Anyone medical awake?

[Peppermintpatty56]

I’m writing here because I’m not sure what to do. My dh has been out with friends and he’s clearly broken his hand. It’s a rare night out, not a regular occurrence, no drink problems etc. but he’s definitely had more than a few tonight and managed to fall over. His hand is swollen and so are his fingers including his wedding ring finger, can’t get the ring off. His little finger looks at a weird angle but that might be due the swelling. I’ve iced it, he’s had ibuprofen and paracetamol but he’s fell asleep now. Anyone medical know if it’s safe to leave for a few hours whilst he sleeps himself sober a bit? Obviously we will go to minor injuries when it opens tomorrow morning. Are we ok till then? What a pillock 🙄🫣

NO! especially not if he's drunk. there are specialist tools for this for a reason, with a guard that slides behind the ring to ensure fingers aren't cut by the sharp parts.

I agree, he needs to be seen. They will easily cut his ring off with a ring cutter.m

They won't do anything whilst he's pissed. If he's asleep and not going to do more damage I'd leave him. Tomorrow you need to get xray and then they'll determine next steps. Tonight there's nothing to be done.

Ah the ring situation I missed! If it cutting off blood supply then you need to go now.

Thy do actually need to know he has been drinking so don’t hide it. Get him to A&E wrap frozen peas/veg in a tea towel and have him wrap it round/rest it on his hand.

There is some ducking stupid advice here.

1. not all minor injuries units can deal with hand injuries
2. ED is for accidents especially where there is a risk to life OR LIMB
3. the ring will continue to restrict blood flow which is damgerous
4. ringing 111 etc is totally pointless. He needs a ring cutter, x rays and then likely manipulation/ortho involvement. For which you need a hospital

The op needs to wake him up, give him some coffee and go to hospital!

they can cut the ring off to potentially save the finger. Saturday nights in A&E, there are lots of drunk people getting care for injuries.

Yes @CrowleyKitten I wrote immediately after as I missed the ring comment!

A translation was requested of

With all due respect, when a relative badly broke their wrist and had a swollen hand and fingers and a stuck wedding ring, they were triaged by the ambulance crew at 5.30 and the ring was noted because the crew were concerned. My relative was not seen until midnight, the F2 missed it and it was not picked up until Resus when the more senior Dr was not impressed and couldn't do the reduction until the ring was cut off. When my relative said "well we've been here since 5.30 so there's no point being grumpy with me" she was tersely told not to assert negligence.

The F2 is a doctor two years out of med school. They saw this patient first and missed the ring. When the patient was taken to resus for the fracture to be reduced eg put back in to place this was noticed. Reductions are done in resus as you need to give major pain relief and if the patient is going to react to that eg stop breathing you want to be in resus not the arse end of the waiting room.

I'm not medically trained, but I was also thinking circulation was the biggest problem here.

As someone who has lifelong problems with their hands - I really urge you to try and get him down there. It's no fun at all trying to interact with the world with dodgy hands.

The ring is a problem. If you really can't get it off, he needs to go tonight.

It's really common for them to cut rings off in this kind of situation and they might be closer / quicker to help.

I’m a nurse, with previous minor injuries experience as a technician. Ring needs to come off ASAP. Please don’t try and do it yourself with tools if you are dealing with a drunk person as you risk injuring him/yourself further. If he’s vaguely cooperative, you could try soap/oil with a low threshold for admitting defeat and taking him to seek professional help. Carry on with icing it and get him to elevate it as much as you can in the meantime. I’ve cut off many rings from swollen/broken fingers and looked after many people with silly drunken injuries. I’ve also had my fair share of silly drunken injuries of my own, and I don’t have a ‘problem with alcohol’ as PP have suggested 😂

When you do take him in, please don’t pretend he hasn’t been drinking. He won’t be judged (nor will he be the first or last they’ve seen tonight or any other night!), but not only will it be obvious that he has and therefore make staff wonder why he’s lying, drunk people tend to bleed more due to the alcohol so they will need to know.

Best of luck!

A&E.
Depending on how long he's left you're looking at them either cutting his ring off or cutting his finger off.

F2 = a junior doctor who is in their second year of training after medical school

Reduction = moving the broken bone back into place so the two ends of the bone meet

Resus = the area of A&E where patients with the most serious injuries are treated and monitored.

Any updates @Peppermintpatty56 ?

Thank you!!

When I dislocated my finger the first thing they did was cut my rings off in A & E.

Ice it
Elevate and go to A&E.
The ring needs to come off
He has now had a couple of hours sleep so wake him up and take him to the hospital. Suggest you don’t give him coffee but plain water instead just in case he needs to have the hand reduced by manipulation to get any fracture straight.
Good luck

A&E Tonight !

You never wait with a break combined with a dislocation

He may lose the use of his fingers forever and also damage vital ligaments & tendons

Take him tonight

He will not wait for hours with a dislocation and a wedding ring stuck on a swelling hand

Did he go to A&E? You won't be able to get the ring off because of the injury. But A&E won't keep him waiting. The ring will cut off his circulation he'll be seen straight away to have that removed. He will have to wait for an x-ray though.

Thanks everyone, he wouldn't go in 🙄
I woke him and he said it was feeling better and the swelling was improving, he could move his ring. I couldn't force him, so I left it. To be fair, it wasn't discoloured or anything.
Anyway, he was pissing me off so I woke him again and he went. Think the pain was actually worse so he didn't put up a fight the second time. Just waiting to hear from him now. We've got a 6 year old so I couldn't go too. If he's there much longer and I get childcare I'll go and join him later.

Further update... this will stop dh doing like this again!!!

The hospital are sending him the nearby fire station to have the ring cut off because their equipment isn't working as his ring is too thick and his finger is too swollen. They said he can go straight back through for an X-ray once it's done.

As I was catching up on messages I was very amused that it was suggested I do it myself with tools. Not only am I ridiculously clumsy, but I have shaky hands due to a medical condition and medication I'm on. I think the dog could have done a better job than me!!

I'm very glad he went, typical bloke needing a lot of persuasion though 🤣