Sometimes, it pays to push back, especially when it comes to medical care.
Jeffrey Adams learned that personally, after he sliced off his left middle and ring fingers with a buzz saw while working in his woodshop in Virginia.
After just 30 minutes at the closest ER, doctors said there was nothing that could be done to reattach the fingers and were ready to sew the wound up and call it a day.
Jeffrey and his family didn't want to give up though.
It took a little bit of courage to push back on a doctor...but we really felt like we needed better care and to not get sent home that night. We didn't know what to do with my dad if the bleeding happened again. So every time the doctor came back in we just kept saying, 'We want to get specialized surgeon.'
They went back and forth for 6 hours until a hand specialist finally referred them to Curtis Hand Center in Baltimore. Jeff was rushed out the door in an ambulance, but when they reached MedStar Union Memorial Hospital after the hour and a half ride, they realized they'd forgotten something pretty important.
They only had one of the fingers.
Luckily, three of Jeffrey's daughters were still back in Virginia. So he called them up and had them find the missing digit. Unluckily, it was stuck under the buzz saw. Despite his pain, stress, and tiredness, Jeffrey still didn't accept the loss. With his guidance over the phone and a pair of plyers they were able to unlock the saw and retrieve the final finger and drive it to Maryland.
With the full hand now in one place, surgeons got to work, using micro-surgery to reattach blood vessels and eventually the entirety of both fingers back where they're supposed to be.
Jeff's surgeon, Dr. Val Shubinets says after a few months of therapy and some optimization surgery, Jeff's hand will have about 80% of its original motion back.
Dr. Shubinets also says Jeff's wife's quick thinking and knowledge is the real reason he still has his fingers.
If you take an amputated finger and put it directly on ice, you will undergo damage like a frostbite and prevent us from succeeding. So it was very important that they put it in moist gauze and a plastic bag and then that went on ice....so that was very critical they know how to prepare the digits for success.
Dr. Shubinets says replantation surgeries like Jeff's have been around since the 1960's. But in recent years they've become less prominent due to their difficulty. Success rates have actually fallen for the procedure since the 1980s. Curtis Hand Center succeeds more often than most since they have equipment and staff specialized for the operation.
He says patients should always fight to learn their options and see a specialist, since all hospitals are different.
When Jeff came in he said 'I was told at the other hospital that this surgery only happens in fairy tales or in movies,' it made me feel so good that we did it and that it worked and its not just a fairy tale.
