Human finger found in fish
A human finger found inside a fish in Idaho has been traced to a wakeboarder who lost four fingers in an accident in July.
File photo. (SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)
8:47AM BST 26 Sep 2012
Fisherman Nolan Calvin found the finger while he was cleaning the trout he caught on September 11. He put it on ice and called the sheriff's office in Bonner County, Idaho.
Detectives were able to get a fingerprint off the severed digit, according to the Spokesman-Review newspaper. They matched it to a fingerprint card for Hans Galassi, 31, and called him on Tuesday morning.
Investigators learned that Mr Galassi lost four fingers from his left hand in a June 21 accident on the same lake where the fish was caught. The three other fingers have not been recovered.
"The sheriff called me and told me he had a strange story to tell me," Mr Galassi said Tuesday. "He said that a fisherman was out on Priest Lake, and I pretty much knew exactly what he was going to say at that point."
"I was like: Let me guess, they found my fingers in a fish."
The fish was caught about 8 miles away from where Mr Galassi lost his fingers, the sheriff's office said.
Mr Galassi was on a camping trip at the scenic lake when he decided to wakeboard. He told the newspaper his hand got caught in a loop created by slack in the line and he was unable pull it out before the line tightened.
When he finally broke free, he did not feel much pain. But then he looked at his hand.
"I pulled my hand out of the water and it had pretty much lopped off all four fingers," he said. "It was a lot of flesh and bone, not a lot of blood."
He was taken by helicopter to a Spokane hospital.
Mr Galassi has been undergoing therapy twice a week for his injured hand. He still has half of his index and pointer fingers on that hand.
"I can still grip things and grab and hold the steering wheel with it," Galassi said.
The sheriff;s office offered to return the finger, but Mr Galassi declined.
Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Gary Johnston said the agency will keep the digit for a few weeks in case he changes his mind.
Source: AP
