Mission Viejo Accident : Mower Severs Foot; Child in Surgery

A 21-month-old boy playing on the front lawn of his family’s Mission Viejo home had his foot severed by a power lawn mower Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said. But doctors at UCI Medical Center in Orange were working late Tuesday night to reattach it.

Matthew Souza was wheeled into an operating room about 4 p.m., said Dr. Robert Bledsoe, one of three surgeons working to reattach the foot.

“We’ve been in here for 4 or 5 hours, and we’re just hooking up the arteries right now,” Bledsoe said during a momentary break. “We’ve got 4 to 6 hours to go, at least. The vessels are very, very small.

“But a kid that young heals real quickly. If we can keep the blood flowing, he’s got a good chance” to keep the foot, he said.

Bledsoe said he could not recall ever having performed limb replantation surgery on a child so young. “We may have to consult the literature on this one,” Bledsoe said.

The accident occurred about 1:40 p.m. in the 28000 block of Lorente.

“Evidently, Matthew was playing in the front yard, and his dad was mowing the lawn when Matthew tripped and fell in the path of the lawn mower,” Orange County Fire Capt. Hank Raymond said.

The lawn mower cut off 3 inches of Matthew’s foot.

Neighbors dialed 911 and dispatchers explained emergency procedures for saving the severed part of the foot and keeping the wounded area cool.

“They placed the foot in moist cloth and keep it cool by ice,” Raymond said. “That’s probably going to have a lot to do with whether they save it or not. The dispatchers and neighbors did a good job.”

An emergency medical helicopter transported Matthew to UCI Medical Center.