8 July 2009
Plastic surgeon replants finger on his youngest ever patient
A plastic surgeon from the St Andrew’s Centre for Plastic Surgery in Chelmsford has replanted a finger on his youngest ever patient, at just over two years old.
Three months ago two year old Ned Baldwin from Eastbourne went over to his Dad’s toolbox and got hold of a pipe cutter that sliced his index finger off, just above the knuckle.
Ned's dad, Ian, said:” It was Saturday lunchtime and I was doing some work in the house when the accident happened. I couldn’t believe it. Ned was screaming and his finger was lying on the floor. We called 999 straight away. They told us how to preserve the finger and told us to rush Ned to our local hospital.””
As this was a very specialist procedure on such a young child staff at the local hospital referred the case to the specialist team at the St Andrew’s. Later that day Ned was transferred to the specialist Hand Surgery unit in Chelmsford for the operation to replant the finger to take place.
After careful consideration, Consultant Plastic and Hand Surgeon Mr Manu Sood, decided to go ahead with the operation on Ned.
Mr Sood said:” Ned is the youngest patient I have ever performed replant surgery on. It is surgically and technically a very difficult operation. Firstly, the child has to be under general anaesthetic for about four to five hours which has to be administered by a specialist paediatric anaesthetist. Secondly, because the veins and arteries in such a young child are less than 0.8mm in size we had to use 40 times magnification to perform the operation. The suture that was used to reattach the finger was finer than a human hair.”
But that was three months ago and Ned’s replanted finger has healed well and he was back at Broomfield Hospital last week to have the wire removed.
Mr Sood added:” I am very pleased with the way Ned’s finger has healed since the index finger is the second most important digit after the thumb. During the operation I also repaired the nerves to the finger so he should end up with good sensation and have good movement. It should also grow to become normal size as we have maintained the growth plate in the finger. In such a young child the brain is also more amenable to changes so it can make a connection with the replanted part and restore sensation. In a child over ten this would be much less likely to happen.”
Ned’s dad says he is really pleased with the treatment that Ned received from Mr Sood and the team at St Andrews and can’t thank them enough. “Mr Sood and the team of surgeons have been fantastic and the care he received from the St Andrew’s team can’t be faulted. Ned has taken all of this in his stride. As it was his right index finger that was amputated he soon learnt to use his left hand but now it has been replanted he is back to being right handed again.”
Ned will still need to return to Chelmsford for regular monitoring, but in the meantime he has returned home to East Sussex with his mum, dad and brother Gus who is eight and sister Bibi who is four.
ENDS
Media contact : Jo Triggs tel: (01245) 514235 | Mobile : 0790 005 4948
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