Doctors graft man’s hand to his leg for a month to keep it alive [Graphic content]

Zhou's hand was grafted to his leg to keep it 'alive'

Zhou, a factory worker had his left hand chopped off during a work related accident involving a spinning blade machine. He was rushed to the hospital where the surgical team were unable to reattach the hand to Zhou’s arm straight away as the severed nerves and tendons needed time to heal. In order to save the hand, it was grafted to his ankle for a month before reattaching it to his arm. The 10-hour surgery was carried out by Chinese surgeons at Xiangya Hospital in Changsha, China.

Zhou awaiting surgery

According to Dr. Juyu, head of microsurgery at the hospital and team leader for the operation, “Under normal temperatures, a severed finger needs to resume blood supply within 10 hours, but that time is even shorter for a separated limb. If a limb is short of blood for too long, its tissues die and it will be unsalvageable.”

The hand after the successful surgery

Zhou after the surgery

The feeling in Zhou’s finger has already returned but he will need months of rehabilitation for it to go back to normal.