Post-operatively, patients may experience pain as well, which is typical for the severity of this injury. In this procedure, a local anesthetic is injected into the webspace where the finger meets the hand, numbing it before surgery. When fingertip injuries occur, after emergency evaluation, anesthesia is administered, often in the form of a nerve block. Now picture that the entire diameter of that straw is less than 3 millimeters. Except instead of simple sewing, like you would for a tear in your pants, you have to sew circumferentially making sure that 1) the cut ends of the straw are now connected, and 2) fluid can move freely through it. Imagine that you cut a straw in half, and then you had to put it back together. Microsurgery helps surgeons repair the tiny structures inside your hand using specialized tools under high levels of magnification. The technology that allows us to replant severed digits is called microsurgery, which Rachel had. Each finger has many structures: bones, three main tendons, two arteries, two main nerves, multiple veins, soft tissue, skin, and nails – just to name a few! ‘Fixing’ Severed Fingersįingertip amputations like Rachel's can be very complicated to repair because fingers themselves are very intricate. Pain may also result from direct trauma like a bruise or a cut, which can damage the nerves. An example of this would be a subungual hematoma, which is a collection of blood trapped underneath the nail. Pain with fingertip injuries may be related to the fact that fingers have many small nerves, or it could be causes by increased pressure in an enclosed space that results from injury and inflammation. From slamming your finger in a car door, to cutting yourself in the kitchen, they can really hurt and lead to chronic problems if the situation isn’t handled quickly, as Rachel's parents did.

Pain is often the immediate concern when you've injured a finger, and finger injuries can be excruciatingly painful. In order to minimize the consequences of these severe injuries, that's what you should do in an amputation emergency: Why Are Finger Injuries so Painful? They gathered the amputated parts, wrapped them in a wet paper towel, put them inside a plastic bag, and then put that bag on ice. When her mother turned away for a second, Rachel quickly stuck her hand in the drain, cutting and amputating the tips of her index, middle and ring fingers. She thought she saw something drop down the drain. On this particular day, Rachel – just 6 years old – was in the kitchen helping with the dishes. Rachel Berdichevsky’s precocious nature and natural curiosity tended to land her in the middle of every event in the house.

Rufe persful cut fingers off