An amputated hand has been rejoined in a challenging surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

On January 21, a 36-year-old man was working in a factory in Prahladpur Industrial Area, Badli, New Delhi. At 2 p.m. suddenly a heavy object from the machine fell on his hand and his left forearm got crushed and amputated. Patient suffered severe pain, loss of blood and went into shock. His employer being a good samaritan did not hesitate in taking the patient immediately to the hospital. Further he showed presence of mind and collected the amputated hand, well preserved in ice. By 4 p.m., two hours after the accident, the patient was in the emergency of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

According to Dr. Anubhav Gupta, Senior Consultant, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, "Though the patient reached us well within the golden time period (usually 3 to 4 hours over ice in forearm level injury), it was challenging as the forearm at the time of amputation got badly pulled and crushed. "This led to multiple level injuries to the various structures (bone, muscles, nerves and vessels), necessitating a holistic approach requiring extensive shortening and graft usage from different parts of the body."

As time was of essence we decided to take the patient immediately for surgery without waiting for COVID result which came negative later on. Due to the severity of the injury, it took us over six hours to perform the implantation of the forearm using microvascular technique. By 12 midnight the patient was wheeled out from the operation theatre. At present the patient's hand has been successfully salvaged and he hopes to have a good hand functional recovery.

Dr. Anubhav Gupta added that with the latest surgical techniques it is now possible to rejoin even the worst amputated limbs if they are brought in time and well preserved in ice. It is important to understand that the amputated part should not be in direct contact with ice. It should be kept in a clean polythene over ice.