A tale of a finger

The offending avocado.  It was tasty...

I have been woeful at updating my blog – so much for every two weeks!  I’ll blame this partly on a university assignment that swallowed up my December.  I’m going to post a series of catch-up posts over the next week or so outlining what I have been up to since I arrived at KEP.

However, first some disappointing news to share: I have had to return to the UK due to an injury

Avocados are one of the ‘freshies’ items we sometimes order from Falklands, but are not always available and even if available don’t always survive the journey.  So I was excited when bio-securing the order mid-Jan to find that a half dozen ready-to-eat avos were in the crate.

What happened next is best described as foolish – I injured myself whilst stoning an avocado for lunch.  I received a deep knife laceration to my finger, and severed a few important structures.  After a good washout and explore in the surgery I had some small hope that I could deal with the injury myself locally.

I got on the phone and the BAS Medical Unit swung into action.  Within an hour, on a Sunday afternoon, I had a treatment plan from a consultant Plastic Surgeon.  Alas it involved medivac to the UK for specialist surgery.

From that point things moved at lightning speed and by 1900hrs I was on a naval ship (fortuitously in the area) and sailing north to the Falklands.  We arrived after only 3.5d sailing, and despite the kind hospitality I’d experienced, I was glad to be transferred to land – rolling/pitching vessel + only having one hand to use aren’t a great combo!  From the Falklands I had an aeromed transfer on the RAF air bridge back to the UK.  I landed at Brize Norton on Saturday at 0800; 6 days - the quickest ever medivac from South Georgia!

Things continued at a pace after I landed.  I hopped on the first train from Oxford and when I arrived in Plymouth on Saturday afternoon I was taken straight into the Emergency Department to see the Consultant Plastic Surgeon.  I was listed for surgery that same day (a good job I hadn’t snacked on the train!) and was taken to theatre on Saturday evening.

I must thank BASMU, the Ops team at BAS, the GSGSSI, the Royal Navy, and the RAF all of whom played a part in making things happen and getting me and my silly finger back to the UK so quickly and efficiently.  And of course thanks also goes to the KEP Team who rallied round to support me when I got injured, and were left to pick up the pieces when I suddenly departed.

Unfortunately in theatre the surgeon found more damage than originally anticipated.  In addition to partially severing one of the nerves in my finger, I had cut through a few tendons.  I knew about the nerve as my finger was a bit numb, but I had been able to move my finger fine and so had naively hoped I’d missed the tendons.  It is a testament to how strong tendons are that you can almost completely rupture them yet still have near-normal movement – always pays to have a look in theatre.

The nerve and flexor tendons were repaired, but my recovery has only just begun.  My hand is confined to a splint with strict instructions not to use it at all for the time being.  Flexor tendon repair is a delicate beast requiring cautious but intensive hand therapy to ensure I have a working finger going forward.  This means I have to stay in the UK for three months whilst the hand team monitor my progress.

To say I’m disappointed is a phenomenal understatement.  I’m devastated to be away from South Georgia for so long, just as I was settling down and looking forward to summer goings-on.  More so as my Uni assignment had confined me to base for most of December so I was excited to finally get out and explore whilst the weather was good. 

It has been such a whirlwind of a week since I was injured that I have struggled at times to properly take in what has happened, that such a split second moment has had such consequences.  I truly wish I had a time machine.  I left South Georgia so quickly and abruptly too, thinking I’d be back in a matter of weeks.  I now have to work out what to do with myself single-handed for the next three months.

I’ll be back.

In the meantime, for those wanting to keep up to date with South Georgia goings on, have a look at the links in the sidebar.  Some of my KEP colleagues are much better than me at not only at keeping up with their blogs, but also photography.  Well worth a look, honest.