South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 07 January 1961
Amputation Plea Answered
New Chapter to Be Added to Story of Tom’s Thumb
The not so “fairy” story of Conisbrough miner Tom “Thumb” Madden and his family looks like having a happy ending after all.
Tom, the 41-years-old miner with a thumb he does not want, has at last succeeded in his pleas to have his left thumb removed.
The story of the unwanted thumb opened almost three years ago, when Tom, a miner at Manvers Main Colliery, was involved in an accident underground, and had to have part of his thumb amputated.
Now three years and six operations later, during which surgeons have attempted to rebuild the thumb by skin-graft, Tom is still off work, and “fighting mad” about the whole business.
He estimates that these “experiments” with his thumb have cost him his £20 a week job as a coal cutter, a loss in income of well over £1,000, and forced him to apply for public assistance to help bring up his family of four girls.
Requests by Tom to have the thumb completely amputated to enable him to get back to work, have previously been refused.
Petition by 600
Recently 600 local residents signed a petition on Tom’s behalf, and it was sent to the local M.P. for forwarding to the Minister of Health.
Now Tom has been told that he is to have the remainder of his thumb removed by a Derby surgeon.
“I am back where I first started three years ago,” said Tom this week. “I am expecting that this time it will be a straight-forward job and I shall be back at work within a few months. Only one good thing has come out of all this. I used to like a pint of beer, but I have been unable to afford one since I have been off work. If I can do without it for nearly three years, I can carry on without it.”
Tom, who prior to his accident had hardly a day off work, has lost two stones since, through worry.
“How can you face your workmates when you have been off work three years with just a busted thumb?” he said.