Wind Advisory
from SAT 12:00 PM MST until SAT 10:00 PM MST, Western Pima County including Ajo/Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Tohono O'odham Nation including Sells, Upper Santa Cruz River and Altar Valleys including Nogales, Tucson Metro Area including Tucson/Green Valley/Marana/Vail, South Central Pinal County including Eloy/Picacho Peak State Park, Southeast Pinal County including Kearny/Mammoth/Oracle, Upper San Pedro River Valley including Sierra Vista/Benson, Eastern Cochise County below 5000 ft including Douglas/Wilcox, Upper Gila River and Aravaipa Valleys including Clifton/Safford, White Mountains of Graham and Greenlee Counties including Hannagan Meadow, Galiuro and Pinaleno Mountains including Mount Graham, Chiricahua Mountains including Chiricahua National Monument, Dragoon/Mule/Huachuca and Santa Rita Mountains including Bisbee/Canelo Hills/Madera Canyon, Santa Catalina and Rincon Mountains including Mount Lemmon/Summerhaven, Baboquivari Mountains including Kitt Peak, Kofa, Central La Paz, Aguila Valley, Southeast Yuma County, Gila River Valley, Northwest Valley, Tonopah Desert, Gila Bend, Buckeye/Avondale, Cave Creek/New River, Deer Valley, Central Phoenix, North Phoenix/Glendale, New River Mesa, Scottsdale/Paradise Valley, Rio Verde/Salt River, East Valley, Fountain Hills/East Mesa, South Mountain/Ahwatukee, Southeast Valley/Queen Creek, Superior, Northwest Pinal County, West Pinal County, Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, Tonto Basin, Mazatzal Mountains, Pinal/Superstition Mountains, Sonoran Desert Natl Monument, San Carlos, Dripping Springs, Globe/Miami, Southeast Gila County

Michigan man’s toe used to replace thumb sawed-off in woodworking accident

Aiden Adkins's new thumb (L) created from the index toe on his left foot (R)

WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW 

A Michigan man who lost a thumb in a woodworking accident found a replacement for the missing digit: his toe.

In April, Aiden Adkins was making a gift for his then-girlfriend when he noticed what he thought was a piece of wood fly across the room. But it was no wood piece, it was his left thumb.

“I realized that what I had seen fly was not anything to do with the piece of wood. It was actually my thumb,” he said, according to local news station WKRN.  “It didn’t hurt at all, not even a little bit."

Unfortunately, neither Adkins nor his family could find his missing extremity, meaning emergency room doctors were unable to reattach it. 

7c022986-aiden-adkins-3.jpg

Aiden Adkins shortly after surgery.

For months, Adkins lived without a thumb, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of a hand function. Eventually, however, Aikens — who enjoys target practice and working in taxidermy — decided he wanted to explore options for replacing his thumb.

In August, doctors at the University of Michigan hospital removed the index toe on Adkins' left foot and used it to reconstruct the thumb on his left hand.

After the successful surgery, he spent months in hand therapy to build strength in the extremity.

“His thumb does bend and straighten pretty well,” Kelly Nye, an occupational therapist at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital’s Hand Therapy Program who worked with Adkins, said. “That’s the most motion I’ve ever seen out of a toe-to-thumb transfer.” 

Get updates at FoxNews.com