Surgery: Look Who's on First!

• Share

A 13-year-old boy in Somerville, Mass., extended his right arm last week and shook hands with a visitor. What made the event news was that exactly one year ago, red-haired Everett Knowles Jr. had his arm completely severed when a freight train threw him against a bridge abutment. Though several similar operations have been tried since then, the reimplantation of "Red"' Knowles's arm by a team of plastic surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital is still the most successful case involving a whole limb.

Young Knowles moves his arm cautiously, and wiggles his fingers slowly. But arm and fingers are sensitive to touch, heat and cold. Though the M.G.H. surgeons admit that these are "hopeful signs," they insist that they still cannot predict how fully Ev will recover the use of the arm. He faces many more months of treatment.

Meanwhile, the former Little League pitcher has moved off the mound to practice as a first baseman. Like one-armed players, he catches the ball with his gloved left hand, then quickly drops glove and ball, picks up the ball and throws it with the same hand.