A 24-year-old man who lost all the fingers of his right hand in an accident at the factory where he works has had them reattached surgically in a nine-hour operation.
The doctor who performed the operation said the man would have a “reasonably functional arm” after a few months of rest and physiotherapy.
He has already regained the strength to grip an object with the right hand but doctors have advised him to wait before performing any action with that hand.
Biplab Samanta, a resident of Jagadishpur in Howrah, was taken to Medica Superspecialty Hospital, off EM Bypass, on November 6 evening. The severed fingers were taken in a packet.
Akhilesh Kumar Agarwal, a senior consultant of plastic surgery at Medica, said the thumb had severed from the palm, the nail portion of the index finger was gone and the middle, ring and little fingers had severed along with a portion of the palm.
“He came to the hospital around 5pm. We decided to operate on him immediately. We could rejoin all the fingers in a 9-hour surgery that ended the next morning,” said Agarwal.
“Re-implant has to be done as fast as possible. Not just the fingers, the veins, nerves and bones were badly damaged, too. The most difficult part was putting the blood vessels back in their position. They are thinner than 1mm,” said Agarwal.
Biplab, the sole breadwinner of his family comprising his wife and a one-year-old daughter, met with the accident while working on a machine in a factory in Chinsurah on November 6.
He was discharged from the hospital on Monday.
“He was being taken to the hospital every alternate day for dressing, but had to be readmitted on Sunday because of bleeding from the injured arm,” said his elder brother Soumen Samanta.
Aviral Roy, a critical care consultant at Medica, said Biplab had to be monitored closely during recuperation.
“He will have a reasonably functional arm after some months, but it will not be like an uninjured arm,” said Agarwal.
Biplab’s family did not have to pay for the surgery and hospitalisation. The hospital raised funds from Eastern India Healthcare Foundation and MCKS Trust Fund for the treatment.
