Atushkumar Patel’s hand, which had been disfigured in an industrial accident, was restored to an incredible extent by a team of surgeons in Essex, England. Five weeks after the horrific incident, the 37-year-old father of two has even regained feeling and movement in his formerly severed fingers.

Patel lost four fingers and a large portion of his right hand in total when a machine he was cleaning engaged automatically.

“I instantly felt pain and the machine part that had started carries parts and drops them into another part of the machine and that’s what it had done with my hand,” Patel said.

He was rushed to Broomfield Hospital, where plastic surgeon Mak Tare led a medical team through two major operations.

“I’ve never seen a case like this at the hospital but your training immediately kicks in and you know what to do,” Tare told the local Essex Chronicle.

Doctors meticulously reconnected his ligaments, tendons and nerves during the first 10-hour long procedure.

For the second surgery, doctors used blood vessels and skin from Patel’s thigh to reconstruct his hand over the course of six hours.

Tare attributes the successful surgery to the hospital’s infrastructure, which enables easy transportation of critical resources to deal with emergencies.

Patel was only hospitalized for 20 days. But he is still undergoing physical therapy, which will be a central component to his rehabilitation for the foreseeable future.

“I’m delighted with how things have progressed so far and the team really has done a miraculous job,” Tare said. “If you can only save one person’s hand in your career then it’s definitely worth it.”

Patel, who is right-handed, hopes to return to work soon because he is the sole provider for his family. He was shocked by his recovering and expressed deep gratitude to the medical team.

“I can’t believe what they’ve managed to do,” Patel said simply.