2023News

Hand implant is a success so far

The doctors at the Salvador Gautier Teaching Hospital in Santo Domingo have discharged 15-year old Lisandro after three weeks he was interned in the hospital where physicians struggled to save his hand.

In a fight outside his public school in San Pedro de Macoris, his hand had been cut off. He was fortunate that a fellow student had taken a first aid course and successfully saved the hand that was later restored to the victim of violence a few hours after the tragic happening.

The teenager was sent home now that he has visible movements in the finger of the left hand that was implanted.

“Lisandro completes 19 days of having suffered the amputation of his left hand. We are discharging him in stable general conditions, with satisfactory results”, said the head of Plastic Surgery of the referred center, Dr. Severo Mercedes.

So far, according to the hospital’s director, Armando José Holguín Núñez, the 15-year-old will return to the hospital for periodic checkups and rehab for several months.

The doctor said that at the moment they do not know what percentage of his hand’s movement will be recovered, but that, according to world statistics, the function of this organ after the surgery is restored in 60 to 70 %.

He detailed that the oximetry performed on the minor showed that the oxygen from the hand to the fingers is at 100%, which guarantees that if the patient complies with the doctors’ recommendations, “the results will be flattering”.

Anelsida Santana, the mother of the adolescent, said she felt satisfied because her child has reacted well so far, and she is grateful for the treatment given to him by the doctors and the hospital staff.

When asked if she was afraid of reprisals, she said that anyone in her place would also be scared because although the perpetrator, Juan Manuel Cedano (Manguito), is under arrest, she does not know how his relatives will react.

The child’s mother commented that it will depend on her son and the spirit he has to return to his daily activities as before the incident in which his hand was cut off. At the moment of leaving the hospital, the teenager did not want to speak to the press.

Dr. Holguin took advantage of the press coverage to remind all that if one is involved in a case such as this, to preserve the amputated limb, somebody should immediately wrap the part in a wet and clean piece of cloth and place it in a sealed bag, never in ice.

On Friday, 23 June 2023, the judge of the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of San Pedro de Macoris, imposed one year of coercion measure to Manguito and Victor Manuel Ortiz (Vitico), charged in the aggression against the student.

Read more in Spanish:
El Dia

28 June 2023