Dagger cuts through part of hand--what's this going to look like?

due to clumsiness and having to hold blades different than I'm used to I inadvertently did the same only catching it between thumb and forefinger. It cut into the finger at the first interphalangial joint down to the bone of the middle phalanx and slid along the bone proximally until just past the 2nd joint. It raised a myocutaneous flap that was full thickness and the only remaining point of attachment was about a centimeter and a half of the proximal dorso-radial area (Think of the letter U with the open portion pointing toward the hand) I didn't feel it because of preexisting nerve damage. Suddenly all my kids were staring at me, so I asked, "What?"

"Why would a dead and gutted pig suddenly start bleeding again?" (We were skinning a pig)

"It wouldn't why?"

"Then check your hands"

"Crap! I might lose my finger with that." Seeing your own bones is not a good omen. I went to the kitchen and washed the wound and examined it. The flap was pink and Bleeding. I had to keep my hand over the sink because of the spurts. "I can salvage that," I thought. "Just need low enough pressure so as to not occlude the artery in the flap and watch for venous congestion. It needs to be splinted too, so the flap can't move."

I held gentle pressure circumferentially around it with a clean towel, checking it every few minutes to see that it wasn't tuning black and waiting for clotting factors to do something. After a half hour or so it was a slow ooze with a pink looking flap so I taped some gauze around a popsickle stick and taped that to the finger above and below the injury so as to immobilize the wound and a joint above and below. Very gently I used more gauze to hide the injury so it wouldn't get dirty.

Then there was some trouble seeing and some confusion and my wife yelling about why the sink was full of blood clots from the pig, "This should have been washed outside."

"No, that's dad's blood,"

"Oh shit! Dammit!" she stides over and sets me down in a recliner."

I have it all dressed," I said.

"You need to go to the ER!"

"No I don't! I can save this flap. That guy will amputate. I'm staying home."

After some fluids and cookies I felt better. It looked fine other than still oozing for about 6 hours, then the clots formed on the edges and the venous congestion began. That's the time that nowadays they use leeches to suck out the congested blood and keep doing it for 1-3 days until the veins find a way out. I didn't have leeches so I tried moisturizing the edges with Neosporin. That worked for a while but then over a few more hours that was obviously not going to be enough. I gently poured hydrogen peroxide over the clots to dissolve them. That worked and the flap pinked up. I had to keep doing that about every 2 hours for the first 2 days and then like 3 times a day for one to two and then just a couple sporadic times after that.

I had had a tetanus booster just a few weeks earlier. I kept it clean and over a few weeks I removed the splint during the day and put it back on at night for a few weeks. By about 6 weeks it looked stable and I started doing physical therapy for it. Under normal circumstances they'd want to reattach nerves and blood vessels, but for me the nerves were shot already prior to the injury, the flap was vascularized and I didn't trust the guy on call. It healed up fine and bizarrely I think it somehow stimulated regrowth of sensory nerves in that hand. I started having tingling a few days after the cut and by a year later, although it is somewhat numb, there is more sensation than prior to the injury

If you want a different situation for the injury you can have your MC get stabbed in the outer portion of his hand, (just below and to the outside of his little finger.)

One of my friends skewered his hand like that on a spiked wrought iron fence, there will be a good lot of blood; but it will heal up much easier than what you are talking about.
He had the person he was with drive him to the ER, got it stitched up nicely... His hand looked kinda puffy and pink around the area; he is fine now.

Are you asking what the cuts to the fingers would look like? Or what the puncture to the hand from the downward thrust would look like? Or both?

Fingers? Will depend upon how hard the person grabbed the blade and the sharpness of the blade. So, suppose it is verra sharp - for she carries specifically as weapon, not eating utensil. Prolly keeps that blade very sharp. So, the cuts would be clean slice, rather than jagged.

As one mentioned above, there could be flaps if there is SOME angle to the knife that causes the cut to be slanted across the fingers, rather than straight up and down.

If is up and down? There would be less "flap" "more gap." You would likely cut deeper in toward the bones, rather than "across" the flesh of the fingers to create flap (which would be less deep - typically) if the blade is up and down rather than slanted.

Up to you how you wish to do it. Neither would be lovely to have and would cause a lot of blood. Flap cuts, while needing stitches on occasion - need them less often than straighter, deeper cuts that are the up and down type. Not always - for ANY cut that is bad enough, requires stitching to close. But, you can get away with flaps healing without stitches more often than the other type

In the flap? Your cut person would be able to press flap down and create an eventual seal to skin that would maybe be a thick odd looking part once fully healed. If straight cut? The cut would show more "meat" into fingers (possibly even show bone) than a flap cut would. In all likelihood. Though not necessarily that way in all cases. The slanted cuts will be in higher derma layers and thus contain less muscle or fat as seen in the straight type cut - which would (typically) be a deeper cut. In my experience in the ER anyway. But, that is not 100% true of all cases. Just most I have seen.

If you mean the puncture part from the downward thrust? Would bleed quite a bit and would appear a puncture to a viewer. Would not typically be a "gapping" type wound that would produce a flap or anything like that. It is not likely, unless opening the wound to peer in it that one would see the fleshy insides of the wound. Which, to clean? They would see some. But, that would not necessarily have to be viewed or described in your book unless you wish it.

Good luck!

Christine

Did you say the dagger was poisoned? The guy will watch an ugly but minor cut bleed until the poison kills him. When I was 12-years-old, I fell from a tree and drove a twig into my palm at the spot you're talking about. It almost went all the way through. I could see it pushing on the skin on the back of my hand. It was about a quarter inch in diameter. I pulled it out, washed the wound, dressed it and let it heal. There's not much in that area that would cause long term damage.