WARNING, GRAPHIC IMAGES: David Lee, 46, who accidently sliced off his right thumb and carried it to hospital, now needs bigger gloves after surgeons replaced it with his big toe
A cobbler who accidentally cut off his thumb while repairing a shoe had it replaced with his big toe – and now he needs larger gloves.
David Lee, 46, was trimming the heel of a shoe in January 2019 when his hand got snagged in the machine and his right thumb was cut off. The cobbler, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, incredibly managed to dial 999 and even carried his thumb to hospital.
Despite their best efforts, doctors were unable to reattach the thumb so used the next best thing – the big toe from his right foot. Now seven years on David says he needs to regularly size up in gloves and has swapped to his left hand for texting.
But amazingly, the toe-turned-thumb is fully functional after years of physiotherapy. David, DL Shoe Art The Cobbler, said: “I was trimming the heel on a shoe and then the bottom run of the machine grabbed my jumper and pulled me in. I pushed the emergency stop button immediately, luckily I refitted a week before, so the timing was perfect.
“Without that I could have been in trouble, I hit it with my foot. I unraveled my jumper, and as I did my thumb dropped onto the floor.
“There was strangely not a lot of blood. The machine twisted in such a way it could have cut off circulation.
“I pulled the jumper off my head and grabbed it around my hand and applied pressure. I’m going around turning everything off.
“I shouted for someone to call an ambulance and she thought I was joking as I’m a joker. I was putting stuff in my bag and switching everything off, while I’m waiting for the ambulance.”
Such accidents are not as uncommon as one may think. Just earlier this year, former TOWIE star Chloe Lewis revealed how her six-year-old son Beau had suffered a horrific injury when his finger was “sliced off” in a dreadful ice skating accident.
The 35-year-old reality star shared the news with her Instagram followers in February and explained that the incident happened on New Year’s Eve before he was taken to hospital for emergency surgery, where doctors were unable to reattach the severed finger. Chloe said she was feeling “broken” by the traumatic experience and announced she had started campaigning for the government to enforce mandatory protective gloves for children whilst ice skating, the Daily Star previously reported.
In a lengthy post, she wrote: “I didn’t know whether to share this with the world or not, as he’s my baby and as a parent you’re always protective over your child. I’m sharing to help others and raise awareness.
“After receiving the dreaded phone call NYE 2pm that no parent ever wants to receive, I was told Beau had been in a terrible accident. He fell over ice skating and someone ran over his finger with their bladed skates, which took his finger off.
“I’m not even sure how I got into the car and drove the 45 minutes to him, if I’m honest – it was all a complete blur. When I arrived, he was wrapped up in a silver medical blanket.”
“His little face melted my heart, and I did my best to hold back the tears so I didn’t upset him. He kept telling me: ‘It’s fine mum, you don’t need to cry, I’m OK.
“My finger’s going to be OK.’ We were blue-lighted to The Royal London, where they checked him over and did X-rays.”
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