A 25-year-old machine worker still has his right hand that was accidentally chopped off by a drilling machine, thanks to a team of Chinese doctors who kept the hand alive by grafting it to his ankle before they could perform a replantation surgery.
The accident happened last month, when Xie Wei, was at his work place in Changde, Hunan province of China. Carrying his detached hand in a plastic bag Wei rushed to many hospitals in the locality. However, doctors had little hope of repairing it. It took more than seven hours before Wei could find Dr Tang Juyu, a specialist in tissue and wound repair, who assured to fix the problem, CNN reported.
Through a surgery, Dr Juyu attached the hand to Wei's ankle, so that it will get enough blood to heal before going back to its usual place. After the first surgery, Wei was a little bit doubtful of the success, as he couldn't feel anything on the hand. The hand took more than one month to completely heal. Recently, Wei underwent another surgery to restore the hand to its normal position.
Now, after the ₹30, 61,169 (300,000 Chinese yuan) surgery, Wei is able to twist and move his right hand. Doctors expect another six months for the proper functioning of the nerves in the hands.
This is not the first such case Dr Tang attended. In 2004, he had helped another patient by grafting the amputated hand on to his belly.
Unusual surgical procedures have become very common these days. In a similar incident in September, a team of surgeons from a hospital in Fuzhou, China, created a new nose on forehead, after a 22-year-old man named Xiaolian damaged his nose in a car accident.
In another incident in September, a US surgeon regenerated an index finger that was chewed off by a horse.
Watch the video given below to know how the Chinese man's hand was grafted to his ankle:
