An Australian girl was left with a toe stitched to her hand, after having to have her thumb amputated.
Britney Thomas, who hails from Victoria, Australia, was pursuing her dream job a professional cricket player when a rather routine trip to the hospital took a turn.
The world's smallest baby was born at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital:The then-17-year-old fractured her thumb while playing cricket in Hong Kong. She was sent to Latrobe Regional Hospital for an operation to repair it by the local orthopaedic surgeon.
Before the operation, a tourniquet was put on her to restrict blood flow during the surgery, as is standard. Britney was informed that it would be taken off after the procedure was done.
Five days later, however, she realised that something was amiss. Per news.com.au, Britney said that when medics took the cast off to get a better look, it transpired that the tourniquet hadn't been removed after the surgery. Someone at the hospital has incorrectly written down that it had been removed.
She told Four Corners that it was “the worst pain I think I have ever been through”.
Leanne Keating, Britney's mum told news.com.au, "They pulled the plaster off and it was very dark and looked dead. The skin was all yucky. I was mortified, it was horrible."
Because Britney's blood had been restricted for so long, her thumb could not be saved.
"They took me into the emergency and they were like, 'You're probably going to lose your thumb'," Britney continued. "I was in so much disbelief and I was like, 'What's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to my cricket?'"
Britney proceeded to have most of her thumb amputated, with what was left being stitched to her groin for six weeks to get the nerves and arteries working again.
Her big toe was then removed and stitched onto her hand to construct a new thumb and a replacement toe was created using her hipbone.
The CEO at Latrobe Regional Hospital, Peter Craighead, spoke to news.com.au, stating: "I felt sick in my stomach. We thought we had robust procedures and policies in place to ensure we had a very safe environment."
