Hand(le) with care

The sound of shattering glass jolts Karl* as he is taken down memory lane when smashing into a glass door almost cost him his life.

What started as a normal day at the office 19 months ago nearly ended in tragedy when Karl tripped and went flying through a glass door, ripping his left arm to shreds, damaging his arteries and nerves.

Karl beat the odds and remained conscious throughout the ambulance ride to hospital: "I lost five pints of blood. In theory I should have died."

Surviving the blood loss was just the first hurdle and Karl was facing the possibility of having his arm amputated. "When I arrived in hospital, the palm of my hand was as black as coal. My artery had been torn and there was no blood going into my hand."

Two surgeons patched Karl's arm together during a six-hour operation but the prognosis was not good and for hours it was touch and go.

"After the operation, I tried to move my fingers. There was just a flicker but it was enough to encourage me and I went back to sleep," he said.

Health experts did not believe Karl would regain any function in his left hand. "They thought it would just be there for cosmetic purposes and I would barely be able to move it," he recalled.

Months later and following hours of therapy, Karl's hand movements have almost returned back to normal. "I did not even know what occupational therapy was but it has given me back my life," he said.

A right-handed person, Karl never imagined how much he used his left hand. "I could not even hold a piece of paper with my right or turn the page of a book. It was completely disabling." Karl is one of four to five patients who resort to Mater Dei Hospital every day after sustaining a hand injury at work. One of them will need surgery, orthopaedic surgeon Jason Zammit, who takes care of hand injuries, said.

"Every year we carry out some 360 operations on hands after injuries at work," he said, adding that the number of hand injuries in Malta was 10 per cent more than the EU average.

The majority of victims are carpenters and construction workers and an injury can have serious repercussions on their work. "A carpenter who previously worked alone might become unable to use a screwdriver." Mr Zammit said surgery was followed by rigorous occupational therapy, which aimed to get the maximum use of the hand.

He believed that more attention was needed to avoid hand injuries, which was why the Occupational Therapy Department was holding a hand injury awareness day, today, the eve of May 1.

The General Workers' Union's health and safety institute held a seminar about injuries at work as part of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

*Name has been changed