British man has fingers and thumb replaced with his toes after horrific accident with industrial food blender

A father-of-three has undergone pioneering surgery to have his fingers placed with toes after a horrific accident with an industrial food blender at work.

Jeremy Payton, was the first patient to have a hold hand replaced with toes after the accident 16-years-ago - and now wants to publicly thank his surgeon for his efforts.

Mr Payton's four fingers and half of his right hand thumb were severed in a industrial food blender and an attempt to sew two of his digits back on failed.

At the time no-one had replaced a whole hand with toes but plastic surgeon, Mark Pickford agreed to carry out the pioneering operation, reports Kent Live .

Without it Mr Payton, from Hartley, in Kent, said he would have been unable to drive or carry out basic everyday tasks like holding a pen or peeling vegetables.

The 56-year-old said: "When the accident happened I didn’t realise how serious it was until I saw my fingers were gone.

"I initially thought I’d just taken some skin off."

In fact, factory production manager Mr Payton had only a stump remaining.

Someone had forgotten to put the safety guard back on the blenders rotating blades and they had sliced through his hand, mangling his fingers in the process.

Yet today the keen golfer describes the accident as one of the best thing that happened to him.

He said: "In some ways I can say I am better off that it happened.