Joy as boy’s severed hand reattached in rare surgery
Anthony Iticha and his wife, Ms Lydia Kagotho, in jovial mood on Wednesday after their son, Benevolence Iticha, underwent a successful hand reattachment operation at Kenyatta National Hospital. Benevolence’s right hand was severed in an accident in a cowshed earlier this month.
What you need to know:
- The delicate procedure involved identification of blood vessels, nerves and tendons, aligning and fixing the bones, repairing and joining the arteries and the tendons.
- Dr Ferdinand Nang’ole who headed a multi-disciplinary team of medics during the surgery at KNH said he remains optimistic that the boy will regain full use of his hand given his age.
When Lydia Iticha heard her son, Benevolence Iticha, screaming from the cowshed, she turned back and panicked at the bloody spectacle.
She saw the seven-year-old run towards her with blood oozing from his right hand and as she drew closer, she realised that his wrist was severed.
“I held onto him tightly, removed the headscarf I had on, and wrapped it around the hand,” recounts the mother, who then made her way to Nazareth Hospital in Kiambu County.
“A neighbour who heard screams and came to help followed me with my son’s wrist in hand and I put it in a blue shopping bag,” she narrates.
Wheeling chaff-cutter
While she swung into action, her husband, Mr Anthony Iticha, was completely frozen.
Mr Iticha, who had been wheeling the chaff-cutter with his son before going to church, said he did not know what to do.
It was at Nazareth Hospital that the medics performed first aid, put the severed limb in a cool box, and sent the young boy to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in an ambulance.
Three hours after arrival at the KNH, a multi-disciplinary team of medics, headed by Dr Ferdinand Nang’ole, swung into action and began reattaching Benevolence’s hand.
Dr Benjamin Wabwire, the head of KNH’s Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, said time was not on their side because the longer the hand was detached, the lower the success rate of the surgery.
“After the severed limb reached KNH in a cool box, our team of specialists embarked on an intricate eight-hour surgical procedure that reclaimed the boy’s hand. The boy is now stable and recuperating,” he said.
The delicate procedure involved identification of blood vessels, nerves and tendons, aligning and fixing the bones, repairing and joining the arteries and the tendons.
Dr Wabwire said he remains optimistic that the boy will regain full use of his hand given his age.
Successful surgery
“Children have a smaller blood vessel and so performing such a surgery is harder than doing it on an adult. However, his age will also play a big role in recovery because children tend to heal faster,” the surgeon said.
This complex hand reattachment operation is the fifth successful surgery of its kind that KNH has performed since the first case in February 2018 when they successfully reattached the hand of a 17-year-old boy, which was severed by a chaff cutter.
Joseph Theuri’s right hand was cut off at the wrist on January 26 after the machine’s power supply went on as he was cleaning it at their home in Kiambaa.
Dr Nang’ole was also part of the team that performed the reattachment of the young man’s hand.
