An owner of a BMW X5 has filed a lawsuit against the auto company recently, after losing his right thumb due to the vehicle’s self-closing door feature.

Godwin Boateng, 61 years of age, had his thumb severed during a day in July 2016, after he was standing near his SUV and resting his hand on the ‘driver’s door column’. The door was open, but then somehow closed on its own, literally cutting off Godwin’s thumb in the process. As per the suit, the ‘Soft Closing Automatic Door’ (SCAD) feature was the reason behind the injury.

According to the lawsuit, when the door of the front driver is about a foot ajar, the SCAD sensor activates, which thus pulled the door in a firm fashion; ultimately snapping through tendons, blood vessels, nerves, flesh, and the bone structure of Godwin’s right thumb.
Boateng apparently then carried his severed thumb to a hospital where medical staff told him that it sadly could not be reattached.

According to Boateng, when he took his thumb to the hospital, medical staff asked what had happened. He relayed that it was due to his car door. While a nurse was hopeful that the thumb could be placed back on, when a doctor looked at it, he apologized and told Godwin that the way it had be severed did not allow it to be reattached.

The Drive.com reported that Boateng’s lawyer, Avi Cohen, chimed in on the incident simply stating that there was something wrong with the door design of the X5. He even went on to call it a ‘guillotine’.

Sadly, Godwin has had to go through two surgeries and still has experiences pain in his right hand, which appears swollen to this very day. As he describes it, if feels like knives are being placed there and the pain is beyond belief. He also has issues with the simplest motor skill tasks like doing up buttons, tying laces, and even typing.

Here’s hoping that both BMW and Boateng can find some resolution around this terrible incident.