my dad chopped the end of his thumb off in the late 60's coal mining. the doctors sliced open his middle finger and stitched the remaining thumb to the inside of his middle finger for a couple months to keep circulation and keep from losing his thumb. I thought that was pretty outdated, but looks like they still do similar things.
One of my friends chopped his finger off when he accidentally slammed my car door on it. I picked up his finger, grabbed some ice and rushed him to the hospital. They couldn't re-attach it so he was left with a stump. On a side note, my dad chopped of part of his finger while working in the navy, he met My Mother who is a Nurse in the hospital he went too. Another odd coincidence, my brother had his finger amputated after he got in a fight and the finger never recovered.