Articles of Success

Excerpts from the Southwest Times Record:

FS Doctor Reattaches Arm
by Amy Sherrill
Surgery believed to be first of its kind in city.

Jerry Surratt recovers in Sparks Regional Medical Center after surgery to reattach his arm. Surratt's arm was severed by a saw.

Jerry Surratt of Conway was shot down twice in Vietnam; but he said that wasn’t nearly as traumatizing as getting his left forearm ripped off by an automated metal cutting saw last week.

Surratt has been at Sparks Regional Medical Center, since Tuesday when he was airlifted from Conway after an industrial accident. "It was a tremendous pain," Surratt said from his hospital bed Friday. "A saw just cut it off."

The man working next to Surratt -- who happens to be an emergency medical technician-- grabbed the arm and put pressure on it while another worker pulled Surratt's vehicle keys out of his pocket and drove him to the Conway hospital.
However, no one in Conway or Little Rock could or would reattach his left arm which was held together by a piece of skin and a bone.

After a lengthy search, doctors in Conway recommended Dr. James Kelly III of Fort Smith to perform the surgery.

Surratt, 62, refers to Kelly as a "miracle man." As he recounted the ordeal of searching for someone to perform the surgery, Surratt began to sob. His wife, Shirley, walked over to his bed and used a cloth to wipe away the tears. She reassured him, "It's okay." "I'm a little emotional because I was so proud that there was someone so close that could save my arm" Surratt said.

According to Sparks, the 4-hour surgery is the first reimplantation of an arm to be performed in the city....

Surgeon reattaches mill worker's hand
by Tina Taber

Larry Bunting went home Wednesday with the confidence he would someday be able to do the things he used to do, thanks to the work of Dr. James Kelly.
On Nov. 3, Kelly, a Fort Smith plastic and reconstructive surgery, hand and micro surgeon, performed the first complete hand reattachment in Fort Smith.

While in the middle of performing a cancer surgery, Kelly was asked if he would accept the surgery needed for Bunting. His acceptance turned an already long day of surgery into a surgery marathon. Kelly, who has performed many limb reattachments over the years, started the reattachment of Bunting's hand at 6:30 p.m. and finished at 2:30 a.m., only to have to return the next day for more surgery. "Because, of the degree of damage done, some blood had oozed and was applying pressure and constricting circulation to the back of the hand. I had to go back in and evacuate the blood and make sure everything was closed up so that there wouldn't be any more bleeding," Kelly explained. That procedure was only the first step in the surgeries, performed at Sparks Regional Medical Center that replaced Bunting's hand, severed by a saw in an industrial accident at a lumber mill in Morrilton, where he works.

Bunting's right hand was completely severed when lumber, he was preparing for a saw shifted, struck him in the chest and pushed him backward into the saw, he said.
Fortunately, a co-worker at the mill saw the accident occur and was able to shut off the saw before it could further injure him.

"I stood up and noticed my glove was just hanging there. I pulled it up against the stump of my arm and told him to find something to make a tourniquet with because I had cut my hand," Bunting said.

The father of two was transported immediately to the emergency room in Morrilton, where he was told they could do nothing for him, except to finish removing the hand, which was only attached by some skin at the wrist, Bunting said.
"They told me that would have to find a doctor who could do the surgery. Then they bandaged the stump, and hooked up an IV for me with some pain medication. And we waited on the helicopter," Bunting said.

Fortunately, a man that worked with Bunting had seen a story earlier this year about Kelly performing a similar reattachment surgery for a man who partially severed his arm in an industrial accident in Conway. "Within a six-week period after I did that surgery I had two or three similar surgeries from Conway and one from Searcy. I think somone this man worked with had heard about that and knew I did this type of surgery," Kelly said.

Muscles that have been severed and taken away from normal blood flow can only survive for about six hours in normal temperatures. If the limb is chilled properly to 4 degrees Celsius, that time can be increased to 12 to 18 hours. In part because Bunting's injury was handled correctly at the emergency-room in Morrilton, and the hand was packed in saline and ice, Bunting's prognosis for recovery looks very promising. Kelly predicted.

"By the time we had restored blood flow, it had been shut off for 10 to 11 hours. That is not uncommon in this type of an accident," Kelly said.

The extensive surgery performed by Kelly consisted of setting all the bones in the wrist, as well as reconnecting muscle, tissue, blood vessels and nerves in the hand.
"Recovery after a procedure like this is never 100 percent. We usually, say people will recover 50 or 60 percent normal use. But we are often pleasantly surprised by most major limb reattachments and the recovery," Kelly said, "I am optimistic that he might recover 70 percent."...