Surgeon replaces man's thumb with toe
A man whose thumb was cut off in an accident has had his toe grafted on in its place.
James Byrne was sawing through a piece of wood last December when he cut off the thumb on his left hand.
Plastic surgeon Umraz Khan attempted to reattach the thumb without success so instead tried a more unconventional approach.
He decided to transplant the 29-year-old's big toe from his left foot onto his left hand.
The surgeon thought that while losing his toe might affect him in the short term, living without a thumb would have a far greater impact.
Mr Byrne, a paver and plant operator from Bristol in the UK told the BBC: "Mr Khan re-attached my thumb but it had been badly damaged and although we tried everything, including leeches, to get the blood flowing again it didn't take.
"Mr Khan said to me 'You will have a thumb even if I have to take your toe'. I thought he was joking, but he was serious and nine months later here it is.
"The aesthetics of it don't bother me, I am just happy that it works, my work as a paver would have been destroyed without the use of my hand because I couldn't pick up a brick without a thumb but now I hope I can be back at work in a few months.
"I never thought it would work but the surgical teams and the nurses have done such a fantastic job and the care has been amazing."
Two teams of surgeons and anaesthetists worked simultaneously in the operating theatre - one team worked on his toe and the other on his hand.
The surgeon Mr Khan said: "It is quite a rare thing to do and is a very complex micro-surgical procedure which involves re-attaching the bone, nerves, arteries, tendons, ligaments and skin of the toe to the hand. James will have to learn to re-balance, without his left great toe, on to the ball of the foot but he will be able to walk and jog normally."
