5-year-old doing well after surgery on hand

Last update: February 16, 2008 - 10:30 PM

Wyatt Krumrey, the 5-year-old from rural Hector, Minn., who stuck his right hand in a meat grinder on Tuesday, is doing well after 13 hours of surgery Friday at Hennepin County Medical Center.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Witzke said Saturday that the blood supply to Wyatt's mangled right index finger had been reestablished by using microsurgery to graft a tiny vein from his arm into his finger. Bones were fractured in that finger, and tendons and nerves had to be repaired, too.

Tendon damage in the boy's right thumb and a fractured middle finger also were repaired.

Witzke said Wyatt "has a long road ahead of him" with a lot of therapy. Kids often do well after such surgeries, he said, though its unlikely that the hand will regain perfect function.

"It depends on how the nerves regrow," he said, adding that he expected the hand will function "at a reasonable level."

MARY JANE SMETANKA