Forty-two-year old Alagu Sakthivel, a life convict in Coimbatore Central Prison, has regained use of seven fingers, eight of which were cut off by a chopping board meant for cutting paper at the facility.

After a 17-your surgery at Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore, Sakthivel was able to regain use of his fingers. “They will take up to nine months to heal. Physiotherapy is being given to the patient. He will be good as new in a year,” said Dr. S. Raja Sabapathy, plastic and micro surgeon at Ganga Hospital.

When the fingers were cut off, Sakthivel was rushed to the hospital, where a team headed by Dr. Sabapathy operated on him, just two hours after the accident. As his fingers were packed with ice, doctors had to prepare them for the surgery.

“We had to isolate veins, tendons, muscles, arteries, and nerves. This takes time. Each finger took two-and-a-half hours to fix,” said Dr. Sabapathy.

The accident happened on March 20 and the patient was discharged 25 days later. However, he had to be wheeled in for a minor post-operative surgery a couple of days ago. This correspondent was unable to reach the convict for comments.

However, Dr. Sabapathy said the convict had been saved from being “a cripple”. “He is able to do most of the usual activities like eating and taking bath by himself. We are glad that we were able to help him,” said the doctor.

Alagu Sakthivel is a murder convict who has served seven years in the prison for killing his close relative over a family feud.