Keep it clean! It's easy for that to become septic. If it becomes swollen, reddened and inflamed, tender to the touch, go back to the hospital.
On fire-rescue, we responded to a single family residence, report of a lawn-mowing accident. We run with three crew on the ALS (advanced life support) ambulance. There was a FNG with us. I was giving him some 'when we get there' instructions, mainly involving what to do if it was an arterial bleed, PPE, and that we wanted to wrap the victim up ASAP, and get underway to the trauma facility. We would call while underway to the trauma facility to advise them, and it would be a short transport time, typically less than 10 minutes.
When we got there, the mower operator was sitting on the ground. One foot had gone under the deck. The sneaker was saturated with blood on the front half. I was in my PPE, and removed the sneaker, I had a thick multi trauma dressing and a couple wide rolls of Kling. When I peeled off the sock, the amputation of some of the toes was evident. I wrapped the foot with the multi trauma dressing, the Kling, and he was placed on the gurney. We got him into the transport, and I asked the FNG to grab the sneaker. "Where do you think the toes are?" I asked. He turned the sneaker upside down and shook it, and they fell onto the grass, right onto a bull ant colony anthill.
"OK, let's put those onto a sterile 4X4 bed in a kidney basin, and please wash-off the ants first." The FNG did as he was told, and he got 'baptized' successfully. He turned into a great firefighter/paramedic and a good friend, and now we're both retired. I've had FNG's come back to the station after a bad call, and quit. He proved his worth.
