The soldier's hand had been shattered by a grenade explosion. Tendons, nerves and parts of bone up to the wrist were gone. In nine cases out of ten, amputation would have been routine. But surgeons in this case set to work to rebuild the hand.
From the soldier's abdomen, the surgeons grafted tissue to give the hand form. From his foot they got tendons (which the foot could get along without), from his thigh, slippery tissue for the tendons to slide on; from his calf, sections of nerve; from his hip, a piece of flank bone. Transplanted, these body materials in a...
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