August 2, 2012

Maine boy who lost hand ready for physical therapy

The Associated Press

ROCKLAND  — A 5-year-old boy who lost a hand in a freak accident is preparing to enter physical rehabilitation as doctors wait for nerve regeneration in the reattached hand, the boy's mother said.

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5-year-old Noah Keene, right, lost his hand in a freak accident involving a jump rope and car. Doctors reattached at last week during 14 hours of surgery.

Courtesy Photo

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Doctors are pleased with Noah Cassidy's progress but his swollen hand with a protruding pin remains a frightful sight, causing the boy to cry out, said Cassidy Keene of Owls Head.

"He screams in terror at his own hand. It terrifies him," she said told the Bangor Daily News, describing the process of changing the dressing each morning.

The boy had one end of a jump rope wrapped around his wrist and was dangling it out of a vehicle when it snagged on another car going in the opposite direction, taking off his hand and breaking his arm. The boy's grandmother was driving when the incident happened on June 26 in Rockland.

"My mother was broken when this happened. She's a caring, loving grandmother. You could see it in her face at the ER. She was broken. I just wrapped her in a hug and told her, 'I love you and it will be OK,'" Keene said.

Surgeons in Boston reattached his hand, but there's no prognosis yet as doctors waiting for nerve regeneration, Keen said. The boy is feeling pain in his hand, and that's viewed as good news. But it's been difficult seeing her son suffer, said Keene.

"'It's swollen but it looks good.' That's what the surgeons say. But to a 5-year-old, it looks like Frankenstein. He has a pin that sticks out," she said.

Money raised by the community means the 30-year-old Keene hasn't had to worry about returning to work while traveling to Boston for his surgeries and now caring for Noah and Noah's twin brother in their home.

"We will have to redefine normal moving forward," Keene said. "It's a huge emotional impact that's hard to get over. As a mother, part of you changes when you realize you could have lost your child."

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