Marathon operation 'saves' hand
When Otahuhu metal worker Dewan Chand left home for work about a month ago, little did he know that a sudden quirk of fate would leave him wiith a shorter right hand by the end of the day.
The 57-year-old former Fiji man’s hand was almost amputated at the wrist after it got crushed in a powerful machine at the East Tamaki factory where he worked.
And Mr Chand has only praise for surgeons at Middlemore Hospital who performed a marathon 14-and-a-half hour operation to save his hand. It is only the second such operation to have been performed in New Zealand to reattach a hand so badly damaged.
A second operation last Tuesday saw his thumb removed and replaced with the index finger, which was rotated 180 degrees.
In total, Mr Chand lost almost 12 bones, and numerous tendons, blood vessels and nerves were severed.
Mr Chand, who hails from Taveuni, in northern Fiji, said November 8 for him started off as a normal day as he prepared to go to his 6am shift.
“Every day starts with pooja for me and that day was no different,” Mr Chand told the Indian Weekender this week.
“I still don’t know how it happened,” said Mr Chand from his hospital bed.
“I was operating a 60-tonne folding press machine where you press the pedal with the leg.”
His hand was inside the machine when the press came down and crushed his hand, all but cutting it off.
“I screamed and screamed as my hand was left dangling and I tried to hold it together with my other hand,” said Mr Chand.
“All my workmates came running and tried to stem the flow of blood and everyone tried to anything to help.
“And the ambulance then arrived and I was rushed to Middlemore.”
The surgery team, led by plastic and reconstructive surgeon Stanley Loo, orthopaedic hand surgeon Wolfgang Heiss-Dunlop, worked in shifts to reattach Mr Chand’s hand in an overnight operation.
The injury crushed the cluster of bones in the wrist, the bone in the base of the thumb, half of the next thumb bone, half of the bone in the base of the index finger, and fractured both of the forearm bones.
The bones in the base of his middle and ring fingers have been permanently fixed by two metal plates and screws to the larger forearm bone, the radius; the resulting hand, which can no longer flex at the wrist, is shortened because of the bone loss.
Doctors said the reattached hand now had a good chance of survival, although it would never be normal.
When the Indian Weekender visited Mr Chand in hospital after his second operation, he was gushing in his praise for the outstanding efforts made by the surgical team to save his hand.
“I just cannot thank them enough; thanks to their efforts I still have my hand although it is shorter.
“I would also like to thank everyone who helped me – my workmates and bosses – everyone’s just been wonderful.”
Mr Chand, who migrated from Fiji four years ago, is expected to spend more time in hospital undergoing physiotherapy and other recovery procedures.
When Otahuhu metal worker Dewan Chand left home for work about a month ago, little did he know that a sudden quirk of fate would leave him wiith a shorter right hand by the end of the day.
The 57-year-old former Fiji man’s hand was almost amputated at the wrist after it got crushed in a powerful...
When Otahuhu metal worker Dewan Chand left home for work about a month ago, little did he know that a sudden quirk of fate would leave him wiith a shorter right hand by the end of the day.
The 57-year-old former Fiji man’s hand was almost amputated at the wrist after it got crushed in a powerful machine at the East Tamaki factory where he worked.
And Mr Chand has only praise for surgeons at Middlemore Hospital who performed a marathon 14-and-a-half hour operation to save his hand. It is only the second such operation to have been performed in New Zealand to reattach a hand so badly damaged.
A second operation last Tuesday saw his thumb removed and replaced with the index finger, which was rotated 180 degrees.
In total, Mr Chand lost almost 12 bones, and numerous tendons, blood vessels and nerves were severed.
Mr Chand, who hails from Taveuni, in northern Fiji, said November 8 for him started off as a normal day as he prepared to go to his 6am shift.
“Every day starts with pooja for me and that day was no different,” Mr Chand told the Indian Weekender this week.
“I still don’t know how it happened,” said Mr Chand from his hospital bed.
“I was operating a 60-tonne folding press machine where you press the pedal with the leg.”
His hand was inside the machine when the press came down and crushed his hand, all but cutting it off.
“I screamed and screamed as my hand was left dangling and I tried to hold it together with my other hand,” said Mr Chand.
“All my workmates came running and tried to stem the flow of blood and everyone tried to anything to help.
“And the ambulance then arrived and I was rushed to Middlemore.”
The surgery team, led by plastic and reconstructive surgeon Stanley Loo, orthopaedic hand surgeon Wolfgang Heiss-Dunlop, worked in shifts to reattach Mr Chand’s hand in an overnight operation.
The injury crushed the cluster of bones in the wrist, the bone in the base of the thumb, half of the next thumb bone, half of the bone in the base of the index finger, and fractured both of the forearm bones.
The bones in the base of his middle and ring fingers have been permanently fixed by two metal plates and screws to the larger forearm bone, the radius; the resulting hand, which can no longer flex at the wrist, is shortened because of the bone loss.
Doctors said the reattached hand now had a good chance of survival, although it would never be normal.
When the Indian Weekender visited Mr Chand in hospital after his second operation, he was gushing in his praise for the outstanding efforts made by the surgical team to save his hand.
“I just cannot thank them enough; thanks to their efforts I still have my hand although it is shorter.
“I would also like to thank everyone who helped me – my workmates and bosses – everyone’s just been wonderful.”
Mr Chand, who migrated from Fiji four years ago, is expected to spend more time in hospital undergoing physiotherapy and other recovery procedures.
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