Doctors at Safdarjung hospital performed a 'toe hand transfer' surgery on Virendra Singh, 10, which will enable him to write.

For about two years, Virendra Singh, 10, could barely use his arms as both his hands were amputated after he suffered burn injuries from an immersion rod while taking a bath.

But a rare and complex toe-to-hand transfer surgery at the central government's Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi has restored the functions of his right hand.

In this procedure, a thumb and a finger were reconstructed using his toes that were attached to his hand with the restoration of blood circulation in it.

Virendra, a resident of south Delhi's Chhattarpur area, was a chirpy child before the mishap.

The incident took place when he was getting ready for a family get-together after returning from school. His whole body suffered burns and the hands got cut off, resulting in gangrene below the wrist.

'LIFE BECAME MISERABLE'

"My son is very active in studies. He was in class 1 when he suffered the trauma," Birendar Singh, Virendra's father, told Mail Today.

"His life became so miserable that he was unable to do anything."

Singh kept running from one hospital to another. His son's keenness to study and hold a pen was not letting him sleep at night.

"I wanted that somehow my child should be able to hold a pen and write. I brought him to Safdarjung Hospital around seven months ago and doctors planned to reconstruct his fingers from his toes," said the father adding that his son would soon be able to write.

Virendra is now in class 3 at a school in south Delhi. His father has removed all types of electrical equipment from his house which can cause mishaps.

(Prof) Dr R P Narayan, head of the burns and plastic surgery unit at Safdarjung Hospital, told Mail Today, "The patient was in follow-up for at least seven to eight months and also on physiotherapy. Before conducting this highly complex surgery, we studied his medical conditions very thoroughly."

"Virendra suffered burns on his chest and abdomen as well. His hands were amputated. Only his right hand had a little palm on it which two toes were transplanted on," the doctor said.

The department is in the process of bringing a hand transplant programme to the institution as a large number of patients lose their hands because of electric burns or accidents.

COMPLEX PROCEDURE

Chief operating surgeon Dr Rakesh Kain said, "This procedure required a lot of monitoring and specialised anaesthesia to keep microvascular blood flow for the survival of the toes transplanted on to the hand."

"It was a very complex surgery and its failure could have resulted in trauma to the patient. The child will now use his fingers to do a lot of his routine work," Dr Kain added.

According to doctors, Virendra will not face any problems in walking. The surgery took 10 hours with fixing of bones to restoration of blood circulation.

Surgeons say only one or two procedures have been conducted in southern India.