My buddy had almost the same thing happen, but his was a $30 one from a discount store. He was slicing potatoes for a family dinner and the grip on the handle just gave out completely. Ended up with a pretty deep cut on his palm, not the thumb, and his wife had to drive him to the ER while his kids watched the potatoes turn brown. He told me the plastic piece that holds the blade had a crack from the start, he just didn't notice it until it was too late. Now he keeps a pair of cut-resistant gloves in the kitchen drawer right next to the mandoline, uses them every single time. It's a pain to wash them after, but he says it beats another trip to urgent care.

Is it just me or does everyone try the cheap fix first before the expensive one, only to learn the cheap fix was the easy part?

Have you ever tried putting that scene aside for a while and coming back to it later? I cut a whole subplot from a script once because everyone said it slowed things down, and I was mad for weeks. But after I set it aside, I realized I could reuse the best parts of it in another project where they actually fit. That way you don't lose the good writing, you just move it somewhere it works better. Sometimes the scene isn't wrong, it's just in the wrong story. Hold onto it, but don't let it drag down the whole film.