As Diwali gift, 10-yr-old Nepal resident gets his fingers back

For Virendra Singh, it was indeed a ‘happy’ Diwali this year after doctors at the Safdarjung Hospital performed a breakthrough surgery to give the 10-year-old his fingers back. The Nepal resident had lost his hands to electrocution two years ago. A plastic surgeon has now transferred two big toes from each of his feet to his hands.

“It was a very complex surgery and took 10 hours and a huge team to make it successful. We had a specialised anesthesia team continuously monitoring the microvascular blood flow for the survival of the toes that were transplanted on to the hand. Any failure would have led to even more trauma to the child. Routine work had become challenging for him and this Diwali gift would now help him write,” said Dr Rakesh Kain, Professor of Plastic Surgery, Safdarjung Hospital.

After the electrocution incident, in which both hands of the child were severely burnt, the doctors had to amputate one hand completely and half of the palm other hand with all the fingers. Singh had to quit studies as he was unable to write after this.

The complicated surgery involved removing two toes from each of his feet, along with the blood vessels and nerves, and reattaching them to the hands along with restoration of blood circulation.

Dr R P Narayan, Head of Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, confirmed the successful surgery and shared that he intended to bring the hand transplant programme to the institute as many people lose their hands due to electric shocks, accidents, or other burns.

Just two months ago, a 22-year-old Afghani student had his toe successfully transplanted on to his right hand after he lost the hand in a bomb attack in his country.