How did you lose it?

[ctom87]

I'm watching a YouTube video right now and a guy with 9.75 fingers is making something. My mind wandered... If you've lost or partially lost a digit, how'd you lose it?

I have 10 fingernails for now, so can't tell any stories. But I've had some surprising moments with power tools that have made my heart stop for a second.

[txtimetravler]

The breaking point got em all

[hully1029]

My grandfather lost half his thumb on a drilling rig back in the day. He got lazy and the operator was new, and got it caught between pieces of 2 7/8 drill stem during a connection. Half his thumb is still in the bottom of some hole in west Texas.

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[Geezy Rider]

Changing the shackles on my tandem axle stock trailer, I sheared about a half inch off of the end of my ring finger on my left hand.
I had both axles dropped, the shackles changed out and both ends of the leaf springs attached. All that was left was to attach the middle pivot arm bracket. This requires raising the pivot assembly up into the bracket, lifting the axles off the ground and compressing the leaf springs. So, laying on my back and with everything I’ve got, I raise the pivot assembly up into the bracket with my left hand and stab a large screwdriver into the hole in the bracket to hold everything in place. Holding the screwdriver in my right hand, I tried to put the bolt in with my left hand from the backside of the bracket. Well the holes weren’t lined up and I couldn’t get the bolt in but I couldn’t tell where the mismatch was, so holding the bolt with the first two fingers and thumb, I put my ring finger in the bolt hole to find the mismatch so I could adjust the screwdriver and get it all lined up. Well, the screwdriver slipped and everything, both axles, leaf springs and pivot assembly fell to the ground. I was a little peeved because I wasn’t sure that I had the strength to lift that whole thing up again that evening. As I got ready to give it another try, I noticed some red on the end of my finger and the nail had been clipped really short. Hmmm…I must’ve nicked myself and didn’t even feel it. When I looked a little closer, I saw a white spot in the middle of the red at the end of the finger and realized that it was more than a nick. Oh crap! I sheared the end of my finger off.
The doctor at the ER spent five hours rebuilding the end of that finger. He had to remove the rest of the nail. Clip the bone back a ways. Then remove the skin on the finger and reattach it to where the nail had been and stretch it back in place to stitch it up. That doctor did a great job and nobody even notices it.
I’ll tell you what though, when that nerve block wore off, I felt everything that doc did to that finger. My lord that hurt. I’ve done a lot of damage to my body over the years but that was some of the worst pain I’ve experienced.

[DaveC]

Changing the shackles on my tandem axle stock trailer, I sheared about a half inch off of the end of my ring finger on my left hand.
I had both axles dropped, the shackles changed out and both ends of the leaf springs attached. All that was left was to attach the middle pivot arm bracket. This requires raising the pivot assembly up into the bracket, lifting the axles off the ground and compressing the leaf springs. So, laying on my back and with everything I’ve got, I raise the pivot assembly up into the bracket with my left hand and stab a large screwdriver into the hole in the bracket to hold everything in place. Holding the screwdriver in my right hand, I tried to put the bolt in with my left hand from the backside of the bracket. Well the holes weren’t lined up and I couldn’t get the bolt in but I couldn’t tell where the mismatch was, so holding the bolt with the first two fingers and thumb, I put my ring finger in the bolt hole to find the mismatch so I could adjust the screwdriver and get it all lined up. Well, the screwdriver slipped and everything, both axles, leaf springs and pivot assembly fell to the ground. I was a little peeved because I wasn’t sure that I had the strength to lift that whole thing up again that evening. As I got ready to give it another try, I noticed some red on the end of my finger and the nail had been clipped really short. Hmmm…I must’ve nicked myself and didn’t even feel it. When I looked a little closer, I saw a white spot in the middle of the red at the end of the finger and realized that it was more than a nick. Oh crap! I sheared the end of my finger off.
The doctor at the ER spent five hours rebuilding the end of that finger. He had to remove the rest of the nail. Clip the bone back a ways. Then remove the skin on the finger and reattach it to where the nail had been and stretch it back in place to stitch it up. That doctor did a great job and nobody even notices it.
I’ll tell you what though, when that nerve block wore off, I felt everything that doc did to that finger. My lord that hurt. I’ve done a lot of damage to my body over the years but that was some of the worst pain I’ve experienced.

