Firefighter whose hand was stripped to the bone returns to 'dream job'

Warning: Contains images some readers may find upsetting.

A firefighter who lost his "dream job" after injuring his hand has returned to work.

Anthony Seward was 20 years old when he caught his fingers in an industrial mangle. It stripped his fingers to the bone.

He thought he'd never rejoin Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service but, thanks to the work by a surgeon at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, he has regained enough grip and dexterity to go back to work.

Anthony, who is now 27, said: "It's a bit of a dream come true. It's amazing to be back. I was told that this wasn't going to happen and for a long time I had accepted that - but I guess things change."

Anthony spent 24 days with his hand sewn into his abdomen - an old-fashioned type of live skin grafting treatment used during the Second World War.

Anthony's hand was sewn into his abdomen to help it heal. Credit: Anthony Seward

His surgeon, James Henderson, suggested it - adding that not many people take him up on the idea.

He said: "You lift up a bit of skin from the abdomen, with a blood supply, you put the injured hand inside and put it back down. I made separate pockets for each finger.

"You leave it like that for three weeks, then you can lift it up, divide skin on the abdomen and I took enough so that I could then fold that over to cover the palm side.

"So he had new skin all the way round. It did look like a table tennis bat at that stage because you can't separate the fingers yet."

When Anthony's hand re-emerged, it looked like a table tennis bat. Credit: Anthony Seward

Anthony did not know what to expect when his hand re-emerged.

He said: "I was on a lot of painkillers so it's sort of glazed over in my memory. It was quite surreal but the doctors were incredible, the nurses and staff, and well everyone in the NHS was amazing. So it made that experience a little less daunting."

Now he has slightly modified kit, but he is able to take back his role as an on-call firefighter.

Station manager Dominic Mallett said: "Resilience is huge in the fire service. It's that ability to dig deep and find some energy stores when you're tired and it's cold.

"All of those qualities are all things that Anthony's shown in his recovery process, where there will be days where you'll have had pressures, felt a little bit down and he's managed to fight his way through them."