ALOR SETAR: An elderly man lost his right thumb after it was ripped off by a rope tethered to a female calf which he was herding back to its barn in Kampung Charuk Ketiak, Mukim Pelubang, Jitra near here at about 6pm on Saturday.
Relating the incident, Shuid Ariffin, 65, said he was sheperding eight heads of cattle to the barn located about 600 metres from his home.
“Suddenly a pack of dogs came at the herd which caused the female calf I was pulling with the rope to panic and try to run away. Without my realising, the force of the tug ripped off my right thumb.
“I saw blood flowing and only then I realised my thumb was gone,” he said when met at his ward at the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital (HSB) here yesterday.
“I was alone at the time. I quickly retrieved the torn thumb and while holding it with my left hand, rode my bicycle home where a neighbour helped rush me to the hospital,” he said.
He added that the the doctors told him that they would attempt to rejoin the thumb when his condition stabilised as he suffered from high blood pressure.
Despite the ordeal, he said he would continue to look after his cattle as this “has been what I have been doing for more than 10 years.” — Bernama