Mower victims' limbs spared

By REBECCA WALSH

Two little boys who suffered horrific leg injuries after falling under ride-on lawn mowers may have little hope of running round at the beach before Christmas but are recovering well after surgeons saved their damaged limbs.

Liam McDonnell, 4, and Matthew Boersen, 3, each faced the prospect of having part of a leg amputated after losing large amounts of skin and muscle in the accidents, which happened within weeks of each other.

Luckily for both boys, the nerves in their legs were left intact, allowing a team of surgeons at KidzFirst at Middlemore to perform an intricate operation to rebuild their legs using a muscle from their chests.

But the accidents have prompted calls for people to be careful with ride-on mowers, and the boys' parents hope the publicity will prevent more children being injured.

Julianne McDonnell said her son's right leg had been torn to "ribbons" and the bones shattered.

"I just thought his leg was gone. When the doctors said, 'We will save it', I couldn't believe it, having seen the injury in the first place."

A week ago, Mrs McDonnell was getting dinner ready as Liam and his sister, Brittany, 5, raced each other round the lawn. Next door the neighbour was mowing his lawn, which merges with the McDonnells' property at Cooks Beach in the Coromandel.

"The chap goes forwards then backwards on the lawn. Liam [ran] behind him as he was going backwards. It's just an accident but [still] pretty horrible."

Weeks earlier, Matthew Boersen was playing on the trampoline at his family's dairy farm at Matatoki in Thames when he fell off, into the path of a ride-on mower driven by his older sister.

Matthew lost part of the heel bone, muscle and skin from his left leg.

For plastic surgeon Murray Beagley, who deals with numerous mower injuries, particularly in spring, the injuries were the worst he had seen.

But thanks to a technique called free flap muscle transfer, the boys' legs were able to be reconstructed.

In each case, the latissimus dorsi muscle was removed from the chest, along with its artery and vein, and reattached to the leg. Skin grafts were placed over the muscle.

Mr Beagley said the surgery, using microscopes, was delicate, exacting work as the artery and vein measured about 1.5mm in diameter.

He believed both boys would hardly notice the loss of their chest muscle as other muscles in the shoulder area would compensate for it.

"Because they are young they are more likely to adapt to have a near-normally functioning shoulder, say, than someone who is 50 years old."

Matthew, who heads home this week, could be running round in two or three months, but Liam faces many more weeks in hospital.

Mr Beagley urged people to take care round all lawn mowers.