A few weeks back my wife's cousin burnt his hand really bad. we still don't know exactly what happened, but we do know that he will probably lose all the fingertips on his right (dominant) hand and due to tendon damage will not have strength in his pinky or thumb. lots of adjusting in the future please pray for both him and his wife... now on to the wierd part. as a part of the healing process the doctors cut a slit in his abdomen and put his hand in and sewed it shut! it was originally supposed to be there for 2 weeks, but is doing so well the plan now is to have it in there for a full month . the only reason we heard was to "promote circulation" i would also assume that it's harder to get injected in there, but it's just a guess. also it is supposed to be in some sort of "pouch" anyone ever heard of this or maybe have some insight? the doc said it was a very rare procedure... i just have one more question....

who was the first person to think of this.... and then try it? seriously, did they just come up with it and say "hey mind if we put your hand in you stomach to see what happens? just have a hard time comprehending how they originally found that this would work.

 

I can't answer your question personally, since I do X-Rays and Cat Scans. BUT...my wife has been an OR nurse for almost 18 years now. I will ask her and see if she knows anything about this.

Steve

 

It was one of those internet pictures floating around quite a while ago. The cops were busting someone and were having a hard time cuffing him as he had his thumb sewn into his stomach. Or maybe it was on COPS....

 

Pretty trippy... I guess that skin will regrow faster if it's in a nice, warm, moist environment?

Sounds like one of those Mengele procedures.

 

That procedure is not all that uncommon.

 

Yup. More common that you think. Several years ago, a guy I worked with decided he could reach in and grab something out of a very large sanding machine. Needless to say, moments later his right arm was ground to almost nothing. He had his arm sewn into his belly for several months. it was nasty but it saved his arm. Left him with more than he deserved after doing something that stupid.

 

Pretty common.

A friend of mine caught his ring on something and pulled all the skin off the bone.
They opened a hole like you talked about to save the bone by keeping it moist, until they could grapht new skin on. This was 40 years ago.

 

Gawd. I'm keeping my hands in my pockets all day today to keep em safe. With gloves on.

 

COOOOOOOLLLLL!!!

SO you mean he can like grab around in there and feel stuff. AWESOMEEEEE.

okay, I am finished, carry on...

 

HappyGA, i don't know if i should feel bad for saying stuff like that, but my wife and i were talking about it. i was wondering if he stitch his hand wrong could be make himself have to pee? it's in a "pouch" but i don't know if that is hard or soft, we really have very little details.
timberman, i'm with you. i am very thankful that my burn last fall wasn't nearly this bad. i was smart enough to like about 150 sparklers at once, thinking before hand that it would burn down slowly like a normal sparkler just bigger it hit me just as the first one lit that it was not going to do that so i started to chuck them and it burned my thumb and index finger pretty bad. where i got lucky is that nothing burned into the wound. in my cousins case they said there was plastic melted all into it. since he did it i've been a lot more careful.

 

No, it's just under the skin, it does not enter the chest or abdomin wall. That would not be a good thing. Remember now, there is no skin on the bones thus no nerves, thus you can't "feel" anything.

 

Hi guys, I am an OR nurse and they don't actually put the hand inside of the abdomen. They usually are in the muscle layer and it promotes circulation. another thing they could be doing is called a flap. They take (example)-an injured part and pretty much sew it to a muscle (which is still attached and in its normal position) and allow it to stay there for a while, it "feeds off the circulation of the healthy muscle, and after a while they go back and the tissue has grown from the muscle to the injured part, they separate the injured part with the new tissue growth from the muscle. This is a very simplified version of what I think they may be doing. (No I have never seen a "pee-pee" sewn to a hand! I have seen a gunshot to a pee-pee!)