Man grows new fingertip on stomach

Doctors in China saved a man's partially-severed finger - by attaching it to his stomach. Furniture worker Wang Yongjun, 20, cut off the end of his middle finger with an electric saw in an accident at work.

Wang, of Liaoyang, Liaoning Province, was rushed to hospital where doctors had to think fast. Dr Huang Xuesong said the muscle and skin had been cut away from the end of his finger leaving only the bone showing.



"We had to make a quick decision or he could have lost his finger. We decided to cultivate a new fingertip on his stomach," he said. Doctors operated and attached Wang's finger to his stomach in the hope that new skin and muscle would grow around it.

Dr Huang said the technique was a way of restoring blood circulation to the injured finger so that the body could repair itself. He says the surgery was a complete success and that Wang would have a brand new fingertip - separated from his stomach - within a month.