Artist loses his finger while mounting the work at the Biennale, it is reattached in Padua. Then he goes to collect the Golden Lion

PADUA – Theinjury during the installation of his work at the Art Biennalewith a finger stuck on a hook, blocked by the wedding ring. The rush to hospital, first to San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice and then the transfer in record time to Padua, with the detached ring finger preserved in ice. Then the arrival in the operating room of the Paduan Plastic Surgery Unit, with surgeons and… leeches ready to go into action. AND the epilogue had a double happy ending: the finger itself was reattached perfectly, the patient won the Golden Lion and was discharged in time to go to the Biennale to collect the prestigious award.

What happened

The accident occurred on Sunday 14th, when the Maori artist Erena Arapere-Baker (Collective Mataaho), who arrived in the lagoon from New Zealand, had her ring finger “degloved”: in practice Faith kept her hand entangled in the structure she was assemblingwhile she slipped with her hand bleeding and only the tendon and skeletal structures remained of her finger.

The operation lasted 6 hours

In the department, a regional hub for hand emergencies directed by Professor Franco Bassetto, Dr. Tito Brambullo was available, who performed the reimplantation of the avulsed piece on the patient under general anesthesia using vein grafts taken from the forearm and inserted “as a bridge” in order to re-create both the arterial and venous inflow. The operation with the microscope lasted 6 hours and it is an operation that succeeds once in 2. The next morning we realized that everything had gone well, on Friday the young woman was discharged, while the following day she was in the New Zealand pavilion of the Biennale. Today she will return to her country and the Padua doctors have made contact with colleagues who from now on will follow her until her complete recovery is expected in a month.

The story

Yesterday Erena Arapere accompanied by her husband was received by the general manager of the Padua Hospital Giuseppe Dal Ben, alongside whom were the specialists who followed her and expressed enormous gratitude to the Saint’s healthcare facility.
«She and her group – observed Bassetto – had created an engineering work that recalls the Maori tradition. When she slipped backwards on a piece of cloth at the Arsenale, she tried to hang herself, but the attempt was futile and she suffered what is called ring avulsion. Fortunately the find was recovered and placed on ice. We have a service active 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for emergencies and replantations and in this case the operation went well, but this is not always the case because the avulsive mechanism often damages the endothelium of the vessels. On Friday we told her that we would discharge her and just at that moment a phone call came to her husband who was informed that she had won the Golden Lion at the Biennale. The photo of her went around the world the next day.”
«The finger, similar to that of a glove, arrived in good condition – he concluded – but the problem was the fact that a lot of blood arrived which struggled to flow because the veins collapse, but the medical leeches, as happens in these cases, they ensured that the right balance was found.”

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