Cowboy Justin Johnson is recuperating Tuesday at a Denver hospital after severing his thumb during a rodeo.
The Casper, Wyo., resident, participating in the National Western Stock Show, was roping a steer, which he has done thousands of times before. But on Jan. 10, he felt a tug that was quite unusual.
“This time when I pulled back I looked down and the thumb was, not to be graphic, but it was completely pulled off,” Johnson said Monday at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center.
When the digit went flying through the air, Johnson's son ran after it.
“My son, he went and found my thumb, which was still in the thumb part of my glove,” said Johnson, 48.
Packed on ice, the thumb — and Johnson — ended up in the care of plastic surgeon Dr. David Schnur.
“As that steer or calf is pulling away, that rope constricts down on the thumb and catches it between the horn of the saddle and the thumb and essentially cuts it right off,” Schnur said, who has seen this injury before in ranchers across Colorado.
After a quick talk with his patient and less than three hours after the accident, Schnur was working on reattaching the thumb.
“We have to sew together little tiny blood vessels to get the blood flow to it,” Schnur said. The procedure took about four hours, and Johnson will need six to eight weeks to heal.
The cowboy will lose some feeling in his thumb, but in a few months he should be back in action.
“I can't wait to get back," Johnson said. "Yeah, I've already thought, 'if this doesn't become a complete success, how I can handle my rope with my other fingers?' ”
The Casper, Wyo., resident, participating in the National Western Stock Show, was roping a steer, which he has done thousands of times before. But on Jan. 10, he felt a tug that was quite unusual.
“This time when I pulled back I looked down and the thumb was, not to be graphic, but it was completely pulled off,” Johnson said Monday at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center.
When the digit went flying through the air, Johnson's son ran after it.
“My son, he went and found my thumb, which was still in the thumb part of my glove,” said Johnson, 48.
Packed on ice, the thumb — and Johnson — ended up in the care of plastic surgeon Dr. David Schnur.
“As that steer or calf is pulling away, that rope constricts down on the thumb and catches it between the horn of the saddle and the thumb and essentially cuts it right off,” Schnur said, who has seen this injury before in ranchers across Colorado.
After a quick talk with his patient and less than three hours after the accident, Schnur was working on reattaching the thumb.
“We have to sew together little tiny blood vessels to get the blood flow to it,” Schnur said. The procedure took about four hours, and Johnson will need six to eight weeks to heal.
The cowboy will lose some feeling in his thumb, but in a few months he should be back in action.
“I can't wait to get back," Johnson said. "Yeah, I've already thought, 'if this doesn't become a complete success, how I can handle my rope with my other fingers?' ”
