In an astonishing display of medical prowess that has fascinated people around the world, surgeons in Changsha, China, have achieved a sensational feat by temporarily grafting a man’s severed hand onto his ankle. This dramatic procedure was necessary after a severe accident left the man’s hand completely detached and in peril of being permanently damaged.
Following an unfortunate incident with heavy machinery at work, 27-year-old Xiao Wei found himself in urgent need of medical attention, prompting his admission to a hospital in Hunan Province, China. The severity of Xiao Wei’s situation was compounded by the fact that his hand had been separated from his body for hours, complicating the potential for a direct reattachment to his arm.</new paragraph>
The innovative solution devised by the medical team involved attaching Xiao Wei’s hand to his ankle. This temporary measure aimed to preserve the hand’s tissues by ensuring a continuous blood flow, thereby buying time for the patient’s stabilization and further surgical intervention.
Despite the challenges, there was a strong belief among the medical team in Xiao Wei’s recovery prospects. “His injury was severe. Besides ripping injuries, his arm was also flattened. We had to clear and treat his injuries before taking on the hand reattachment surgery,” explained the doctors, as reported by the BBC.
The intricate surgery required painstaking efforts to connect the hand’s arteries, veins, and tendons to those in the ankle, a crucial step in keeping the hand viable for eventual reattachment to its original position on the arm.
Experts in the field noted the rarity and complexity of such procedures but acknowledged their importance in situations where immediate reattachment is not an option. 
This method of keeping injured tissues alive by grafting them to other body parts is a well-established, albeit rare, practice. Mr Cairian Healy of the Royal College of Surgeons in England shed light on the procedure to the BBC, saying, “The Chinese are pretty experienced in microsurgery. And the concept of saving a severed part of the body by attaching it to another part of the body to give it a blood supply is well recognized.”
He added that the complexity of these surgeries means they are not without risk and require a highly skilled surgeon, possibly needing between eight and 15 hours to reattach a hand successfully.
As Xiao Wei continues his recovery under meticulous medical supervision, the focus remains on the upcoming reattachment of his hand to his arm, slated to occur about a month after the initial groundbreaking surgery.