Coimbatore : In a complex micro surgery performed at a city hospital, a 25-year-old Chinese Engineer got his amputated fingers reattached after 22 hours.

The Engineer had suffered amputation of his index finger and thumb, while installing a machinery at a new plant in Aurangabad in Maharastra.

Explaining about the surgery and the patient condition, Ganga Hospital, Department of Plastic Hand, Burns and Micro Surgery Chairman Dr S Raja Sabapathy said that Gau Rong, is a Chinese Engineer who came to install machinery at a new plant in Aurgangabad.

While at work on December 17 his left index finger tip and the thumb tip were totally amputated and was rushed to a local hospital from where he was sent to the Ganga hospital.

Both the fingers were put into a plastic bag and the opening was tightly sealed with a rubber band and placed inside a flask with ice cubes around the plastic bag containing the fingers, Raja Sabapathy said.

The patient along with a Chinese interpreter reached the city the next day 10 am after almost 22 hours, after travelling 1,300 kms.

The plastic surgical team led by Dr Hari Venkatramani started examining the amputated part while another team got the patient ready for surgery.

In an operation lasting three hours the doctors were able to successfully reattach the index finger. The blood vessels were only about 0.5 mm to 1 mm and each vessel required 4 to 5 sutures to complete the anastomosis.

The amputated thumb tip was very small and it was decided to reattach it without microsurgery (composite graft) and by the efforts of hospital, Rong will almost have a normal hand and he will be able to perform all the activities, he said.

On an earlier occasion at Ganga Hospital, a person whose fingers were amputated in Saudi Arabia was reattached successfully after more than 36 hours In that instance also the finger was properly preserved during the entire journey.