Woman's severed fingers restored in 12-hour surgery

A woman who injured her hand while using an electrical fodder cutting machine had her severed fingers restored successfully in a 12-hour surgery.

Manjula, a 44-year-old resident of Bengaluru, had her thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers completely cut off. She was administered first aid at Kolar, and later referred to Hosmat Hospital for further treatment. The severed fingers were reconstructed and the broken bones fixed using surgical wires. 

Dr Thomas Chandy, Chairman and Chief Of Orthopaedics, Hosmat, said, “Dr Kannan Karuppiah Kumar (hand and micro vascular surgeon), Dr Deepu NK (plastic and micro vascular surgeon), and anaesthesiologist Dr Gautham Patel performed the surgery using a special operating microscope (which provides 20 times magnification). 

"The severed arteries, veins, nerves and tendons were reconstructed and the broken bones were fixed using surgical wires. The surgery began at 4 pm on Sunday and ended at 4 am, Monday," Dr Chandy said. 

The doctors said that the patient's timely arrival at the hospital helped in restoring her fingers. "The family had wrapped the severed fingers in gauze and stored it in an ice box," one of the doctors said. 

They said that losing four out of five fingers is rare and it is even rarer to successfully restore all of them. "Each finger is an individual microsurgical operation. The patient will, most likely, return to farming activities in two or three months."