New York: Doctors attach toe in place of severed thumb

In an astonishing surgery, doctors in the US have replaced a man's thumb that was severed in an accident with his toe. Philip Colello, a hairdresser from Newington, Connecticut, lost his thumb in a terrible accident, however, he was able to regain function of that limb with the help of his foot.

Late last year, at home as he was cutting a piece of wood on a table when he cut off his thumb. "I was pushing the board through, I don't know if I slipped or what, but my hand went under the sheet of plywood. And I hit the saw blade and it went across my three fingers. It took my thumb off," Colello was quoted as saying by WFSB-TV.

"I just remember jumping out of the ambulance and running in and holding it. And telling them I cut my thumb off," he said. After seeking out specialists at two different hospitals, Colello was ultimately sent to Saint Francis Hospital With his thumb packed on ice, two surgeons tried to reattach it, but there were too many complications. It was just not going to work. A short time after that, they came to Colello with what sounded like a crazy idea. "I thought he was kidding and he said he could do it," Colello said.

Hand surgeons Dr Philip Buonocore and Dr Leo Otake told Colello they could replant his toe to his thumb. "We had to think about what our patient does with his foot, driving," Buonocore was quoted as saying by the channel. The doctors then decided to take just one joint of his big toe of his left foot and replant it to his thumb.

Two weeks ago, the doctors literally sewed together blood vessels and nerves in surgery using a microscope. "They need to be put together with microsuture sometimes, extremely small, thinner than a human hair at times, and with all the equipment that we have, to allow us to use something that small, including the microscope and the surgical instruments," Buonocore said.

"We're able to literally sew together two tubes to allow blood to pass through," he said. The nerves will regenerate so he can pinch together his fingers and thumb. "A nerve will regenerate up to a millimetre a day, whatever the distance is to be covered. It's a millimetre a day times that distance," Buonocore said.