Gail Henderson knows the anguish of a hand amputation and the years of plastic surgery that follow.
Three years ago Ms Henderson, aged 52, was left with the four fingers of her right hand hanging by just their tendons after a boating accident on Lake Taupo.
Ms Henderson saidshe empathised with the plight of two women who suffered mutilating hand injuries after a sword attack on Tuesday.
She said the knowledge that they had suffered such horrific wounds at the hands of another person, rather than accidentally, must make the situation so much harder to bear.
"I just feel for those girls. Their injuries don't just go to their hands. They've obviously got a lot of other injuries, plus the emotional ones.
"They're going to have an awful lot more to deal with than I ever did."
The fingers of Ms Henderson's right hand were severed when she reached out to grab hold of a tow rope after she and her partner went to the rescue of a stranded boat on the lake.
The rope looped around her hand and then tightened suddenly, tearing off the fingers before she had a chance to free herself.
Her hand was severed from her index finger in a diagonal line to just above her wrist, leaving only the thumb intact.
The fingers were reattached during eight hours of surgery, but the operation failed because the blood would not flow again properly.
After her accident, Ms Henderson said, it took her some time to realise how long the recovery would take.
"I do remember sitting up in Waikato Hospital and telling everyone I was going to be back at work in two weeks.
"I think I was off for about five months."
About a year ago she had further surgery to transplant a piece of her big toe to give the hand some grip, and take a nerve from her foot to provide some feeling.
Despite the failure of the reattachment surgery, Ms Henderson said her recovery had eventually turned out "wonderfully well" and she had maintained a positive outlook throughout.
"It was a bit frustrating, because I was right-handed and this happened to my right hand, so I've had to become left-handed.
