greyghost
Dec 14, 2001, 2:47 AM
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Registered: Dec 10, 2001
Posts: 164
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Re-Attachment Unsuccessful for Caldwell
Climber loses part of index finger permanently
December 13, 2001
Earlier this week, Tommy Caldwell made the painful decision to halt treatments on his severed index finger — the result of a terribly unfortunate mishap with a table saw. The digit has been permanently reduced at the first knuckle. "The doctors said I’d likely have to go through a year or more or treatments to re-attach it, and the finger would never heal well enough for climbing" Caldwell reports. Painful bone grinding was necessary to create a clean closure, but he now expects to be climbing in less than two weeks. Caldwell says he’s confident that he made the right decision: "I received great medical care from Dr. Mark Durbin, and he explained all the options to me. I also talked to Dr. Ken Duncan, because he’s a climber. This was the right thing to do."
Caldwell, who didn’t become one of the country’s top athletes by backing away from adversity, sees the months ahead as "an exciting challenge," then adds, "I know I’ll learn a lot from this — adapting to half a finger will tough, but I’m an optimist." He reports losing "nearly half my red blood cells," during the reattachment effort, but Caldwell toughed out a one-handed bouldering session yesterday, with girlfriend Beth Rodden keeping an eye on things. "I got tired pretty fast — they’ve had me on all sorts of pain killers — but it was great to get away from the hospital," Caldwell said.
from R&I webpage
www.rockandice.com
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Caldwell: finger reattachment unsuccessful
