Stardate 20010707.2205 (On Screen): I think the worst medical issue an emergency room can face is reattachment of a severed limb. It's extremely major surgery, very challenging and very unforgiving. Usually when an operation that complex is attempted, the surgeons will spend days or even weeks preparing, doing practice runs on computers, analyzing X-rays and CAT-scans and MRI-scans, and doing the research needed to get ready. None of that is possible with a severed limb, because you've got at most six hours after the accident before the limb begins to die and maybe as little as three, and a lot of that time may have been chewed up just getting the patient and limb to the hospital. Blood flow
has to be restored as soon as possible. And so you just dive in and hope for the best. You do a quick examination, stabilize the patient, take a fast series of X-rays, and then head for the OR. Worse, it's an extremely unusual operation, so most times it's the first time that particular surgical team has attempted such an operation. There isn't any time to summon the chief surgeon; you take whoever happens to be on duty, and hope to hell they're up to the challenge. (Maybe the chief surgeon shows up part way along and takes over, if you're lucky.)
The problem is further complicated by the fact that the amputation was probably violent, and there will be substantial damage to the person and to the limb, both near the sever point and elsewhere, too. And what with likely substantial blood loss and shock, and the patient is not exactly in what you'd think of a peak condition for anesthesia. Nearly everything that could go wrong already has before you even step into the operating room.
Still, the real hero of this piece is the boy's uncle. Grabbing a shark and hauling it onto a beach is really hard. Sharks have naturally slippery skin and are streamlined in the water anyway. And the attack happened at night, so there was little light. I'll be damned if I know how he did it. (You ever tried to catch a fish with your bear hands? Let alone a really big one?)
This is the kind of event which will cause nightmares in everyone involved. (Even for the paramedics this would have been awful; can you imagine cutting a shark open to get the arm out, knowing that minutes matter?) I hope the surgery takes; everyone paid a high price for it. (discuss)
Update 20010708: Here is more coverage of the story, with what may be a photograph of the shark itself laying dead on the beach.
