SARAH HAZELL: A REMARKABLE STORY
19 year old Sarah Hazell fell asleep at the wheels of her car on a fateful Sunday December 2015. Her car veered and then rolled off the road. Sarah was rescued and flown to the Canberra Hospital.
Her sole injury was amputation of her right hand along with significant loss of skin and soft tissues. Dr Farhadieh saw Sarah in the emergency department, where she was surrounded by her siblings, remaining inspiringly calm throughout their discussion regarding the extent of injury.
Sarah Hazell & Plastic Surgeon Dr. Ross Farhadieh
During the next 14 hours Dr Farhadieh and the surgical team at the CanberraHospital cleaned, debrided, identified and reattached all the bones, tendons, nerves, arteries and veins of Sarah’s hand. By sunrise it was clear that Sarah’s hand would survive, but she would require further microsurgery to provide skin and soft tissue coverage for her wrist.
She was flown by fixed wings plane to St Vincent’s hospital under the care Professor Wayne Morrison, a World leader and Australia’s foremost authority on Plastic and Microsurgery, who performed the first hand transplant in Australia and having trained Dr Farhadieh’s has been his mentor since.
University of Canberra student Sarah Hazell had her right hand re-attached by Canberra Hospital plastic surgeon Dr Ross Farhadieh
This is the story of Sarah’s remarkable and inspirational journey and has been published in both The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.
