Get your finger out Queens!

05 February 2010

Tina Chambers

A WOMAN was forced to wait for hours with her severed finger in a bag of frozen vegetables because Queen's Hospital was unable to arrange transport to surgeons, it was claimed.

Timber merchant Tina Chambers, 49, ripped her index finger from her right hand in a freak fall at home, last Monday afternoon (January 25).

Partner Lenny Rowland, 53, encased the severed digit in a bag of frozen brussel sprouts before taking Tina and the finger to Queen's Hospital A&E, in Rom Valley Way, Romford.

The couple, from Brentwood, Essex, claim they waited more than two-and-half hours while staff tried arrange an ambulance to take the injured woman to specialists at Broomfield Hospital, in Chelmsford - where surgeons were waiting.

In agony and fearing the finger may not be saved, frantic Tina finally called daughter Rosie, 21 - at work in Chingford, - to drive them to the Essex hospital, where a team of 10 medics battled for six hours to save the finger.

Even then reattachment was delayed because the finger fragment had to be sent for specialist cleaning after it had become infused with vegetable matter.

The finger has now been sewn back on, but doctors say there is only a 50 per-cent chance of saving it.

Tina said: "I feel traumatised by how I was treated there [Queen's Hospital]. They kept telling me the ambulance had been cancelled, or there was none available.

"All the messing around means I could lose my finger forever. I'll be devastated."

During her wait at the Romford hospital Tina claims she was given no pain relief, and when she requested ice to replace the melting sprouts was told the hospital did not have any.

Lenny said: "I was sitting there with Tina's finger and in the end I had to wait outside to try and keep it cold. They said there was no ice anywhere in the hospital!

"My girlfriend's sitting there for hours with her finger three feet away from her and no-one's doing anything to help her."

He added: "I'm absolutely fuming. Even if I was dying I would never go back to that hospital."

Tina is now recovering in the St Andrews Centre for plastic surgery and burns - a specialist wing at Broomfield - where leeches are being used to help clean the wound.

In the million-to-one mishap, Tina slipped and caught her finger in a key ring attached to a key in her door. The force of her fall ripped the digit from beneath her knuckle.

Barking Havering and Redbridge Hospital Trust Chief Executive John Goulston said: "I am extremely sorry that Mrs Winner was not happy with the care she received in the Urgent Care Centre at Queen's and for any delays she experienced.

"We will fully investigate the situation and are more than happy to meet with Mrs Winner (Tina's married name) to discuss her concerns."

Mr David Ross, consultant plastic surgeon at Guys & St Thomas' and Kings College Hospital, and reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon at his own Harley Street practice, said: "Re-plantation within the first four hours is thought to give the patient the best chance of a successful outcome.

"However, success is achieved well outside this timeframe if the digit has been appropriately cooled and protected.