68-year-old Bill Singleton was forced to drive himself almost 33 kilometers to a hospital after accidentally cutting his face with a chainsaw.
The Australian grandfather told his wife, Lynette, he was only going to cut some firewood and would return home soon.
But after a few hours, surgeons were already working to sew his face back together. He accidentally cut his face and tongue in half.
Speaking about the incident, Bill said: “I sussed out a couple of good logs of timber and went back to my ute.
“I had two chainsaws, a small one and a big one. I got the big saw out, started it up, and of course it roared into action.”
Unfortunately, the chainsaw ricocheted off and back towards him. “I heard this crack. I didn’t feel anything at the time, and I thought “oh my goodness”,” he explained.
The chainsaw cut through his bottom lip and tongue, tearing his jaw. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and kept it to his face but he was quickly losing blood.
He dropped to his knees and started losing consciousness.
“Of course I said a few choice words to myself. I got to thinking, ‘well, what’s next?’”
He wanted to call for help and he had a phone in his pocket but because his tongue was sliced in half, he couldn’t speak. He crawled over 40 meters to his vehicle where he managed to climb up.
“What was I supposed to do? Sit myself down at the base of a tree and lean back and wait for the lights to go out?”
With one hand holding his face together and one hand on the steering wheel, he drove 32 kilometers to the hospital.
A team of surgeons worked on Bill for several hours. His haw had to be fitted with a metal plate and he lost most of his teeth. Nerve damage also left his tongue permanently numb and it took him weeks before he could learn to speak again.
His surgeon said he had come close to slicing through a main artery. “If you had just scratched that or cut it, you wouldn’t be here now,” the surgeon said.
Bill had two more operations to secure his jawline and to prepare his gums for a new set of teeth. He said that the worst thing about it is that it has changed his diet.
“He’s just dying for a steak,” Lynette said.
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