Updated

When 9-year-old Ming Li lost her left hand after being run over by a tractor in July, Chinese surgeons resorted to grafting the hand onto her right calf because her wrist was too badly damaged for reattachment.

Now a hospital spokesperson reports that the delaying action has paid off when surgeons finally reconnected her hand and arm.

More surgeries are scheduled for the future to improve Li's hand function and reduce scarring, but the physicians at the hospital in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, appear to have pulled off a minor miracle.

The procedure may seem more unorthodox than even double hand transplants, but at least the girl is getting her own hand back — and she might even recover more use of it in the near future.

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Gizmodo picked up the original report, attributed to Zhoukou Evening Post, from Orange News.