In "Ain't That A Bitch" news...

From the Associated Press, June 26, 2007 10:22 a.m. PT

SEATTLE -- A Washington fisherman who cut off two fingertips to save himself from a sinking boat is recovering after a successful reattachment surgery, a spokesman for his employer said Tuesday.

Surgeons at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle told William Messenger, 51, that circulation has returned to the severed tips and they will not have to re-amputate, Washington State Labor Council spokesman David Groves said. A groggy Messenger spoke with the Labor Council by phone early Tuesday morning.

Messenger was fishing with his future son-in-law, Jarrod Todd, on the Wynoochee River in Southwest Washington on Sunday when their 16-foot drift boat slammed against a log, pinning Messenger's left index and middle fingers. The pressure of the water held the boat in place.

The boat was turned upstream at a 45-degree angle and began to fill with water, Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Rick Scott said. Todd escaped and went to a nearby home in Aberdeen for help. In the meantime, Scott said, Messenger straddled the quickly filling boat and began to worry it would sink before Todd returned.

He decided he could not wait any longer and cut off the two pinned fingertips with a pocket knife, Scott said. Minutes later Todd arrived with help, a pry bar and tools.

"Hindsight is 20-20. If he'd have known help was not that far away, he might have held off taking the steps that he did," Scott said.

One tough hombre! But only "minutes later".... That sucks.