Chinese doctors attach hand to man's ankle

Natalie DiBlasio | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Chinese doctors attach hand to man's ankle | NewsBreak Natalie DiBlasio hosts NewsBreak on a Chinese doctor's solution to a man's severed hand.

Chinese factory worker Xiao Wei lost his right hand in an accident at work but doctors were able to save the limb by temporarily grafting it to his ankle.

Xiao Wei's hand was cut off at the wrist in a machine accident last month. Surgeons at Changsha Hospital had to fix his arm before reattaching the hand. In order to do that, they grafted the hand to the ankle to provide a blood supply, the International Business Times reported.

The man will still need additional surgeries to restore mobility in the limb, but the hand is now successfully reattached to the arm and doctors are optimistic he will regain the full function of his hand.

Apparently, it's not that unusual. Cairian Healy of the Royal College of Surgeons in England told the BBC that the concept of saving a severed part of the body by attaching it to another part of the body to give it a blood supply is well recognized.

Using skin and cartilage from a patient's ribs, Chinese doctors grew a replacement nose on the forehead of a 22-year-old man injured in a car accident last year. Growing the nose took about 9 months.

The lead plastic surgeon, Guo Zhihui, from Xiehe Hospital, said that the patient, nicknamed Xiaolian, could lead a normal life after the transplant.

Last year, a British man who lost his nose to cancer had a replacement grown on one of his arms. His doctors said his appearance and sense of smell should be as they were before the transplant.