Warning: This remodel update isn’t for the faint of heart.
It’s the call you never want to receive—especially when you have 11 children.
“Daddy…”
Then came an awkward silence.
That kind of silence sends the cortisol level in my blood through the roof.
“Daddy, I did something bad,” he said, his voice trembling.
“I cut off my fingers.”
At the time, Coleen was helping our younger children get on the bus for camp. She could tell by the look on my face that something was wrong, so she came over to find out what had happened.
Our oldest son, Jacob, had been heading up to Tennessee to pick up the new metal roofing for the church remodel.
This is our new metal roofing for the old church…
While hooking up the trailer, Jacob couldn’t get the coupler to settle onto the ball hitch. He slid his hand underneath to see if something was keeping it from dropping into place.
Then it happened…
POP!
The trailer dropped onto the hitch—with his finger caught directly between them.
When we arrived at the emergency room, we were relieved to learn that it was only one finger.
Although “relieved” might be a strange word to use after seeing what it looked like.
FUN FACT:
When I called the roofing company to pick up my sons truck they said,
“When I unhooked the trailer from his truck a chunk of your sons finger fell out.”
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WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW THIS LINE
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The following images show Jacob’s injured finger and the surgical procedure used to repair it.
Grafting & Surgery
We were fortunate that it didn’t break the bone but only pulled all the meat away. The doctor gave us two options.
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Amputate - just cut the bone and let it heal
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Graft the finger back - requires 2 surgeries but can grow it back
We opted for #2. That was the craziest thing. They literally cut a slit into his palm and stitched his finger into it. Two weeks later they cut it free and he had a new finger.
We were having fun in the pre-op.
