Herman Cain Makes Campaign Stop in Huntsville (News Clip)

WAFF TV, Alabama ^ | 30 Oct. 2011 | WAFF TV, Huntsville, AL

[SamAdams76]

I can't think of the title of the book but it was the one where the Alabama man cut off his hand on a table saw. It was a bloody scene. All the family members were panicking and screaming and such. But a 14-year-old girl calmly put the severed hand in a bucket of ice and somehow stopped the bleeding from the man's arm.

She then had the man's brother drive them to the hospital because this was rural Alabama and ambulances were not nearby. Knowing that the local hospitals did not have the resources to reconnect a severed hand, she directed the brother to take them to Birmingham, even though it was 60 miles away.

On I-59, they were pulled over by cops for speeding. But the 14-year-old girl did not panic. She said that it would be a good thing because now they would get an escort to the hospital and could drive even faster. Sure enough, the cop poked his head in, saw the severed hand in a bucket of ice and turned white as a sheet. He then said to the brother to follow him and he tore down the highway at speeds between 90-110 mph.

They got to the hospital, which just so happened to be the only hospital in Alabama that had the ability to sew a man's hand back on again. They went ahead and did the operation and the man got his hand back. The 14-year-old girl sat patiently in the waiting room with her white dress all covered in blood.

Well, that's all I can remember about the book. It's a pretty good book but I can't remember the title of it nor can I remember the author. Therefore, I cannot find this book anywhere and I can't even tell you that it was made into a TV-movie but probably it was at some point.

[fireman15]

I can't think of the title of the book but it was the one where the Alabama man cut off his hand on a table saw. It was a bloody scene. All the family members were panicking and screaming and such. But a 14-year-old girl calmly put the severed hand in a bucket of ice and somehow stopped the bleeding from the man's arm.

I worked in a family lumber mill business for 8 years before I got hired by a fire department. Severed limbs and missing digits are not an uncommon thing in my family. My Great Uncle Ray cut off his hand before I was even born. He got it caught in the feed for a lumber hog that turns waste wood into chips for fuel. He was very lucky he didn't lose his entire arm or get killed.

It is interesting how sometimes young people remain more calm than older folks in crisis situations.

Fortunately, when you cut off a hand or a finger, it is usually not that difficult to stop the bleeding. I went to a suicide attempt where a paraplegic woman tried to cut her foot off to kill herself. She took a serrated knife and cut most of the way through the back of her leg just above the ankle and waited to die. The bleeding stopped before she lost enough blood to even lose consciousness. So she did the same thing on her other leg. There was a pretty good puddle of blood on the floor, but she was still talking to us like there was nothing wrong.