LAS VEGAS – A cowboy from California almost lost his thumb completely from a rodeo accident, but a surgeon in Nevada was able to save it.
Benjamin Mays, 53, was at a roping competition on December 10 at the Southpoint in Nevada when the rope took part of Mays's right thumb with it. The severed digit remained in his glove. A fellow roper retrieved some ice, which Mays applied to his hand, and glove, with the thumb in it.
"You know, you're kinda in shock. So you don't really feel it," Mays said.
Mays was lucky because it happened in Las Vegas. Within minutes, he was at UMC, where they specialize in reattachment.
Dr. Richard Baynosa teaches at the UNLV Medical School and he's the chair of UMC's Plastic Surgery Department.
"It's one of the most complicated things we do," Baynosa said. The surgery took six hours, under a microscope.