** High Priority **
Surgeons reattach meatworker's part severed hand

Mangakino meatworker Bryan Speers says he thought he was going to die when he saw how much blood he lost following an industrial accident in Bennydale yesterday.

The 26-year-old is today recovering from a 13-hour operation in Waikato Hospital. Surgeons reattached his partially amputated left wrist in a marathon session that ended just before midnight. Mr Speers, who is left-handed, said the accident happened at Crusader Meats yesterday morning.

"I was working away going halfway through a flap and my wrist just caught the blade and then I saw my hand flapping around. "I just grabbed my hand and walked down to the office swearing my head off."

In the office, managers Mike Ramsey and Dave Wackrow taped the hand up and told him to manage his breathing.

"I really thought I was going to die when I saw all the blood," said Mr Speers, a father of two and a meat worker for five years.

The cut was to the inside of the wrist. He went by ambulance to Te Kuiti Hospital and then by Westpac Waikato Air Ambulance to Waikato Hospital.

Mr Speers, a keen rugby player, hunter and fisherman, said he was grateful to the Waikato Hospital surgeons Katerina Anesti and Sami Al Ani and the rest of the medical team. Now it's a waiting game to see how well the hand responds.

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