Teen gets back hand after chaff-cutter chopped it off

 Kenyatta National Hospital CEO Lilly Koros(left) and Nurse Joyce Mukuria checks the hand of 17 year-old Joseph Thairu whose chopped-off hand has been re-implanted at Kenyatta National Hospital

For a day, a 17-year-old boy was separated from his right hand.

As Joseph Mbugua writhed in pain, thinking of a life where he would never write again, his hand was being preserved in a cool box.

Thirteen hours after losing his hand, out of which seven were spent in surgery, Joseph could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the hand back in place.

It all began on January 26. The teenager from Kiambu County was cleaning a chaff-cutter when things went awry and the electric device completely chopped off his right hand.

But today, the joy on his face is telling as he is wheeled out of a Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) ward.

“I am happy and I can be able to move a little bit already. I have a friend who does not have an arm and I was fearful that I was going to be disabled at a young age,” he said.

On the fateful day, the quick thinking young man rushed for help from a neighbour, who quickly tied the wound as they looked for the severed hand.

Delicate operation

“She found the hand and put another cloth over it and we hurried to hospital. All the while I could not believe I had lost my hand,” he said.

He was quickly referred to KNH with the hand safely wrapped in a plastic bag and put in a cool box.

He got to the hospital 10 hours after the accident and doctors at KNH took another three hours to clean and plan for the first successful surgery of this kind in the country.

Ferdinand Nangole, one of the surgeons who operated on Joseph, said they saved the hand even after 13 hours of no blood flow.

“When he got here his bones at sight of injury were exposed and we cleaned the stump and the hand. It actually took one and a half hours to identify the structures and shorten the bones,” he said.

Nangole said the operation cost Sh1.2 million but assured the teenager this would be settled by the National Hospital Insurance Fund. KNH Chief Executive Lily Koros said the delicate surgery involved 15 staff, including plastic surgeons, anaesthetists, orthopaedic surgeons and nurses.

Joseph is still on antibiotics and painkillers, but doctors said he would not need more medication after the wounds heal.