Victim’s arm sewn on

Press, 30 June 1983, Page 11

Victim’s arm sewn on

NZPA-Reuter London A farm worker who carried his severed arm two kilometres to get help after an accident had it sewn back on yesterday in a 10hour operation. Surgeons at Stoke Mandeville hospital, north-west of London, were optimistic that the man, Roy Tapping, aged 25, would make a good recovery.

Mr Tapping was working on a farm near Oxford when his left arm was caught in a hay baler and torn off just below the shoulder. He staggered across fields to the farmhouse, his torn left arm under his right one. An ambulance was called and the arm packed in ice. Scientists said that special mechanisms in the human body may have helped Mr Tapping pick up his arm, remain conscious, and walk. Chemicals called endorphins, which seem to act as natural pain-killers,

were found recently in the body. “He’s a very tough fellow,” said Dr Bruce Bailey, head of the surgical team that did the surgery. A farmer, Eddie Monck, aged 54, said that he was feeding his horses when, “I saw Roy staggering across the paddock toward me. He had no clothes on apart from his boots. They had been tom off by the machine. He was literally covered in blood. I ran to call an ambulance ... we waited together for about 15 minutes. He was amazing, very brave and joked about all sorts of things.” An ambulance attendant, Theresa O’Neill, said: “He said his cricket season was now over, so I said he would have to learn to catch with one hand.”

Dr Bailey said that the operation was not remarkable. “Stitching an arm back on after all is only a matter of joining blood

vessels, nerves and bones. It’s routine surgical practice,” he said. Dr Bailey said that it was too soon to say how much use Mr Tapping would have of his arm. Doctors said that further surgery would probably be needed. The replacement of Mr Tapping’s arm shows the immense strides that have been made in microsurgery. Meanwhile, a second man is recovering in hospital after a long operation using microsurgical techniques to sew back in place his severed arm.

David Ruffell, aged 34, lost his left arm while cleaning a wood planing machine at a factory in Farnham, Surrey. Mr Ruffell was yesterday in the plastic surgery unit at Odstock hospital in Salisbury, Wiltshire, after an operation. His left arm was torn off at the elbow as he tried to clear debris from a machine.