The girl's jacket sleeve got caught in the wheel, and her arm was torn off.

On December 28th, the Ho Chi Minh City Orthopedic and Trauma Hospital announced that it had recently admitted a 5-year-old girl, LPO, from Tra Vinh province, whose arm was severed in a motorcycle accident.

According to the medical history, At 10:30 AM on December 19th, a young girl was riding on the back of a motorbike driven by her mother in Tra Vinh. She was wearing a jacket, but one sleeve was tucked into her arm, while the other was left hanging down. During the ride, the loose sleeve got caught in the motorbike, causing her to fall and resulting in the complete amputation of her right arm.

Tay áo khoác cuốn vào bánh xe, bé gái bị kéo đứt lìa cánh tay- Ảnh 1. — The little girl was taken to the hospital with part of her arm severed.

The child was immediately taken to Tra Vinh Hospital for first aid, then transferred to Cho Ray Hospital and Children's Hospital 1. Shortly after, Children's Hospital 1 contacted and transferred the girl to the Orthopedic and Trauma Hospital at 3 PM on December 19th, 5 hours after the accident.

Upon admission, the child was conscious but slightly pale, with a twisted, severed wound in the lower third of the right arm, multiple oblique contusions of soft tissue extending to the upper middle third; and fractures of both forearm bones.

X-ray results and diagnosis confirmed that the girl had fractured both bones of her right forearm, with a complete severance of the lower middle third of her right upper arm. In addition, she had a wound on the dorsal aspect of her right forearm.

Two operating rooms set up simultaneously, a race against time to save the child's arm.

To save the little girl's arm, the hospital set up two operating rooms simultaneously to perform surgery to save her arm.

In operating room 1, the doctors cleaned the severed arm. They then fixed the two fractured forearm bones using intramedullary nailing under fluoroscopy.

Meanwhile, In operating room 2, the doctors cleaned the wound on the severed arm, removed damaged tissue, marked the brachial artery, located and marked the two major veins, marked the radial nerve, ulnar nerve, and median nerve, and harvested the vein for grafting.

The severed arm was then immediately transferred to operating room 1 for microsurgical reattachment. The doctors quickly shortened the bone, trimmed the surface of the humerus, fixed the humerus with two intramedullary nails, and performed microsurgical suturing of the brachial artery, vein, radial, ulnar, and median nerves, sutured the tendons and muscles, and decompressed the compartment…

Currently, 8 days after the microsurgical reattachment of the baby's arm, the skin is warm and pink, and the peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) in the right arm is 100%. The fingers are warm and pink, with no blisters or signs of infection, and the baby is in good spirits and smiling.

According to Dr. Mai Trong Tuong, Head of the Department of Microsurgery and Reconstructive Surgery at the Orthopedic Trauma Hospital, this was a complex case of right arm amputation in a 5-year-old child. The twisting and tearing mechanism resulted in extensive soft tissue damage, causing the loss of blood vessels in the arm, along with fractures of both bones in the right forearm. The accident occurred on a road, resulting in significant dirt and sand adhering to the wound, increasing the risk of infection .

According to Dr. Vo Hoa Khanh, Head of Quality Management Department at the Orthopedic Trauma Hospital, the case of a 5-year-old child having their arm completely severed is very rare, and a 5-year-old having both their arm severed and their forearm fractured is even rarer. The cause of this accident is also very unusual.

The critical window for saving a severed arm is approximately 6 hours, while the transfer to the Orthopedic Trauma Hospital took nearly 5 hours. The on-call team raced against time to save the child's arm. After 8 days of monitoring, the arm has fully recovered, with no signs of infection or toxicity.

Doctor Khanh advises parents It's important to note that when transporting young children on motorbikes, safety must be paramount, and they should be dressed appropriately to avoid their clothes getting caught in the spokes, which is extremely dangerous.

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