SYDNEY – Surgeons who used leeches to reattach the severed hand of an Australian surfer mauled by a great white shark on Sydney’s Bondi Beach yesterday hailed the operation as a ‘minor miracle’.
Glenn Orgias, 33, almost lost his hand after being savaged by a 2.5m great white in the surf off Bondi on February 12 – the second shark attack in Sydney in as many days.Orgias was rushed to hospital with his hand hanging by a three-centimetre piece of skin, and plastic surgeon Kevin Ho said he had held little hope it could be reattached.’However… given his general health and the speed of which he was rushed into the operating theatre, and also the extent of his injuries, made it a possibility that we could reattach the hand,’ he told reporters.Using leeches, Ho said, doctors were able to restore blood flow to the injured hand, and he was hopeful Orgias would regain some of its use.’I thought the hopes for the hand were close to zero, but I have hope in time that Glenn will have a working hand,’ he said. – Nampa-AFP
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