Hi! Today’s story is about a modern medical miracle and about how far health science has come, though the case is a very sad one.
We have come rather far in medicine. So far that we can now turn toes into fingers. What the surgery does is take the patient’s toes, put them on his or her hands and elongate them into fingers. The surgery for the baby would be free and provided by Shriners International (which is philanthropy known for helping child burn victims). Usually the second toe is taken, and occasionally the big toe, though this does not have any effect on the function of the foot. Usually only two toes can be taken from either foot without a noticeable change in function. The superficial change will not be that noticeable, it will only be noticeable if you were to count the toes. This is actually complicated surgery that involves connecting blood vessels, tendons, and bone fixation. After the surgery the new “fingers” will be watched for a couple days to check their blood flow. Thanks to this modern medical miracle this baby boy will have an opportunity to be able to use his hands.
A young, four month old baby boy is missing seven fingers. The baby was in critical condition after a the family’s ferret ate seven of the baby’s fingers. The parents are now under investigation for neglect. The parents were also were missing a $100 license, that was needed to have an exotic pet. The mother was woken up at about 2:30 am on a Monday, to the baby’s crying. The father woke up because of the mothers screams. The father killed the ferret by throwing it across the room. The parents claim to not have heard the infant crying until 2:30 am, and the baby was left with only two thumbs and part of a pinkie. This type of an attack is very unusual. Why didn’t the parents hear the babies cries earlier? What drove the ferret to eat a babies fingers? How did the ferret get to the baby? Did the parents leave the baby alone at night with the ferret? These are only some of the questions that the authorities and general public have for the parents of the infant. Though thanks to this medical development the baby will have a chance at using his hands.
This case is very unusual because ferrets are not aggressive animals. If anything, ferrets are considered very loving and social animals. The odds are that this 6 month old ferret was a victim of neglect and possibly starvation. It turns out that animal control had calls about a dog, and about the way the parents were keeping their animals.
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