Severed limbs and insurance (kinda gross)

[spinbaby]

Last night on the local news in Pittsburgh was the story of a construction worker who had lost his arm and was now having it reattached:

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2722658/detail.html

As we were watching the story, I commented to my husband how wonderful it was that nowadays severed limbs can be reattached. He replied that hospitals will only attempt to reattach limbs IF YOU HAVE INSURANCE.

When I asked where he had heard this, he offered up the story told to him by a woman who tends bar at the place where he stops for beer now and then. She said that her son had accidentally cut several fingers off with a circular saw. When he and his severed fingers were rushed to the hospital, the doctors in the emergency room threw the fingers into the biohazard container, bandaged up the hand, and sent him off with a prescription for painkillers. The woman said she was so upset when they threw away the fingers that, when the nurses weren’t looking, she retrieved the fingers from the biohazard container. She has them at home in her freezer in case they can be reattached someday.

The ultimate point of this gruesome little story is that the woman claimed that the doctors made the decision not to reattach the fingers when they learned that her son had no insurance.

This is, admittedly, a story I heard third hand from a biased source with severed fingers in her freezer, but it really made me wonder if we have reached the point where your insurance coverage determines whether you get to keep your limbs or not. I had always thought that hospitals do their best to treat you regardless of coverage and work out the details later.

My oldest son is working at a job with no health insurance so this is really bothering me.

[SheilaT]

1. It's always hard to know what to think

about a story like this, but it almost has the ring of urban legend. Your husband is absolutely certain it happened to the woman's own son, and not the classic friend of a friend?

Probably some emergency room worker will check in on this, but I rather suspect that in reality the fingers were so damaged that re-attaching was not possible.

If the story is true, that poor woman needs to understand that the frozen fingers will NEVER be suitable for re-attaching.

I also thought that the bio-hazard containers were designed so you couldn't just reach in and take stuff out like that. Which is another reason I'm a little wary of the story.

[Garage Queen]

2. Doesn't the circular saw do too much damage?

I would think that, even WITH insurance, it would be difficult to reattached fingers that had been damaged by a circular saw. And, it also depends on where the fingers were severed, etc etc.

Count me as another skeptic of this story.

[Limbought]

7. Is there a big difference between a "ban saw" & a "circular saw?"

My Dad lost a couple of fingers using a band saw, but the doctors were able to reattach them. He has some stiffness, but no too bad.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. Yes, band saws cut clean, circular saws crush and beat things

into submission.

[beyurslf]

3. First giant red flag is the fact that

she took the fingers out of the biohazard box. It isn't a trash can. You can't just take something out. She would have to destroy it to get it open without the key. That's what they are made for... to stop people from accidentally contacting something that may be hazardous.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. No, you are confusing the box for sharps

Biohazard trash is just plain old red bag trash, which is at most hospitals now, all trash.

[Limbought]

4. Sorry, I had to laugh at this .........

This is, admittedly, a story I heard third hand about severed fingers.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

5. Sounds like

"stolen kidney" lore to me...

[spinbaby]

6. It does have that "urban legend" feel to it

That's why I put it in here rather than GD. Still, I found it very disturbing.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. If they were tossed, they were beyond repair fingers are very

easy to destroy, not as much bone to work with afterward. No pins or screws like in ankles and shoulders and elbows.