TV adventurer Bear Grylls in agony after nearly severing a finger on a shard of bamboo

By James Tapper
Last updated at 10:00 PM on 09th May 2009


Intrepid TV adventurer Bear Grylls has had emergency surgery after almost severing one finger and slicing off the tip of another while filming his latest show.

The star of Channel 4’s Born Survivor cut the middle finger on his left hand to the bone on a ‘razor-sharp’ bamboo shard during a trip to the Vietnamese jungle last week.

The wound was sewn by doctors in Vietnam but Grylls, 34, was flown back to Britain, complaining of a lack of sensation in the finger.
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The adventurer, who gives wilderness survival tips and demonstrations on his shows, posted a picture of his injury and the jagged lines of the stitches on his internet blog. ‘I got it sewn up but it was a bit of a quick job to see me through,’ he said.
bear grylls

‘Hence it looks a bit ugly and ragged. The production team flew me back to the UK but what concerns me is the lack of feeling in the end of the finger now.

‘I also sliced off the tip of another finger, which bled like nobody’s business, but the raw flesh is covering up now, slowly. Dank, damp jungle conditions are bad for such injuries, trust me.

‘Anyway, hopefully the nerve damage will repair and I can get back for the next show, God willing.’

Grylls, who has been forced to postpone filming until his injuries have healed, said filming the programme was ‘quite a mission’.

‘It reinforced the huge respect I have for any soldier who had to operate in those very intense conditions, especially for those who turned up with no jungle experience – it must have been hell on earth,’ he added.

A new Channel 4 Born Survivor series, which is also broadcast around the world as Man vs Wild on the Discovery Channel, begins next weekend, with Grylls once more stranded in remote locations with a camera crew to show off his survival techniques.

Last December, Grylls and his crew had to be airlifted out of Antarctica after he broke his shoulder in a fall. The Eton-educated former SAS member had been travelling on wind-powered skis, propelled by kites.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1179896/TV-adventurer-Bear-Grylls-agony-nearly-severing-finger-shard-bamboo.html