I did not post pictures initially because they would have just showed dried blood on the end of my finger and, for the first two weeks, stitches hanging out of it. But I had my final visit to the hand surgeon, 4 weeks after the accident. My finger is mostly healed, the stitches came out at 2 weeks and the split came off and he directed me to flex it - asked if I needed physical therapy (I declined). It hurt for a week but doesn't now.
As you have read, I don't agree with the way SawStop markets their saw basically pretending you can't get seriously hurt using it. I think my finger getting broken and needing six stitches disproves that but I guess we define a serious injury differently. But my guess is that I would have lost the end of my finger if I had not been using a SawStop. I asked the surgeon this morning and he agreed that would be his expectation as well. The nurses indicate they see fairly frequent table saw injuries.
I don't know what my total bill will be but if I've covered most of it already as I hope, it will be about $750. I have a high deductable plan so that is most of the expense but after the discount they give the insurance. I also don't know what it would be if I had lost the end of the finger but I tend to think it would have been much greater than this, perhaps enough to pay for the saw. But I really do not know.
I think the truth about SawStops is the greatly reduce the severity of injuries. They do not prevent what I would call serious injuries. They may not prevent all amputations but I think mine did in this case. Working safely is the only thing that prevents injuries. But if you mess up as I did, it helps to have a SawStop.
Sorry for the quality of the pictures. What the first one shows is the side of the finger where the main cut was. That scab came off about a week ago and it has been filling in. The second photo shows the remaining scab, where the nail ends. That was the last area to scab over and will be the last scab to come off.
I touch typed this, the finger doesn't feel exactly normal but it works nearly as well as before. I think I will get back to prior levels of sensitivity.