Great description, I could see every move.

Still got all my limbs and their appendages , but there was a deerlease chore day and a sharpshooter stab that should have cost me at least 4 fingers.
Millimeters away on that one.


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[RascalArms]

I've had a few close calls but thankfully still have all my digits and not walking around all Johnny Depp-like right now.

[Sackett]

Well, it all started with this chick at a bar I met named Lorena…….

[bboswell]

Team Roping

[eastover53]

I work in a hospital, and I have seen a BUNCH of fingers cut off. Table saws, trailer hitches, even had a guy walk in with his hand stuck in a meat tenderizer.

[MontagueMech]

Think it was in January or February when everything iced over. We had multiple tractor problems and needed to get round bales unrolled for the cattle. I finally got one mechanical problem solved and proceeded to hook up a hay in roller. The temperature was in the single digits with hard gusting winds. It was miserable outside. When it’s cold like that outside your body gets stiff. Well I was having difficulty getting the unrolled hooked up to the unroller. I rolled a floor jack up under to try and simplify things. But in the process the jack slipped and a finger got crushed. It turned purple. Lost the fingernail immediately. Im not sure if the cold weather makes an injury like that hurt worse or not but it definitely was painful. Thought I might lose that finger. Thankfully it healed up.

[eastover53]

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[kurt68]

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Ouch, rub some dirt on it.

[ram04]

My Grandpaw lost his right arm up to his shoulder on a oil well, pressure blew out and rip most of it off. He walked a mile and collapsed in a ditch another guy at another rig saw it and drove to find out what happened. He passed paw paw once in the ditch, on his way back by, paw paw had enough strength to lift his good arm up so the guy could see him. Rushed him to the hospital, had to be shocked back to life 3 times, the nurse was the one that told the doc to shock him one more time and he came back. I remember meeting the fella that stopped and picked him up and the nurse was a local lady I use to swim at her house. It's amazing what that man could still do with just one arm.

Crazy thing, my uncle a few years later had a valve blow out on another rig and the valve handle blew through his stomach, he is partially paralyzed on one leg. He still has the valve handle in a jar in his closet lol.

[Sparkles]

At the ripe old age of 15 I thought it would be a good idea to pull weeds with my 4 wheeler and a nylon rope.
For some reason my wise self decided I had better wrap the rope around the middle, ring and pinky finger on my left hand, I guess for some extra pulling power.
The rope got wrapped around the axle of the 4 wheeler. As I started to pull the rope tightened around axle which in turn tightened around my 3 fingers.
Ended up breaking the ring and middle finger pretty badly and popped the end of my pinky off.
I grew up on 165 acres and was in a pasture Edge not very close to the house.
Luckily my dad heard my calls for help, came and cut me free and rushed me to ER with the tip of my pinky in a cup of ice.
Dr was able to reattach it but it’s crooked as sin and finger nail is weird still 30 years later.


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[7sdad]

Not me but I did watch my sister lose a finger when I was about 7 years old and I'm 63 now and she was about 17. We had a big red ant mound out back and she thought she could burn them. She took a gas can and poured some on a rag that was stuck in the ant mound hole. Well as she put the gas can down she left a trail of gas from the hole to the can. She then threw a match over to the rag and the fire when straight to the can and blew the bottom off and sent it flying at her. She put her hand up and it cut her ring finger off at the joint. I remember my mom and grandmother putting her into an old 53 pickup and taking her to the hospital. She was in the band at high school and a few days later a bunch of the band members came out and searched all around looking for her finger but never found it.