Kenyan surgeons re-attach 7 year-old’s hand

Surgeons at the Kenyatta National Hospital have successfully completed a surgery to reattach a seven-year-old boy’s hand which was chopped off completely by a chaff cutter. The boy, Benevolence, was at his father’s farm when the accident happened on October 4, 2020.

The boy was rushed immediately to Nazareth hospital where he was referred to KNH. Doctors have associated the success of the surgery, mostly, to the proper storage of the hand, and having arrived in hospital in good time. When Benevolence’s mother realized that her son’s hand had been cut off completely at the wrist, she picked it up and put it in a shopping bag. She also tied up the severed wrist with her scarf to try and contain the bleeding before rushing him to hospital.

The doctors at Nazareth Hospital were quick to refer the boy to KNH and further improved the storage of the hand by putting it in a cool box.

Photo courtesy: Capital news

Doctors usually they have little success on such cases referred to them because most of them arrive later than 10-12 hours, the period after which there’s too many dead cells for attachment to be successful. Most of these are cases from as far as the Western region from which, understandably, they rarely get to KNH in good time.

Lead surgeon, Dr. Benjamin Wabwire, confirmed that the 10-hour surgery was successful and the boy was now undergoing therapy to aid healing, and especially for the reconstruction of the damaged nerves.

The operation and hospital care charges are likely to cost not more than Ksh 400,000 and NHIF will cover the full cost.

In 2018, Doctor Wabwire performed the first successful hand reattachment at KNH aided by a team of 15 medics. The then 17-year-old patient had also severed his hand on a sharp blade while cleaning a chaff cutter.

Featured Image: The Star