[ArthurMorgan]

Jesus Christ, man. That's awful. Every part of it, from the actual accident to how the hospital treated you. I was very close to being a member of the "that guy" club, although mine wasn't an industrial accident. I don't know how I didn't remember this story from when I wrote my post.

I was 12, or however old you are the summer before 6th grade. I was riding bikes with my friend, and my bike had a tendency to have the chain pop loose. I had stopped on the side of the road to reach down and feel the tension on my chain when my buddy just messing around came up and bumped me from behind with his bike. My foot was on the pedal, so I ended up pedalling forward, and with my finger right by the chainwheel, it sucked it in and crushed it. The tip of my middle finger was 95% amputated, and like yours, it was hanging on by a little bit of flesh.

I jumped off my bike, holding my finger and ran across the road to my house and kicked on the door. My mom came to the door, but I told her to get my dad because I knew she wouldn't have been able to handle it. When my dad came to the door, I opened my hand and blood went all over the deck, all down my arm. I don't know how he managed to deal with it (because I couldn't if I had a kid), but he took me inside and we rinsed it as good we could in the sink while my mother called 911.

About 10 minutes later an ambulance and fire truck rolls up and 2 of the guys with the EMT and fire crew had "stubbys" on one of their hands. That didn't make me feel as good as they thought it would, but I think I was too in shock to really react to it. Anyway, they loaded me up in the ambulance and took me off to the hospital.

I don't remember much after we got there, but I do remember them giving me anesthesia and then waking up in the OR just as they were finishing the stitches on my finger. I did end up keeping the tip of my finger, but the nail is weird looking, the fingerprints are barely there, and it's shorter than the finger on my other hand. Oh, and there's obviously a huge scar. It is still EXTREMELY sensitive to getting banged against stuff, but I can't imagine what yours must feel like.