A TWO-AND-A-HALF year old boy who sliced off the index finger of his right hand in an accident at home has had the finger reattached during pioneering surgery at Broomfield Hospital.

Ned Baldwin came all the way from his home in East Sussex to have the operation at Broomfield Hospital's specialist hand surgery unit in the world-renowned St Andrew's Centre for Plastic Surgery, becoming one of the youngest patients ever to have such an operation.

The drama began when Ned went over to his dad's toolbox and got hold of a pipe-cutter that sliced his index finger off, just above the knuckle.

Ned's dad Ian said: "I couldn't believe it. Ned was screaming and his finger was lying on the floor. We called 999 straight away. They told us how to preserve the finger and rush Ned to our local hospital."

As the operation to re-attach it would be a very specialist procedure on such a young child, staff at Ned's local hospital referred him to the specialist team at Broomfield.

Later that day Ned was transferred to the centre's specialist hand surgery unit for the operation to replant the finger.

Consultant plastic and hand surgeon Mr Manu Sood said: "Ned is the youngest patient I have ever performed replant surgery on. It is surgically and technically a very difficult operation.

"Firstly, the child has to be under general anaesthetic for about four to five hours which has to be administered by a specialist paediatric anaesthetist.

"Secondly, because the veins and arteries in such a young child are less than 0.8mm in size we had to use 40 times magnification to perform the operation."

Now Ned's replanted finger has healed well and he has been back at Broomfield Hospital to have a wire removed from his hand, which was inserted during the original operation.

Mr Sood said: "I am very pleased with the way Ned's finger has healed, since the index finger is the second most important digit after the thumb.

"I also repaired the nerves to the finger so he should end up with good sensation and have good movement. It should also grow to become normal size."

Ned's dad Ian said: "Mr Sood and the team of surgeons have been fantastic and the care he received from the St Andrew's team can't be faulted.

"Ned has taken all of this in his stride. As it was his right index finger that was amputated he soon learnt to use his left hand, but now it has been replanted he is back to being right-handed again."

Ned will still need to return to Broomfield Hospital for regular check-ups, but in the meantime he is enjoying life back at home in Eastbourne where he lives with his mum, dad, brother Gus, who is eight and sister Bib, who is four.