Leeches save teenager’s thumb

The 17-year-old suffered a gruesome injury when her thumb was stuck in a wire loop of the laundry, when she went to check on the washing machine that opened mid-cycle, reported DailyMail.

The machine didn’t register that the door was opened and the teenager crouched yelling in pain as it spun around her thumb.

The parents rushed her to hospital, were a specialist hand surgeon and 120 leeches saved her.

After two operations, leeches were used to coax blood through her arteries and veins while her tendon realigned, the report quoted a NZ Herald source.

Nine months after the incident, when she sat her exams, she had to dictate her answers to a transcriber because she has only 40 per cent sensation in her thumb.

She has a 14cm zig-zag scar on her right wrist.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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