Dannevirke: Ross Macdonald refuses to be anything but upbeat

Ross Macdonald says his accident chopping wood was "just one of those things" Photo/Christine McKay

Fewer than two weeks after having three fingers amputated, Dannevirke's Ross Macdonald is home and surprisingly chipper.

Mr Macdonald, 69, shrugs off his accident at his Piripiri home on Thursday, January 16, as "just one of those things".

"I've cut firewood for 40 years and never injured myself before and I guess I'm pretty resilient after 30 years in the police force," he told the Dannevirke News.

And Mr Macdonald reckons the wood can wait for now, but he's got no qualms about getting stuck in when given the all clear by his surgeon.

"Once this is detached," he said, wagging a finger attached by a groin flap, "and they work on my index finger, I'll be able to use the chainsaw again. But probably not the wood splitter. You don't just give in.

"During all those years in the police force, people would ask me if I was worried about getting hurt. But I just said, 'if it happens, it happens'.

"It's about getting on with it."

Mr Macdonald said he was trying to deal with a tree that had blown down in last October's storm when his accident happened.

"I had three or four trees blow over, one of them went on to a shed and, at the time of the accident, I was trying to pull down a branch of a large macrocarpa tree," he said.

A large limb crashed down, catching his hand and when he looked down and saw his fingers hanging, he realised he was in trouble.

"I didn't go into shock, I think that's because I was already processing what had to happen. Mind you, my family reckon I'm a silly bugger," Mr Macdonald said.

"I told my wife, Gloria, to get the car and get me into town. Staff at the Dannevirke hospital asked why I hadn't called the ambulance and I said 'well I knew I'd get here quicker'.

"Ten years ago, I fell off a wool truck and broke my neck and got myself into town then too."

Dannevirke doctor Jane Laver got the Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter to fly Mr Macdonald to Hutt Valley Hospital. Surgeons have attached Mr Macdonald's hand, minus half its index finger and three other fingers, in a groin flap, with the skin from his groin pulled up over his index finger, to grow for repairs. The groin flap will be detached at the end of February and Mr Macdonald, as upbeat as ever, said he was hoping everything would be okay shortly after.

"However, the surgeon has told me it will be four years before my index finger is working properly, so I have to believe him," he said.

But Mr Macdonald said he won't be letting this mishap set him back and he's already put his hand up to be stage manager for Oliver, the joint theatre production between the Dannevirke Theatre Company and the Palmerston North Regent Theatre Trust on stage in April.

"You know, people rubbish the health system, but it's not that bad. At Hutt Valley Hospital, they were brilliant and I've nothing but praise for them."