“I was pulling up the jet ski and I clipped the cradle on,” he recounted, “and then a wave came up and that finger, that thumb, was in between the cradle and the jet ski. So it was just crushed.”
As for the medic’s diagnosis, the injury was indeed very series—and potentially season-ending.
“You don’t have a fingernail. You can get staff infection from the water,” the medic told Harry. “I’m doing my best to cover it, but you have to be very mindful about using it. If your symptoms don’t subside, if you feel pain, if your movement is limited, then I suggest an X-ray in case you have any kind of fracture.”
As the evening went on, Harry continued to complain about the nearly unbearable throbbing in his finger, despite taking meds. And Harry’s crew mates were equally concerns about how his condition would affect his job.
As Deckhand Wihan Du Toit admitted in a confessional, “I’m quite worried about Harry and his thumb. He’s in pain. This is really going to affect the deck team massively.”
Though Harry tried to power through the charter, simple tasks—includig changing his clothes and carrying deck chairs—were challenging. And after a sleepless night due to the pain, he agreed to head to the mainland to get it checked out at a hospital the next day.