# Could a vet reattach a severed hand? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695 "2007-11-08T19:50:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gramil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aca169/32.png) [@Gramil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gramil)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/1 "2007-11-08T19:50:08Z")
On an episode of prison break a convict forces a veteranarin to reattach his severed hand. Is this possible? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/2 "2007-11-08T19:52:10Z")
Are you asking if its possible for anyone to reattach a hand, or for a vet to be able to do so? There are many cases of doctors doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/3 "2007-11-08T20:27:37Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Are you asking if its possible for anyone to reattach a hand, or for a vet to be able to do so? There are many cases of doctors doing it. [/QUOTE] I think the OP is asking if someone with training in animal medicine would be able to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/4 "2007-11-08T20:30:17Z")
On the most basic level, could a vet figure out what bit of tissue is supposed to be attached to what? Sure. But success depends on how bad the wound is, what supplies are around, and the skill of the vet. Like in human doctors, vets can specialize in different disciplines and not everyone is going to have their suturing skills up to date. If the hand was ground up in chipper shredder, that hand probably isn’t going to survive no mater what anyone does. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/5 "2007-11-08T20:31:55Z")
If the vet were familiar with human anatomy (at least that below the elbow), why not? Of course, said vet would also have to have the right equipment to re-align and reconnect the nerves and muscles and blood vessels. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/6 "2007-11-08T20:36:33Z")
And result in a viable and usable hand? I can’t imagine it would be too likely. Yes, humans share a variety of physical characteristics with house pets such as dogs or cats, (either being warm-blooded mammals with blood, muscles, skin and bones) but I’d expect a vet’s abilities to work on a hand to end somewhere around tying off blood vessels to control bleeding and setting fractured bones. I certainly wouldn’t expect them to be up to speed on, or equipped to pull off neurological repair and the other “microsurgery” techniques involved in re-attachment surgery. Our hypothetical prison escapee would have about equal chances of a satisfactory outcome if they tried to coerce a dentist or baker to fix their hand. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/7 "2007-11-08T20:42:54Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] Our hypothetical prison escapee would have about equal chances of a satisfactory outcome if they tried to coerce a dentist or baker to fix their hand. [/QUOTE] To be fair, a human doctor without the tools and skills for neurologic microsurgery wouldn’t have great odds at attaching the hand either. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/8 "2007-11-09T00:40:47Z")
Anybody could re-attach the hand with suturing supplies. Hell, I could do it. Wait, do you want the hand to work again? Regaining sensation, movement and strength? Answer would then change to “hell, no.” That kind of operation requires incredible expertise. No way. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/9 "2007-11-09T00:50:01Z")
I could reattach the hand, too. Just pass the glue. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/10 "2007-11-09T00:55:27Z")
[QUOTE=Pullet] If the hand was ground up in chipper shredder, that hand probably isn’t going to survive no mater what anyone does. [/QUOTE] It was severed by one blow from an axe. (Later, in order to escape police, he pulled himself free from his reattached hand, which was cuffed to a radiator. Ouch.) ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/11 "2007-11-09T14:16:26Z")
Well I guess technically a fry cook at Burger King could do it, if he was a doctor in his home country or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-vet-reattach-a-severed-hand/425695/12 "2007-11-09T14:44:43Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Well I guess technically a fry cook at Burger King could do it, if he was a doctor in his home country or something like that. [/QUOTE] Gah! what did you do to my hand? Is that _bacon_ in there?