Tyler

In April, 2015, Tyler fell off the back of a ride-on mower at his Nanango home and his hand was hit by the mower blade. His thumb was severed, his pointer finger almost torn off, and his middle finger broken.

“We went into panic mode,” says Tyler’s mum Jaqui, “Thankfully, the local ambulance service arrived within minutes and Tyler’s dad was out the front with one ambulance, desperately searching for Tyler’s thumb.”

“Tyler was given pain medication and his hand was wrapped up. He was really good and stayed calm, unlike us. Unfortunately, his thumb was too badly damaged to be sewn back on.”

Tyler was rushed to his local Kingaroy Hospital, and later transferred by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to the Queensland Children’s Hospital, where he went straight into surgery to reconstruct his pointer finger, with a pin inserted to hold it into place.

Three months later, he underwent a pollicisation – a hand reconstruction surgery technique in which a thumb is created from an existing finger – in Tyler’s case, his left pointer finger. With his thumb restored, Tyler was able to pick things up again.

Two years and more than 15 hours of hand surgery later, Tyler is loving life again and doing extremely well. As part of his ongoing rehabilitation, he still has daily hand exercises to help him regain strength and mobility – as prescribed by the Queensland Children’s Hospital’s occupational therapy team.  Along the way, the ‘OT’ team has also helped with scar management, splinting, psychosocial support, and hand therapy.

“He can now use his hand to about 90 per cent strength and that’s about as good as it is going to get for him, which is still amazing considering his journey,” Jacqui said.