5 months with an ear growing on her foot in China

Earlier this year, a factory worker in Shandong, China lost her left ear after her hair was pulled into heavy machinery at her workplace. Doctors said the ear could not be reattached immediately because its blood vessels were too damaged to survive on the scalp. Surgeons instead stitched the ear onto the instep of her foot, where thin skin and similar blood vessels could keep it alive while it healed. The operation took 10 hours. Surgeons connected vessels just 0.2 to 0.3 millimeters wide using thread thinner than human hair. For five months, the woman wore her ear on her foot, using loose shoes and walking carefully to encourage blood circulation. In October, doctors finally reattached the ear to her head under a microscope, completing a journey that left her foot briefly moonlighting as a face.