DIY Enthusiast Accidentally Chops Off His Hand: What He Does Next Is A Masterclass In True Grit

A DIY enthusiast who accidentally chopped off his hand with an electric angle cutter, refused to panic and calmly took himself and his severed body part to the hospital for surgeons to reattach so he could get return to work.

Let’s be honest. Accidentally and unexpectedly chopping your own hand off with a power tool is going to hurt. In the wake of such a calamity, who would blame even the most staunch and stoic DIY enthusiast for screaming out loud in an unbearable and godforsaken agony?

Yet the tragic but inspiring tale of a father-of-two from Port Talbot in Wales should serve as a timely reminder to us all not to panic and get carried away the next time we accidentally hit our thumb with a hammer during that bungled tree-house conversion, or chip our nail forcing the lid off that stubborn tin of paint.

The Daily Mail reports that Gary Lincoln, 48, was working on his own in a house in Cardiff with an electric angle cutter which was fitted with a safety guard, when jacket sleeve got tangled up in the power tool.

Within a fraction of a second, the angle cutter had severed Mr. Lincoln’s hand from his wrist and left it hanging on by a tiny bit of flesh and skin.

Mr Lincoln, the owner of an interior design firm, revealed that when he accidentally chopped his hand off, he hardly even felt it.

“I didn’t feel any pain at all. It was like hundreds and thousands of tiny electric shocks that didn’t hurt, like very intense pins and needles.

Calmly putting the severed hand into his sleeve “to hold everything together,” Mr. Lincoln asked neighbors if they would kindly call him an ambulance to take him to the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital because he was somewhat incapacitated to drive himself.

During the trip in the ambulance, Mr. Lincoln admits that although there was was a lot of blood, his main concern was that he had ruined his life because he wouldn’t be able to work again and support his family.

“There was a lot of blood. I got my hand free and put it in my sleeve to hold everything together. When it happened my main worry was stopping the bleeding but I was also thinking ‘That’s it. I’ve just ruined my life.”

“I’m right-handed but need both hands to do my work. I have a wife and two children. My life would have been devastated.”

Fortunately for Mr Lincoln, the hospital’s orthopaedic surgeon Aso Mohammed had no problem reattaching the fractured bones using a plate and screws.

With consultant plastic, reconstructive, and hand surgeon Ian Josty leading the charge, a crack team of plastic surgeons managed to repair the tendons and performed microsurgical reconstruction to the severed nerves and major blood vessels.

The day after the operation, Mr. Lincoln woke up in hospital and said being able to move the fingers on his damaged hand was nothing short of a miracle because despite putting a brave face on things he had feared the worse.

“I can move all my fingers, which is absolutely amazing. I cannot believe it. I didn’t think I would have my hand working again properly. I thought my life was ruined. My hands are my work, so I thought I had lost everything.”

A week later and Mr. Lincoln is already back in work – light duties only of course, but nevertheless, such tenacity is to be applauded.

(Image Via Wikimedia Commons)