The Nation - News from Nov. 27, 1987

The severed hand of a construction worker has been attached to an artery in his abdomen in an unusual attempt to keep the tissue alive until surgeons are ready to try to restore it to his arm, a hospital spokesman in Birmingham, Ala., said. Surgery has not been scheduled for Mike Thomas, 31, of Cleveland, Ala., Hank Black of University Hospital said. He said the rare procedure has been successful in one of two previous attempts by surgeons in Yugoslavia. Thomas fell 70 feet Tuesday at the construction site of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, grabbing a cable to break his fall. But the cable wrapped around his left arm, severing it about three inches above the wrist.