Posted on 09/22/2008 7:10:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
LOS GATOS, Calif. -- A South Bay girl is talking about a freak accident involving a jump rope that sliced off her hand.
Two weeks ago, 6-year-old Erica Rix was riding down Daves Avenue in Los Gatos in the back of her mother's SUV on the way back home from soccer practice. Erica was dangling a jump rope out of the window when it got tangled in the axle of the car.
SLIDESHOW: Story In Pictures
The slipknot on the jump rope was wrapped around her wrist and when the rope wrapped around the tire's axle, it tightened around her left hand and sliced it off.
"I just screamed and she stopped the car," Erica said.
Erica's mother, Allison stopped the car, unaware that her daughter had been playing with the rope out the car window.
"She was screaming and screaming so I got out of the car and out of the window that was cracked, the remaining part of her hand was and most of it was gone," Rix said. "I said, 'Where's her hand? Where's her hand?' And a lady, I think her name was Pat, said, 'It's here. I'm standing over it and there's a rope attached to it.'"
Another driver stopped and used his belt to create a tourniquet around Erica's arm. She was rushed to Stanford Hospital where a team of four surgeons spent 10 hours successfully reattaching her hand.
"There was so much blood that I was afraid to let go of her," Rix said
Erica doesn't have feeling or movement in her hand yet but doctors hope that will change with future surgeries. She will also have to undergo extensice physical therapy to help regain use of her hand.
The Rix family has been getting lots of help from strangers to help pay their enormous medical bills.
Erica has received many cards and stuffed animals. Some people have even volunteered to tutor her home while she recovers.
Asked why she was dangling the rope out of the window, Erica said, "I wanted to see it go up and down because I thought it would fly."
Ouch!
Prayers up for this child’s complete recovery.
Wow!!
What a doll! Prayers for her recovery.
Ping
One of those stories that causes combat hardened folk to grimace. Ouch. Prayers out for the kid.
Had a friend that was hauling a brand new refrigerator in box on the back of a trailer, tied up with webbing. The webbing came loose, and wrapped itself around the axle. The webbing literally crushed the refrigerator.
A really good reason for not to hang anything out of the window. Prayers for a complete and full recovery.
Darwin Kidz™
But I take issue with the headline calling it a "freak accident". No, a freak accident would be getting her hand cut off if she were jumping rope with it. This is simply a terrible tragedy.
Poor little girl. I wonder if there’s really any chance she’ll regain use of the hand - even partial use. My understanding is that nerve tissue doesn’t “reconnnect” once severed. Is this not entirely true?
Actually there are new therapies that can regrow nerves. A friend's son was attacked by a dog when he was little and had extensive nerve damage in his arm. I believe he has complete use of that arm now.
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Ouch. Poor thing. Hopefully she’s young enough that she’ll regain at least most usage of her hand.
Reminds me of that Simpsons...
Bart: D-did you lose your arm in the war?
Herman: My arm? Well let me put it this way: next time your teacher tells you to keep your arm inside the bus window, you do it!
Not entirely true. Reconnection of brain and spinal nerves is rare, but throughout most of the body they can heal up nicely.
Lots of work is being done to get the central nervous system to repair itself. I expect within a decade spinal cord injuries won't be permanent.
How sad for the little girl. Note to self about rope out the truck window...
Interesting and good to hear. I thought it was all nerves that didn’t heal, not just those of the central nervous system. Hopefully the little girl will get her hand back then.
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