Doctors Successfully Reattach Boy’s Arm Severed By Accident
A boy had his arm crushed and actually severed during an ATV accident, but his mother’s quick thinking saved him and his arm.
By DAVID on June 26, 2018
Here’s a parent’s nightmare, a boy was riding an off-road utility vehicle on their property. The teen had a wreck, which severed his arm, detaching it from his body. The boy’s mother literally had to pick the arm up and get it to the hospital.
It was a safety feature of the ATV that caused the arm to be cut off from his body though. The roll bar, designed to save your life in the event of a crash. Though, it sounds like the roll bar did save the boys life. Tyler Hughes is the 13-year-old, and at first, his friends thought he had just broken his arm. They began screaming for help, and that’s when Tyler’s mother saw what had happened. “I got to him as fast as I could and I knew this wasn’t just a broken arm. The lower part of his arm was too far away from his body,” she said.
Doctors were able to reattach Tylers arm during a 9-and-a-half hour surgery. Doctors said the arm was crushed, but “the major nerve supply to it was intact.” Dr. Matthew Goldman and his team were able to reconnect the nerves and arteries, and save the boy, despite the major blood loss. Orthopedic surgeons were also in the operating room working on reconstructing the bones that were crushed. Doctors are confident Tyler will have at least partial use of his arm in the future as the nerves start rowing back together. He is already able to grip doorknobs and has some feeling back in his arm after about 6 months already.
One of the major factors that helped save Tyler and his arm was his mother. She was able to think fast and wrap a scarf around Tylers arm to stop blood from flowing. You know how in shows and movies they always say “put pressure on it!”? It worked, and stopped blood from draining too much, and likely is the reason Tyler and his arm were saved. See some more on the story here. It’s a good lesson on what to do if you encounter some sort of major injury.
