Severed hand reattached in Kenyan hospital
A 17-year-old Kenyan boy whose hand was severed by a lawn mower was given a second chance this February, after doctors at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi reattached the hand.
Joseph Theuri’s right hand was cut off from the wrist on January 26 when he accidentally turned on the machine while cleaning at home in Kiambaa, Kiambu County, Kenya. The surgery is arguably the first to have been done in Sub-Saharan Africa after the boy was admitted to the hospital with the severed hand in a polythene bag.
The seven-hour surgery was done on the same day of the accident and the procedure included the identification of blood vessels, nerves and tendons, aligning and fixing the bones, repairing and joining the arteries and the tendons. The operation was successful and the blood flow was restored after three hours.
