March 28, 2005

The limbs come off, the limbs go back on?

In a change from the recent spate of Microsoft price-gouging psycho-analysis...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/03/28/australia.surgery.reut/index.html

According to the article, this kid lost both hands and one foot to a freak basketball accident. The brick wall that was supporting the backboard collapsed, and the weight and sharp edges lopped them off.

Doctor's reattached all of his limbs, and it currently looks like they work. They aren't sure about the extent of the nerve damage, but he's moving some fingers, which is a start.

And from the article (emphasis mine):
Professor Wayne Morrison, head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital, said he believed the simultaneous reattachment operation was a world first.

Just how specialized are physicians nowadays? I wasn't even aware that hand surgery was a specialty, let alone a common-enough occurance to mandate a head hand surgeon.

Oh well. Back to our regularly scheduled program of upsetting the status quo...

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