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Nine Fingers and Nine Toes

"Creation of a THOE"

My father cut his thumb off in a chop saw accident. He was working with my oldest brother at his house in his basement. He was cutting crown molding and cut his thumb and half of his left hand off. He should have bled to death because he severed two arteries in his wrist. But my older brother was able to get a belt and used safely as a tournequet as he called 911. As they arrived at Utah Valley Hospital the docs looked at him and said they could not do anything to help him. Luckily my sister in law worked for an orthopedic group and referred us to one of the best hand surgeons in the US, Doctor Alan Groebs. He was then transferred up to LDS hospital where the Doc reattached the amputated thumb. The replant was not successful, so Dr, Groebs started the process of building a new thumb using a toe transfer. My father has been successful with the "THOE". He is still in the process of gaining more functionality back. After all the surgeries, he is still at least 2 more surgeries from getting maximum functionality. Just to put perspective on this injury only 163 of these surgeries have been performed in the last 30 years. So I am definitely lucky to still have him here.

March 17, 2007	Replant – 14 hours- after the replant, they did leech therapy to try and pull the circulation through his thumb. The doc thought if they could get circulation in the thumb the better chance the thumb had. But unfortunately the thumb died and they had to excise it.
March 26, 2007	Excise replant – 8 hours
March 30, 2007	Preparation for Thumb Rebuild – 4 hours
April 3, 2007	Thumb rebuild – 10 hours - this stint was put in place to prepare the hand for the toe implant. Once the hand and doctor was ready for the implant they took the stint out and replaced with bone and toe.

June 27, 2007	Toe Transfer – 12 hours- impanted second toe from the left foot to the left hand.



August 25, 2008	Tenolysis and removal of growth – 6 hours

October 13, 2008	Tendon Transplant – 6 hours	No Pictures

March 30, 2009- Tenolysis- Reducing the scare tissue that held the tendon in place that was from the tendon transfer
Tenolysis #2

Lewi25	Latest page update: made by Lewi25 , Apr 28 2009, 12:32 AM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by Lewi25 20 words added 1 image added view changes - complete history)
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