August 07, 2007
CSI: Singapore
This was the scene that greeted me when I got home.
I got a call from Alison earlier, Nate had slammed the door on Hannah's hand, and her right ring finger was bleeding badly. By the time she got to the paed, it was diagnosed as broken. But x-rays at the hospital showed no bone breakage, however surgery was required to repair the finger.
It was a lot more serious than first thought, and its a good thing that at my ma-in-law's insistence we went to a hand specialist and micro-surgeon instead of staying at KK. The tip of her right ring finger was virtually amputated, held only by a few shreds of skin. The surgeon showed me the pictures and it was gruesome, the stuff of nightmares. There was only a bit of flesh around the bone, everything had been smashed by the door. He was able to stitch back everything and replace the nail, but that will drop out soon and it'll take a while for the new nail to grow.
Thank God for many things. The surgeon we were suppose to see, the one who reconstructed John Lai's fingers, was in surgery when we were trying to get him. Aunty Kathy, who thought she would help out since both my in-laws were out of town, thankfully knew of another hand surgeon and he was ready and waiting to perform surgery straight away. And whilst KK (who I must add was very good, compared to the woeful NUH experience) would only perform the surgery at 10pm (6 hr fast for GA), the surgeon had his own anaesthetist at his disposal and so could operate right away.
It was very worrying, Hannah came out of the surgery wailing, carrying off where she left off just before surgery. Must say she was pretty brave throughout. I'm proud of her. Nate, not sure if he realises the gravity of his actions. In all the commotion, we naturally had no time to correct him. Maybe one day when he asks to go to university, we will tell him he spent his entire Education Fund on this. Don't worry, we're insured.