cheese, so I had this big (10"?) chef's knife with one hand on the handle and one hand on the spine, and was leaning my weight to cut this cheese. What I didn't realize (until I cut through) was that I had curled my fingers under the blade. :rolleyes:

When I cut through and saw the piece of skin, I thought it was an onion. Like the small onions you get on a White Castle burger. It was white, did not look like flesh at all. It was real small though, not worth saving and reattaching, but it bled real good. It was a hard nub of scar tissue without feeling for a while, now (20 years later) it's pretty well blended, although you can still see a scar, and my fingerprint has a line across it.
 
twice, only one knife caused..
first one , non knife I guess, I was working for university housekeeping at the time, as a prank someone had filled the guy's room with newspapers, as a bonus they had seeded the papers with double edged razor blades. Now imagine me energetically gathering up the papers....lost the tip to left first finger, and I'm left handed.
Second one, more too the point, working in slaughterhouse, carried 4 knives at once in a scabbard designed more for ease of cleaning than secure knife hold, With mesh glove off reached down to adjust said scabbard and ran right pinkie down the edge of a neck knife that had popped loose. Three stitches that were so badly done they didna hold. Ah well it was summer, there was workers comp and I could still work the throttle on my KZ750. :)
 
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