Ronald A. Malt, 70; Led First Surgeons to Reattach a Human Limb

Dr. Ronald A. Malt, 70, who is best known for leading a team of surgeons in the first successful effort to reattach a human limb, died Oct. 5 in Wellesley, Mass. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

In 1962, Malt was the chief surgical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. A 12-year-old boy, Everett Knowles, was brought into the emergency room after his right arm had been ripped off as he attempted to hop a freight train. Malt’s team of 12 surgeons attached the bone with a pin and reconnected the arteries. Muscle and skin grafts were done with equal success. Malt said later that he attempted the surgery because Everett had lost so much of his arm that it would have been hard for him to use an artificial limb.

A native of Pittsburgh, Malt earned his bachelor’s degree from Washington University and his medical degree from Harvard.