Man has missing thumb replaced with big TOE

Michael Stevens lost his left thumb in an accident at work

A Mississippi man who lost his thumb in an accident at work has had a toe sewed on in its place.

The debilitating injury happened when Michael Stevens’ hand came into contact with a fan blade last October, ripping the thumb clean off his hand. ‘Within a second the story was over,’ he told ABC News.

The 42-year-old feared the worst as doctors told him he would likely be permanently disabled. His life was put on hold as he struggled to continue to work. 

‘I put a camshaft in a Corvette, that normally takes me 6 hours,’ he said. ‘And it took me probably 16.’

Stevens’ wife Regina got on the internet and started researching possible surgical remedies. She came across a success story – in 2009 Garrett Lafever had had his missing thumb replaced with a toe.

The transplant wasn’t available in the couple’s home state of Mississippi so they travelled to San-Francisco where reconstructive microsurgery expert Dr Charles Lee and his team have performed several dozens of similar procedures at St. Mary's Medical Center.

Dr Lee warned it might not be successful. Speaking before the surgery he said: ‘Mike’s toe-to-thumb surgery is especially complicated. 

'His thumb was entirely severed; not just the tip, but down to the third interior joint. It’s very rare to replace the entire thumb.' 

Two teams worked to remove the toe and connect up the relevant blood vessels, in surgery which took more than four hours.

But the physical surgery wasn’t the end of Stevens’ trauma, however. ‘It's been a real long battle with workman's comp,’ Stevens said.  

His workers’ compensation insurance was only initially prepared to cover cosmetic surgery, and not the full reconstructive surgery he would need to continue working as a mechanic.

 

Two teams of surgeons worked to replace Stevens' thumb with his two during surgery that lasted more than four hours

Fortunately for Stevens, Dr Lee and his team agreed to perform the surgery at a drastically reduced cost – 70 percent less than what he would usually charge.

Today Stevens is recovering in hospital following the surgery which took place at 7.30am on Wednesday. 

He is expected to regain 60 to 80 percent functionality in the thumb within a year.

Regina told ABC that whatever the cosmetic outcome, Stevens' goal has always been to return to the work he loves. 

She added: ‘He does anything to help keep us going and just to see him down, it was my goal to get him back up again.’