Preston Smith was sitting outside in his Washington Heights home, drinking with a friend of more than 40 years, when the two "had a couple of words" and the friend came at him with a chainsaw, according to family and police.



Smith, 55, was badly cut on his hand and rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was undergoing surgery today in hopes of saving his fingers, according to his mother Mildred Smith.



"You can't tell him that it's going to be all right," she told reporters.



Preston and the friend were in the backyard in the 1000 block of 103rd Street when they got into an argument around 2 a.m. today, police said.



"He said they were just out there," Mildred Smith said. "One, they were drinking. And he was getting ready to leave and they had a couple of words. He went and sat in his car and he (the neighbor) came out of his backyard with a chainsaw."



Asked why the neighbor attacked her son, Mildred Smith said, "He didn't say. He just said they had a couple of words."



Smith said her son and the neighbor have known each other since they were children. "They grew up together."



Police said they were still searching for the neighbor this morning.