Surgeons reattach 11-year-old’s arm at the shoulder

An 11-year-old boy whose arm had been severed at the shoulder was recovering at Aghia Sofia Children’s Hospital in Attica on Monday after a team of surgeons from three different Attica hospitals performed the first successful surgery to reattach a limb at shoulder height ever carried out on a child in Greece.

The boy was reported to be in a serious but stable condition.

“We noted that this is the first successful reattachment of a limb at shoulder height on a child in Greece. The patient is being treated in a stable condition in our hospital ICU,” the hospital announcement said.

An 11 doctors team

The team was put together after the hospital received a call that the patient was being airlifted from the island of Zakynthos following a complete amputation of his left arm.

Specialist surgeons were brought in from Laiko General Hospital in Athens, the KAT General Hospital while the rest of the team came from Aghia Sofia children’s hospital.

The patient arrived at the hospital on Sunday afternoon together with the severed limb, and was taken into surgery at 5 p.m. The surgery was completed successfully nine hours later.