Man finds finger in frozen custard

[Brundlefly]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/02/cus....ap/index.html

This one is for real - unlike the recent story about the woman at Wendys and her chili..

Wilmington television station WWAY reported that Stowers found the finger in frozen custard he purchased Sunday night.

Stowers, who did not immediately return calls Monday from The Associated Press, told the station: "I thought it was candy because they put candy in your ice cream ... to make it a treat. So I said, 'OK, well, I'll just put it in my mouth and get the ice cream off of it and see what it is.'"

Stowers said he spit the object out, but still couldn't identify it. So he went to his kitchen, rinsed it off with water -- and "just started screaming."

[DeathByTheSword]

where is that damn puke smilie?

[reds4ever]

I luuuurve cold custard

[Mercator]

finger-licking good!

[Brundlefly]

Thought you might like an update

WILMINGTON, North Carolina (AP) -- The man who found a severed fingertip in a pint of frozen custard has made a belated offer to return the digit, but it's too late to reattach it.

The piece of index finger was found earlier this month by Clarence Stowers in the dessert he purchased from Kohl's Frozen Custard in the coastal town of Wilmington.

Stowers had refused to give it to the shop's owner or a doctor who was treating 23-year-old Brandon Fizer, who accidentally stuck his hand in a mixing machine and had his finger lopped off at the first knuckle.

Stowers put the finger in his freezer, taking it out occasionally to show to television cameras.

Several days after the May 1 incident, Stowers changed his mind and "offered to give the finger back if it can be reattached," said his attorney, Lee Andrews.

But medical experts say reattaching a finger generally must be done within hours.

Stowers has not heard back from Fizer, Andrews said Wednesday.

[Brundlefly]

Why wouldnt he give the finger back immediately so that employee could get it sewn back on?

I'll bet he was advised by his attorney to keep it if he wanted to file a lawsuit.

[chequita guevara]

If I was the employee, I'd sue Stowers.

[DeathByTheSword]

if i was the employee, i wouldn't be so dumb to put my hand in a mixing machine that is MIXING

EDIT: placed a n't after would

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DeathByTheSword
if i was the employee, i wouldn't be so dumb to put my hand in a mixing machine that is MIXING

Yes, well I understand you are perfect and have never injured yourself at work or while cooking, but the rest of us can sometimes make mistakes, especially when we are younger and less experienced.

[Tattila the Hun]

I think they mentioned somewhere, that that exact same machine has had similar thing happen earlier.

[Brundlefly]

This explains a few things. This was dated May 6..


RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- To a dessert shop customer, the severed fingertip found in a pint of frozen custard could be worth big dollars in a potential lawsuit. To the shop worker who lost it, the value is far more than monetary.

But Clarence Stowers still has the digit, refusing to return the evidence so it could be reattached. And now it's too late for doctors to do anything for 23-year-old Brandon Fizer.

"I'm not saying who has it, but somebody has it," Stowers said this week in a telephone interview, refusing to let on where the fingertip is now.

Soon after Stowers found the finger in a mouthful of chocolate soft-serve he bought Sunday at Kohl's Frozen Custard in Wilmington, he put it in his freezer at home, taking it out only occasionally to show to television cameras.

He refused to give it to the shop's owner, and refused to give it to a doctor who was treating Fizer, who accidentally stuck his hand in a mixing machine and had his right index finger lopped off at the first knuckle.

Medical experts say an attempt to reattach a severed finger can generally be made within six hours.

But according to the shop's management, Stowers wouldn't give it back when he was in the store 30 minutes after the accident.

"The general manager attempted to retrieve it and rush it to the hospital," reads a statement posted Thursday on Kohl's Web site. "Unfortunately, the customer refused to give it to her and declared that he would be calling the TV stations and an attorney as he exited the store."

Officials at Cape Fear Hospital said their efforts to retrieve the finger also failed.

Dr. James Larson, director of emergency medicine for UNC Hospitals, who was not involved in the case, said once Stowers took the finger home and froze it, it was too late to even try for reattachment.

"You can't freeze it. It kills the cells," Larson said.

The doctor said the best way to preserve a severed limb is to wrap it in saline-soaked gauze, place it in a plastic bag and store that in ice water.

Stowers' attorney, Lee Andrews of Greensboro, wouldn't say if a lawsuit against Kohl's is planned, saying he needed "to get some more facts."

But Andrews said his client is concerned about possible disease in the fingertip and kept it because he wanted someone to test it for "all the diseases that are out here now."

"He's upset to the point that he's been debilitated to some degree," Andrews said. "Emotionally, it's been very upsetting to him."

Even if Stowers decides to sue, an expert in medical law said the fingertip could easily have been returned while preserving the evidence.

"The man who lost the finger has the superior claim," said Paul Lombardo, who teaches at the University of Virginia's law school. "It's his finger and he might be able to use it."

Lombardo said Stowers could have photographed the fingertip, taken a bit of flesh for DNA analysis or gotten an affidavit from the surgeon who would have reattached the digit.

"There is nothing that would prevent preserving the chain of evidence," Lombardo said.

Fizer is dealing with his loss in private. The Carolina Beach resident's mother, Sheri Fizer, said the family had been instructed by an attorney not to talk about the case.

Public opinion seemed to be running against Stowers.

"It's a mystery how that customer can live with himself after he refused to return the finger so that doctors might try to reattach it," said an editorial Thursday by the Star-News of Wilmington.

"Unless he offers a better explanation for that decision, people will assume that customer Clarence Stowers cared less about another person's loss of a body part than about his chance to squeeze some bucks out of the custard stand."

The case came not long after a Las Vegas woman made headlines with a claim that she found a finger tip in a bowl of chili at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, Calif. Investigators have called her claim a hoax and charged her in connection with millions of dollars in losses to Wendy's in northern California. The woman denies it was a hoax.

For Kohl's, Sunday's fingertip amputation was the second time in less than a year that a worker lost a finger on the same frozen custard machine. The worker was found by investigators to have been negligent in the July 2004 incident, and the state Labor Department cleared the company of wrongdoing.

[DeathByTheSword]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Yes, well I understand you are perfect and have never injured yourself at work or while cooking, but the rest of us can sometimes make mistakes, especially when we are younger and less experienced.

hell yeah i am perfect...well perfect enough not to put any part of my body near fast moving blades at least

the only 2 times i really hurt myself was:

at work in a amusment park, i pushed a buggy car over my own left foot

during training i dropped a 5 kg ball (for shotput (or whatever you call it in english)) on my left foot...

hmz...maybe i have some unresolved issues with my left foot

[chequita guevara]

I think I would have called the police when he refused to return my finger. I think that would constitute grand theft or something.

[DeathByTheSword]

abduction

[Odin]

Originally posted by DeathByTheSword
abduction