Algirdas Gruodis

The intent of this note is to thank Hospital for Special Surgery and especially Dr. Fufa and her staff for putting me back in the game.

First let me introduce myself and explain how it became necessary for me to seek help from HSS.

I am an Electronics Engineer that after retirement decided to do some art work. Being 78 my hands are somewhat distorted by arthritis, however, I am still capable of controlling tools to pursue my art endeavors. Most recently I decided to do some carving on a log of wood from a tree that I cut down several years ago as shown in the first photo.

To remove the bulk of the wood I purchased an angle grinder with a chainsaw blade (photo two).

This tool is aggressive in nature and is capable of removing large amounts of wood in a short period of time. In no time at all the log looked like that shown in the third photo.

It was at this point during my carving, that I wanted to see from close up what else needs to be removed. The problem was that I had the grinder in my right hand still running. As I leaned over the piece of wood my left hand fingers brushed against the blade. Although I was able to immediately separate the hand from the blade, by then the damage was done.

I wrapped my hand in some paper towels that I had near by and ran upstairs leaving a trail of blood throughout the house. When I got upstairs where my wife was, I requested that she take me to the emergency room of our local hospital since we live approximately 65 miles north of New York City. My wife noticed that I was bleeding badly and appeared to be getting white in the face, so she called 911 and requested an ambulance.  While waiting for that to arrive, my wife wanted to know what happened. So I indicated that being an idiot I made a bad move and got my hand in front of the saw blade. She was kind enough to say that it was a freak accident, so in a matter of minutes I went from an idiot to a freaking idiot.

The EMT was able to slow down the bleeding and took me to the local trauma center.  The doctor on duty there checked everything out, cleaned the wounds and had x-rays taken to be sure the bones were not damaged. He also called the hand specialist that was on call that evening. I didn't realize that a doctor on call is one that answers the phone (once he can be reached) and doesn't bother coming over to see the patient but gives instructions to the doctor on the phone at the trauma center.

After a long wait, the ER doctor was instructed to sew up the wounds so as to stop the bleeding and that the hand surgeon would call me the next day before 10 AM to set up an appointment for a follow up visit and schedule further surgery. The ER doctor did a great job of stitching the wounds to stop the bleeding, but told me that because of the extreme damage to my nerves that he observed by testing my fingers responding to touching, I will need extensive surgery. Thus I was told to be sure to go see the hand doctor when he calls in the morning.

Next day after 10 AM with no call from the hand surgeon, I started making calls to the offices of the orthopedic surgeons that were to get in contact with me. I was told by the receptionist that they never call the patients that had been to the ER/trauma center, and the patient needs to make arrangements himself to see the doctors. By the way she said, the doctors will not be in until 1 PM. I insisted that I needed to see a hand surgeon ASAP, so she said that she will contact the doctor as soon as he comes in. A bit after 1 PM I got a call that one of the hand surgeons is willing to see me at 3 PM.

When I arrived at the surgeon's office, the nurse removed the dressings that were put on by the doctor in the ER previous evening. While sitting around waiting for the surgeon to show up, my wife took a picture of my hand with her cell phone (see photo four).

When the surgeon finally showed up, he didn't bother coming too close to my hand, and after looking at it from about a yard away, he stated that 'the good news is that I didn't cut off my fingers, and the bad news is that I never again will be able to make a tight fist'. I asked him about the nerves that the ER doctor told be were damaged and the surgeon in effect said: 'too bad, the damage is extensive, nothing can be done'. His concluding remark was that things look good (as seen in photo one) and see you in a week to see how it is healing. So much for the extensive surgery that the ER doctor thought was needed.

I am a believer in second opinions, especially when this hand specialist is dismissing my wounds as 'tough luck live with it'. So when I got home after 4 PM on that Friday, I immediately started calling all local hand specialists I could find on the internet. None of them were willing to do anything about my problem until 'sometime next week'. Luckily a member of my family had dealt with Dr. Shevaun Doyle at HSS. Not only did she properly take care of her, but was caring enough to give her personal cell phone number to call in case of an emergency. So after she heard of my problems she called Dr. Doyle for advice. Her response was that if I try to set up an appointment with any surgeon it will take time to squeeze me in to their schedule but if I go to the HSS/NYP emergency room as soon as possible, they always have coverage by a hand surgeon.

So by 7 AM next day we were in the HSS/NYP ER and were taken care of by the staff there like human beings. I had immediate testing of the sensitivity of my fingers, examination of the cuts and an explanation of what might be done.  Dr. Duretti Fufa was on call and came down immediately for further examination. I told her that the local doctor had told me that not much can be done with the nerves because they were damaged too much. She assured me that there are techniques, like bridging to reconnect damaged nerves, although in a small portion of cases it is true that things don't work out, but she felt that in my case things looked well and a repair should be attempted. However she said that it is important to operate within a week of the accident for best results. She also told me that if I wanted to proceed, her next day in the operating room is on Wednesday. After seeing how thorough she was in examining my wounds I did not hesitate in accepting her offer to help me. So the pre-op exams were done immediately, and forms were given for me for my primary physician to sign off.

By Wednesday I was all set with all the test results and signoff, so Dr. Fufa with her staff patched up my wounds and put in bridges for several nerves to start the healing process.  I was told that because of the large gaps produced by this chainsaw blade, it will take months for the nerves to grow together and my brain to properly adjust to the new sense of feeling.

Two weeks after the operation was my appointment for surgical follow-up. At that time the skin was healing so the stitches were removed. I was also taken to a certified hand therapist at HSS that showed me the first set of exercises and gave me a compression glove to keep the swelling down. I was also given a prescription for a certified hand therapist and a list of certified therapists in my home town to continue my therapy.

After another 7 weeks I had another appointment to see Dr. Fufa who told me that the nerves in one finger were showing signs of coming back, but another finger the progress was minimal. However, not to worry since it takes time to heal such a large wound.  Chainsaw blades don't make neat cuts in fingers.

A month after surgery I had full motion of my hand. Now 3 months later I have full strength and I can make a tight fist, which my local surgeon told me would never happen.  Photo five compares the hand before surgery and 3 months after.

In conclusion I want to let anyone that reads this know that at the HSS I was treated like a human being and not just another patient. And that Dr. Fufa went out of her way to make sure that everything was done just right to be sure I had the best chance for a full recovery. Based on my family’s experiences, I have nothing but praise for Hospital for Special Surgery of New York. In three of the above mentioned cases, a fracture in the backbone, torn up nerves, torn ligament, the local doctors said the pain will go away, live with it. In all three cases the pain would have eventually disappeared leaving permanent damage that would not be repairable in the future.

To prove that things are back to normal, I have started carving again (using tools safe enough for freaking idiots) and the log, although not finished, now looks almost as good as my new hand. (see photo 6) In a few months both should be perfect.

Thanks to HSS and its wonderful staff of doctors, nurses, administrators....etc. we are all back in the game. In all our trips to HSS we have not found one person there that was not helpful and they treated us as human beings, not just a number that needed to be checked off their list.

MANY THANKS

Algirdas J. Gruodis, PhD