THE STORY
On the evening of September 7th, 2019 Tim was in a CanAm off-road accident where he endured a catastrophic injury to his left hand. He was airlifted to Loma Linda Medical Center for immediate reconstructive surgery. A plastic surgery team attentively operated on his hand for over 7 rigorous hours. Since then it feels like the McClain’s have lived several lifetimes in the process of healing and trying to reach closure from this accident. The days following the initial procedure were filled with medical intervention and treatment in an effort to see how his body would heal from the injury his left hand sustained. Many of you are familiar with Tim's initial injury, but it has been very difficult to keep everyone appropriately updated with all the intricacies that have since followed while maintaining privacy and the true unknown of the future while his body attempted to heal.
Tim came out of his first surgery in the early morning hours on September 8th, 2019. He came out with the doctors doing everything possible to keep his hand in a complete state and give it a fighting chance. Prior to surgery starting, the lead doctor told Brittney they would attempt to save as much as possible, but also let her know it was possible he would lose his whole hand. The surgery was extremely detailed and included things such as: reattaching nerves, searching for nerves via microscope, rebuilding arteries, connecting multiple veins to those arteries that normally wouldn’t be connected and putting in 2 pins. A 3rd was needed, but the hand couldn’t support it as it was so injured.
This is a snap shot of the true trauma internally.
It didn’t take long to come to realization that the ring finger wasn’t going to remain on Tim’s hand. It had no nerve and no blood flow. It was the first finger Tim had to accept he was loosing.
There were many treatments used in trying to retain as much of his hand as possible, but the most intriguing was medical leech therapy. This was done multiple times a day. They would bring in medical leeches from a lab that Loma Linda purchases from New York and attach one to both the index and middle fingers where they would draw blood for an extensive period of time and after they were removed, the fingers would continue to drip blood.
Next came the task of trying to keep Tim’s hand warm. Remember, the goal is to keep blood flowing. There were heating packs used and also a heat box. The heat box was initially unavailable so the heating packs were rotated when leeches were not on. Once the heat box came, it was used. The problem with the heat box is it was drying the wounds so the blood wasn’t draining. We needed blood flow to continue. A decision was made to remove Tim’s nails on his index and middle fingers to allow more blood flow while still doing regular leech therapy. I mean heck, they were even applying a nipple stimulation cream. Anything they thought could work, was attempted.
We started noticing the leeches were not as interested in the index finger and the coloring was slowly changing. Tim had to come to terms with loosing another finger. It seemed as soon as that was accepted, we noticed the middle. It was changing in color but also getting bigger in size. The finger was getting blood flow to it but had no return to circulate it back through and there was nothing they could do to fix that. His body worked hard to heal, but the trauma in the three fingers was too much to save.
Tim had some wonderful nurses, his wife by his side each day and a friend bedside sleeping in a chair each night. He had some interesting roommates (to say the least) and tons of support from his family & friends while going through these first few weeks and coming to terms with accepting his hand being forever changed.
15 days after his accident would bring the second surgery.
Sunday September 22nd, 2019 Tim had his index, middle, and ring fingers amputated below the knuckles and into the top portion of his left hand. Unfortunately, due to the amount of internal trauma a large portion of the surgical plan for September 22nd was unable to be completed.
Friday September 27th, 2019 Tim underwent his next medical procedure.
It is unbelievable how such a thing could have happened, but his journey will continue on with a slightly altered path beginning with Tim’s recovery.
Thankfully, there are many options to assist Tim in continuing to live a fulfilling life with hopes of the highest technology and future prosthetics.
The third procedure took place September 27th, which did not end in the skin grafting that was hoped, but it did bring some comfort in knowing the Integra is working and providing the needed framework for the blood vessels and dermal skin cells to re-grow into a new skin layer. The plastic surgeons do not want to prematurely begin another step in the healing process and risk jeopardizing the internal acceptance currently taking place.
During the second procedure on September 22nd, which resulted in the amputations and loss of dead tissue, created one of the largest healing obstacles. There was no tissue, skin, or excess to cover the wound created after amputation and loss. Due to the amount of damaged tissue lost above the knuckles and into the hand, the need of application of the Integra template was was necessary component in the healing process.
Integra is a dermal regeneration template made of two layers: 1. A thick underlayer made of pure collagen (protein) from cows and a substance called glycosaminoglycan made from shark cartilage.
They’re overjoyed in knowing the supportive community surrounding and lifting them up. They’re deliberating the appropriate time to share steps of all that has transpired over the past 22 days and appreciate the patience and understanding everyone has shown them during this catastrophic event that at times still seems unreal.
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Friday October 4th, 2019, Tim was scheduled for his 4th surgery. The goal of this procedure was to complete a successful skin graft which was unable to be completed on September 27th. After this procedure he was finally able to start a healing process.
This was the first surgery that each item they had as a goal was actually addressed and taken care of. Today has been so successful in that aspect.
The day started with them transferring Tim from the main hospital to the East Campus where he will remain until discharge. This is also where the procedure took place.
The skin grafting was 100% completed and things internally are healing as expected. He still has a wound vac to assist in the protection and healing process, but they are hopeful it will no longer be needed in the coming week.
The journey in healing still remains long, both mentally and physically. The outpouring amount of support and love that has been shown to the McClain family during these times have brought them relief and comfort.
Timothy was finally able to come home on October 8th, 32 days spent away from home and his family.
First follow up with his plastic surgeon came 1 week after he was released confirming everything was finally moving in the right direction.
Occupational therapy has begun at Loma Linda where he continues to go 2 times per week.
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The end of 2019 came and things starting to seem like the new normal with getting used to life.
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Around the first week of January at a standard follow up appointment with the hand surgeon it was decided to go get x-rays to see why the pinky finger was starting to hang which was never damaged initially or so we thought.
Fast forward to February where this appointment would show the results of the x-ray and possible decision of whats next. Outcome showing the little finger had become at some point completely dislocated and fallen off of the bone reconstructive survey to fix this was now the only option. Surgery plans were made, pinning the pinky to its correct place, shaving of the index and middle finger bone, adding some fat tissue to build up the center and another possible skin graph.
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Surgery was scheduled for April 24th thinking we were on the verge of moving forward, therapists and doctors meeting and deciding to put a hold on continuing occupational therapy until after the procedure.
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Due to the COVID-19 virus preop was cancelled and surgery will need to be postponed unfortunately with no reschedule date available at this time.
This tragic accident has become so much of a new issue willing to share the photos from each step of the process to date, please note these photos are graphic