Dave in Fairfax wrote:
Mike Marlow wrote:
Hmmmmm... never heard of that. Not suggesting it's wrong, but in
all of my emergency medical training we had always been told not to
use ice directly - no mention of salt.

Absolutely correct. Packing it in ice is VERY bad, just as it
would be if the finger was still attached. Putting it in water,
sal****er is better, keeps the tissues from drying out, icing the
water keeps the tissues from decomposing and decreases the O2
requirements. Salt alone is bad, ice alone is bad, cold
sal****er, and remember the OP said to make it basically a normal
saline solution (not his exact words), is good.

Dave in Fairfax

And normal saline is a teaspoon of salt per quart of water.

Josie