A bandaged Jimmy Fallon returned to TheTonight Show Monday after a two-week absence and detailed the gruesome hand injury that left him in intensive care for 10days and almost cost him his finger.
The incident took place June 26th inFallons kitchen, where his foot caught on a braided rug I cant wait to burn it to the ground, hecracked and sent him tumbling. Fallon tried to catch his fall on the counter andwhile gathering himself, it appeared that hedbroken his finger, which now faced sideways.At the emergency room, however, he was told it was not a broken finger, but ring avulsion.
Basically what it is, Fallon explained, myring got caught on the countertop when I was going down and stuck there and pulled my finger up. Trust me, Im like, Wait, what!? I didnt even look at the thing. I go, Can you fix it? And they go, Oh, no, no. We gotta send you somewhere else.'
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Fallon ended up at theBellevue Hospital Center, where a doctor clad ina bow tie and cowboy boots performed micro-surgery on his finger for six hours. The host said that ring avulsion cases typically end with an amputated finger, but the doctor saved his by taking a vein from Fallons foot and placing it in his hand.
Fallon profusely thanked the doctors and nurses at Bellevue before detailing his tedious 10-day recovery in ICU (he wont have feeling in his hand for eight more weeks). He read books about the meaning of life (Viktor E. Frankls Mans Search for Meaning), watched the teen comedy The Duff three times (Its like the new Mean Girls, heraved) and binged TheReal Housewives of New York.
But really, I was watching TV and I was reading this meaning of life thing, and I think this is the meaning of my life, Fallon said. I belong on TV and I should be talking to people who are watching, who are either in an ICU or wherever you are, at home, or if anyones suffering at all this is my job. Im here to make you laugh.
Coincidentally, while Fallon was recovering, his sidekick Steve Higgins was bedridden with a 103-degree fever caused bylyme disease. The entire Roots crew, however, survived their vacations unscathed though Questlove did break a nail.
I should say the fall was funny, Fallon added with a grin. Im a comedian, so I have to fall funny. It was almost Jerry Lewis-y I feel bad for anyone who trips, but if it was me watching me, I would laugh.