Olympic athlete amputates finger to play in 2024 Paris Games

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abcnews.go.com

An Olympic athlete has had his finger amputated after he suffered an injury just so he can play in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Just two weeks ago, Matthew Dawson, a 30-year-old hockey player from Australia, suffered a badly broken finger on his right-hand during a team training session in Perth, Australia, and, after consulting with doctors, he found out the injury would take months to recover from and that he would miss out on the opportunity to play in his third Olympic Games.

But instead of opting for a long recovery, Dawson made a decision that would shock his teammates and has already made headlines around the world. He decided to amputate his finger so that he could compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

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The hardest thing for me to understand here is that we're talking about field hockey

Field hockey is bigger in Australia and people are fanatics. People even disfigure themselves regularly in devotion to sports most of the world isn't even aware exists like netball or Australian rules football. Life is just different in AUS (especially out in Perth) and mate knows his goals.

I get that people can become passionate about anything, but for me, hockey is ice hockey. Field hockey was something we played in middle school P.E.

To you, sure. The world is a big place.

I said from the beginning it was a dissonance to me.

Field Hockey, or just Hockey as it's called, is a lot more popular than ice Hockey in (most of) Europe and possibly the rest of the world, excluding the USA and Canada.

Just like Football is extremely popular in the whole world except for North America, where they gave it a different name and then invented another game and called that Football.

The world is a big strange place sometimes.

I think it's more divided by where it gets cold. Russia, Norway, Sweden... are also big on hockey. Even in the US, it's kind of regional. The Upper Midwest and New England are crazy for hockey. In the winter, rinks pop up here and there in backyards

And ping pong is something people play in rec rooms. It's also a damn impressive Olympic sport.

Yeah that's a bad choice. Like real bad.

Edit: I keep coming back to this in my mind - thinking about this guy who will think this is a GREAT IDEA for two weeks. And then get home sans a finger.

Not even to mention the possible outcomes of the games. Anything could happen. Their team could be out in the first round (maybe because everyone didn't have all their fingers at it hurt their play more than they expected!). There was also a fire on the trains earlier today in an arson attempt. I hate to think about it, but the Olympics have had bombs go off before, and what if the games are postponed for some reason. I really hope that doesn't happen, but I'm just thinking about all these possibilities that could come up to make amputation even more dumb than it is right now.

I get that competitive spirit makes you do crazy things sometimes. But I will 100% predict - no matter what this guy says in the future - that when he's 50, 60, 70...30 years + one month old he's going to have the biggest regrets. It doesn't even matter which finger - you use that finger more that you think. And there's going to be something that is now worse. Shit, I'm typing this message and I'm using ALL my fingers. I can't even imagine not having one.

I feel bad for him.

I find it somewhat shocking that the doctors agreed to amputate. You can’t force patients to make good decisions, but amputating a finger because he doesn’t want to wait for it to heal seems to go beyond what’s ethical. If he wasn’t going to be stopped from going regardless I guess you could make an argument it was harm reduction.

Or they might have been worried that he would do it himself if they said no.

That’s what I was thinking.. if the doc doesn’t do it then this pounds a bottle of whisky and has his buddies get the hedge trimmers

I would say letting a finger stop you from playing in the Olympics when you're a hockey player and individual fingers aren't all that necessary would be the sort of thing that would weigh on someone for years. Leading to clinical depression, in fact. I wouldn't blame a doctor for doing it. As you said, harm reduction.

That said, this is his third Olympics, so I don't know if that would be enough in this case.

It's a legitimate decision... It sounds like a bad one IMO (I'd try to play through the pain in a brace or I could or I'd ride the bench personally), but doctors should give you your options then help you.

You can a normal life without a finger, and it absolutely does heal more quickly. It's an option, and I'd say a doctor that doesn't present it to you when you ask about options should lose their license

Aside from the FOMO, if he had info from his doctor that the chance of regaining pain free use of the finger after the long recovery was low, then it's just a personal choice to remove it. We can't really relate to that.

I'm not sure which finger. But if it was a pinkie, I have to imagine they would more regret missing the Olympics, even if it was the third one.

even if it was the third one.

You have a third pinky?

Yeah, don't you? It's always good to have a jar of spares, just in case you want to go to the Olympics for the third time!

The pinkie is a terrible one to lose. You don't realize how important it is until you are missing one. NerdForge had a great video on creating an artificial replacement for her missing pinkie. If I had a choice, the middle finger is a better one to lose and compensate for. Better, as in there isn't a good one to lose.

Its not just that - it's the state of mind to get to the point of participating at the Olympics. Imagine investing years into something just for some irrelevant random thing to block that.

I don't really se how an athlete like that missing a finger could ever compare to the decades of regret.

Athletes that have to drop out of events they trained for years can cause them serious psychological damage (with a lot more consequences than a finger ever would). And Olympics are for most athletes once in a lifetime opportunity and goal. Its not a vacation you can just choose.

If the finger can be saved after a couple of months it’s still a bad move since the guy has a good 50 years of his life left.

This was his third Olympics, too.

I’ve learned that it’s only half a finger, so it’s just a nub now. Which I guess is a little better? Still. Bad move, potentially.

Tbh I kinda get it. The below is my immediate thoughts but perhaps there's another angle I'm not considering.

If you're a professional player at that level then the sport is your life. You've probably been training since you were a child and you've completely dedicated yourself to it. Training almost every day, not doing things that other people get to do so as not to harm your performance, which probably affects your relationships.

In any sport where physicality is concerned, you have an expiry date. You will inevitably age out. It's just a fact of life.

The Olympics is arguably the most culturally significant and important sporting event in human history so far, or at least one of them.

I can see why someone who has dedicated their life to their sport would make this decision to play in that event, even if they've already done it before, because they WILL age out of it sooner or later. And really, is one missing finger going to be that much of an impairment for the rest of his life? I'm guessing it's not a thumb so... Probably not.

I think the decision is understandable and rational. I wouldn't choose it myself, but I'm not a professional athlete who has dedicated their life to what they do.

I wonder if he can have one re-attached once he's finished? what's the longest someone has gone between an amputation and reattachment? save that thing on ice, and as soon as the last game is over, sew that sucker back on!

So an amputation heals faster? Fast enough? Must have been some injury!

Surgical amputation with a wound the size of the base of a pinky should physically heal pretty quickly, but a splintered bone break can take months and might require additional surgeries with their own recovery times.

What might take even longer is his adjustment to having nine fingers. I’d be surprised if he maintained the same grip, and he might have other proprioception issues or phantom sensations.

They said 10 days for full recovery from the amputation. A broken bone takes 6 weeks, soft tissues like ligaments and tendons can take several months to get back to 100%.