In rare surgery, hospital swaps man's lost thumb for a big toe

By Nicoletta Lanese - Staff Writer 14 hours ago

. . .

A cobbler lost his thumb while trimming the heel of a shoe, but thankfully, surgeons were able to replace the missing digit with one of the man's big toes.

Master cobbler David Lee lost his thumb on Jan. 9, 2019, just six weeks after moving his cobbling business to a new location.

"Straight away, I knew how bad it was, and I just worried that I wouldn't be able to fix shoes again," Lee said in a statement. "I cried my eyes out when I thought about it, as I thought I was going to lose my shop."

But after being referred to Royal Derby Hospital in Derby, England, Lee learned that his thumb could be replaced using a rare procedure called "toe-to-thumb reconstruction."

More:
https://www.livescience.com/mans-lost-thumb-replaced-with-big-toe.html