Doctors Attach Man's Severed Hand to his Ankle in Hopes of Saving Body Part

When Xiao Wei, a factory worker from Changde, China, accidentally severed his right hand at the wrist and smashed his arm in a machine while working in November, doctors were not expecting to be able to save the remnants of his hand.

"I was just shocked and frozen at the spot, until co-workers unplugged the machine and retrieved my hand and took me to the hospital," Wei said, via the New York Daily News.

When taken to a local hospital in Changde, doctors recalled that there was not much hope for his hand. According to the Daily Mail, Wei had also sustained other injuries.

"His injury was severe. Besides ripping injuries, his arm was flattened," one of Wei's doctors said, via the news organization. "We had to clear and treat his injuries before taking on the hand reattachment surgery."

Doctors recommended that Wei visit a hospital in the Changsha area  that might be able to reattach his hand. Health officials were able to stitch Wei's hand to his ankle by "borrowing" blood from his leg's arteries that would keep the hand alive until they could reattach it.

However, doctors at the hospital stressed the importance of waiting for the proper preparations for surgery to take place.

"The patient might not be fit enough for surgery," said Clarian Healy of the Royal College of Surgeons, via BBC. "It can take a skilled surgeon between eight and 15 hours to reattach a hand"

It's been close to a month that Wei's been in the hospital with his hand grafted to his ankle. However, Wei hopes that he will be able to regain full control of his hand through a surgical operation and therapy.

Want to see pictures of Wei's hand attached to his ankle? Check them out, here.