Surgeons to grow new fingers for girl

Stephanie Forrester was born with two fingers missing from her right hand, and later had to have a third amputated. Now doctors aim to transform the child's stumps into useable fingers by breaking them and then encouraging them to grow in length, a technique more commonly used on legs, said a report in The Daily Telegraph.

Stephanie's mother, Gaynor Maxwell, of Merseyside, said: "She does have a normal little finger and thumb, but she still finds it hard to pick up anything small. She gets really embarrassed about her hand, and hides it under her sleeve." Stewart Watson, a plastic surgeon at Withington Hospital, Manchester, will perform the operation with the help of John Stillwell, a specialist in orthopaedics. Maxwell said: "We hope she will be able to grip things much more easily by the time she starts classes in September."

(la/dpa)