A Henderson man is taking the city to court, claiming first responders mishandled his severed finger and robbed him of a shot at reattachment. In a negligence lawsuit filed this week, he says the amputated digit was initially recovered after an incident that left his right hand with multiple traumatic injuries, but was never properly documented or turned over to hospital staff. According to the complaint, the finger later turned up among his belongings at the hospital, by which point surgeons could no longer attempt to save it. The suit frames the missing finger as both a medical miss and a breakdown in procedure that cost him a potential salvage.
According to 8 News Now, court documents identify the plaintiff as Kyle Adams and state that the injuries occurred on June 2, 2024. The filing alleges Henderson police officers collected a severed finger at the scene and handed it to firefighters and paramedics, but that hospital staff were never told and that the police incident report was not included with the lawsuit. The station reports that the complaint seeks more than $15,000 in damages.
What the lawsuit says
The suit alleges negligence and claims there were failures in chain-of-custody and medical communication. It argues that missing documentation and a delay in notifying clinicians made reattachment medically impossible, and that those alleged lapses deprived Adams of a critical window to save the digit. The complaint positions these communication gaps as central to his case against the city.
Similar complaints in Henderson have already put a spotlight on how officers and medics handle evidence and injuries. In a separate 2023 case, a lawsuit alleged a Henderson police K-9 bit off a man's finger and that the digit was not preserved and was found days later, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That earlier case raised alarms about preserving amputated parts during multi-agency responses and underscored that prompt communication with medical teams can be decisive in replantation attempts.
City response and records request
The city has opted to stay quiet for now. Officials declined to comment, citing a policy against discussing pending litigation, and a city representative told the station that a public records request for the police incident report would take several weeks to process. Adams' attorney did not respond to requests for comment, according to 8 News Now. The lawsuit asks the court to hold the city responsible for what it describes as a lost opportunity to reattach the finger, along with the broader harm from the hand injuries.
Why timing and preservation matter
Hand surgeons note that fingers are more forgiving than larger limbs when it comes to lack of blood flow, but they also stress that success depends heavily on how the amputated part is preserved and how quickly the patient reaches a microsurgeon. Clinical guidance generally describes limits on how long a finger can go without blood at room temperature, and longer windows if the part is cooled correctly, which is why poor handling or missed communication can make replantation a nonstarter. Standard emergency references spell out these time frames and emphasize proper packaging and rapid transport as key steps for giving reattachment a real chance (Roberts and Hedges' Clinical Procedures).
The case now moves into the civil court process, where discovery, including any body-worn camera footage, incident reports and medical records, could clarify who handled the amputated finger and when hospital staff were informed. If the city contests the lawsuit, it will proceed through motions and discovery, and if the records line up with Adams' allegations, they could form the backbone of his negligence claim. For now, though, the public record is thin, and many details may stay under wraps until the city finishes processing the requested incident report.
