So here's the edited photo. If you have the stomach for it, keep scrolling to see the disgusting and graphic photo of his totally severed fingertip. In the meantime, here's the story...
Two weekends ago, after a long Sunday of yard work, my friend Pat had filled his green bin to the brim with dead leaves, sticks and other compostable materials. Later that evening around 10 pm, he remembered that he needed to take the bin to the curb for Monday morning pickup.
It probably would have been better if he'd just forgotten.
As Pat was pushing the heavy green bin downhill toward the street, it got a little out of control. He kept holding on trying to slow it down, but eventually the momentum was too much and the bin came crashing down on its handle. The force of the fall pulled Pat on top of the bin, but unfortunately -- and disgustingly -- his left hand got caught underneath. All of the weight landed on his middle finger, and much to his shock and horror, severed the tip of it. Cleanly.
I asked Pat to send me a photo of his finger, not quite sure what to expect. I don't know why I felt this way, because yep, it's a severed fingertip alright. Are you ready? OK, here it is:
Yeah, that's pretty nasty, but there's one more.
Warning: It's very gross. Like, super incredibly gross.
Still want to see it? All right, here you go...
So yeah, there is his middle finger with the tip missing. Pat says these photos were taken as he was waiting in a hospital room (a neighbor gave him a lift to the ER), before he had seen the doctor. But the story gets even more horrific.
Immediately after the accident, Pat ran inside to wrap the wound and make a tourniquet around his finger to stop the bleeding. With adrenaline coursing through his veins, he went back down to where the bin fell and was able to find the severed tip of his finger.
"It looked like a little helmet," he said. "It was pretty surreal to find a chunk of your own finger and just put it in your pocket."
Pat also had his fingernail ripped off in the ordeal, which he thinks explains hearing his finger "go POP!" The final diagnosis was a partial amputation of the middle finger with the loss of an eighth of an inch of bone. Sadly, the doctor told him that reattaching the fingertip was not going to work, but did offer comfort that it would heal properly and possibly even grow back over the course of several months.
Oh, and here's one last slice of irony just for good measure. Pat told me he was working with sharp tools in his yard for a good chunk of that day, and had spent the entire week prior using blades and power tools to build a potting bench -- which he also completed that afternoon. Then, he goes and loses his fingertip by simply taking out the trash.
P.s. This all went down on his birthday (seriously).