Massachusetts doctors reattach severed hand Skowhegan girl’s accident with saw happened in school carpentry class

SKOWHEGAN – Surgeons in Boston have reattached a 16-year-old girl’s hand that was accidentally cut off during a carpentry class at Skowhegan Regional Vocational Center.

Erin Ingersoll, who lives in Moscow, was cutting molding shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday when she brought the blade of a power miter saw down on her left wrist, slicing off her hand.

Ray Arbour, director of the school, said surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital reattached her hand, and that blood is flowing through it and she has movement in all fingers.

“We’re pretty excited about it here,” Arbour said. “It was a miracle we were hoping would happen, and it has happened.”

Ingersoll attends the vocational center as well as Upper Kennebec Valley Memorial High School in Bingham, where she is a junior.

After the accident, teachers and school nurses slowed the bleeding and put the severed hand on ice, Arbour said.

She was taken by ambulance to Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, and then to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she arrived about 3 p.m. Thursday.

Troy Ingersoll, the girl’s older brother, said the surgery was completed about 3:30 a.m.

“They don’t know yet whether [the hand will] be functional or not,” he said.

Arbour said 14 students in the carpentry class met Friday morning with teachers and administrators to talk about the accident.

“They admitted they were in shock [Friday],” Arbour said. “Some of them are still struggling a lot today.”

Arbour said he plans to go to Boston on Wednesday and will take letters written by Ingersoll’s classmates. The school is sending a bouquet of flowers.

Arbour said the Ingersoll family does not have health insurance.

Troy Ingersoll, a senior at Valley High, said students and teachers raised almost $2,000 on Friday to help the family, and the local food cupboard and grocery store donated a $250 gift certificate.

Ingersoll’s condition was listed as good on Saturday, a hospital spokesman said.