Ross Mulholland thought he would simply have to adjust to
having only three fingers on his left hand, after losing two
in an accident with a wood splitter.

He and his Helensville neighbour were splitting firewood when
the hydraulic machine severed his thumb and index finger.

But they have been re-attached in a 10-hour operation at
Middlemore Hospital, a specialist centre for hand
reconstruction.

“I put my hand on the log and it must have been too far
across,” said Mr Mulholland, 61.

“The splitter came down. They went off there and there,” he
said from his hospital bed, pointing with his good hand to
the site of the injury below the bandages. The tips of the
re-attached finger and thumb were visible at the end of the
bandaging.

“Maybe it was a lapse in concentration – it just happened so
quick. When I looked down I thought, `They shouldn’t be lying
there’.”

His thumb and finger fell to the bed of the splitter.

The postie, who happened to be there, called emergency
services after the November 30 accident.

Mr Mulholland, who is right-handed, said he felt no pain at
first and there was surprisingly little blood.

His neighbour picked up the severed thumb and finger and, on
instructions from the ambulance call centre, put them in a
wet cloth inside a plastic bag. The package was placed on ice
in a chillybin brought by a nurse and doctor.

The chillybin and Mr Mulholland were taken to Middlemore
Hospital, where he had operations, headed by plastic and
reconstructive surgeon Stanley Loo, to re-attach and repair
the thumb and finger.

The digits were on ice for about four hours before he went
into surgery.

“My biggest thing is I have got Stanley to thank because
everybody else thought they [the finger and thumb] were
goners,” Mr Mulholland said.

“The first thing Stanley said when he saw me was, ‘We’ll put
those back on’. That’s amazing.”

In the first, 10-hour operation, four surgeons reconnected
bones, then tendons and arteries and veins.

The following morning the blood flow in the thumb was poor,
necessitating a further four hours in the operating theatre.

Now, more than three weeks after the surgery, Mr Mulholland
is recovering at home.

“It’s going really well. Stanley is really pleased with the
progress. Everything has been textbook.”

Mr Mulholland’s hand is still bandaged and he has to be
careful to keep it warm to promote good blood-flow.

“There’s a slight bit of feeling. [Mr Loo] said he wasn’t
expecting me to have any feeling that quick.”

Mr Loo said the aim was to give Mr Mulholland back a
functioning thumb and index finger so he could care for his
wife, who has Alzheimers.

He would have up to six months of physiotherapy and should
eventually be able to fully extend the re-attached finger and
thumb.

They would probably regain 80 to 90 per cent of normal
function.

– By Martin Johnston of the NZ Herald