HAIRSTYLIST WHO ALMOST LOST HIS HAND IS EVER GRATEFUL

ROBERT RUFFIN BACK AT WORK (Photo: Regina H.Boone/Detroit Free Press)

Six months after an accident in which he nearly severed his hand with a table saw, hairstylist Robert Ruffin, with a career of over thirty years is back at his salon in Detroit, USA cutting hair at top speed.

He recalls objecting to the medic’s suggestion that his hand hanging by a thread of skin from his arm be amputated by noting to him that it was not completely off. He says that was that mindset that saw him through that day.

Mr. Ruffin 48, who works together with his wife, Diane, at the Edward Nepi salon in Grosse Pointe is very grateful to many, especially the doctors at the University of Michigan who restored his hand and saved his livelihood.

And for this he celebrated this year’s Thanksgiving with renewed appreciation, grateful for things he had overlooked in the past, his hand, his work, friends and enjoying the little and big things in life, like riding his horse Chief, blow-drying hair, and building furniture out of recycled wood.

He expressed his indebtedness to the doctors at University of Michigan saying they had given him a lot to be grateful for.

Ruffin spoke of the accident which happened on May 18, a Monday afternoon. He had been saw to cut scrap wood when the sleeve of his shirt got caught in the blade of the saw and before he knew it, the saw blade caught his left arm, cutting through 80% of his tendons just above his wrist.

He said in a semi-conscious state he called out to his son Randall 20, who came right away and helped use his black leather Gucci belt to make a tourniquet to stop the blood from bleeding. He says he was lucky his son was home that day as he was trying to reregister for a math’s course which he failed. He calls his son his guardian angel now.

The ambulance arrived at Ruffin's home and transported him to a local hospital but on his wish he was airlifted to the prestigious University of Michigan hospital and wheeled into the operating room.

There after the head of the university new hand transplant program, orthopedic surgeon Kagan Ozer, led the surgical team that saved Ruffin's hand in an operation that lasted over four hours. Ozer said the surgery had to be done fast and was like constructing a house: Bones had to be put together, arteries and veins connected and same with the nerves.

Ruffin has regained the complete use of his hand as he showed while cutting a client's hair at top speed last week. He says the accident proved to be both physically and emotionally grueling stating that his biggest struggle was learning to accept the outpouring of support he had received from so many people even strangers.

He added that the good Lord heard so many people praying for him and gave me a pass noting that he was not aware that he was that well liked.