A freak accident in the Fallon household led to thousands looking up the term “ring avulsion” on Google or the search engine of their choice, even though Jimmy Fallon and others have recommended against it.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon host returned to work for a July 13 taping and revealed what led to the ring avulsion. He tripped over a braided rug in his kitchen – a rug that he said he “can’t wait to burn” although his wife loves it – and his ring finger got caught on the edge of the counter as he fell. He admitted he did not even look at the finger, knowing something was wrong, and when he asked the doctor if he could fix it, the doctor said the comedian needed specialized surgery to repair the ring avulsion. When the comedian arrived at the hospital, he said he told doctors that he believed his finger was broken.
A ring avulsion is a far more serious injury than people might originally realize because there are injuries to the veins and tissues underneath the skin. More often than not, people who wear rings and work with machinery on a regular basis experience a ring avulsion, and many times, the accident will result in amputation of the finger. In Fallon’s case, he said the ring avulsion occurred essentially because his finger was ripped out of its socket.
Fallon was apparently not the only one who experienced a ring avulsion . Dwayne “ The Rock ” Johnson posted a video shortly after Fallon revealed what had happened due to an apparent ring avulsion that he sustained while on set with Kevin Hart for their new flick Central Intelligence . He said when the set doctor asked him if he was bleeding, he replied, “Yeah, I got time to bleed.” The video, however, was revealed to be a prank.
Meanwhile, there are many who have commented that they are now fearful of experiencing a ring avulsion and are potentially (and likely jokingly) avoiding the hazards of wearing a wedding ring in the future.
By a raise of hands: how many people are now terrified of “ring avulsion”? @jimmyfallon pic.twitter.com/XXjUnTVacJ
— Sara Buckley (@nottheworstmom) July 15, 2015
I will not Google “ring avulsion,” I will not Google “ring avulsion,” I will not…
— Sandra E. Martin (@SandraEMartin) July 15, 2015
For a while I thought about getting married, but putting myself at risk for a ring avulsion just doesn’t seem worth it to me. #stayingsingle
— Robert Luther (@Lutherboy11) July 15, 2015
The comedian went through a six hour microsurgery to save the finger and stayed in Intensive Care at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. During the surgery, a vein was pulled from his foot and inserted into the injured finger. Fallon noted during his return show that, more often than not, a ring avulsion will result in amputation, but he will keep all his fingers. It’s expected that he will have full feeling in his hand eight weeks post-surgery – an impressive result considering the seriousness of a ring avulsion.
[Photo by Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”]