IT'S enough to make you queasy but circular-saw accident victim Fred Lynn knows how lucky he is.

The 45-year-old motor mechanic was cutting firewood on July 11 when a piece of timber became stuck and dragged his fingers under the saw.

"At first all I saw was the knuckle and a piece of finger dangling off," Mr Lynn said as he recuperated at Sydney Hospital last week.

"Then I looked down and saw a whole finger lying on the saw.

"I went down to grab my finger but realised I couldn't because a second finger was missing and my index finger was half-off, and that's when the panic set in."

Mr Lynn gathered the one finger he could find, put it in ice and headed to Kempsey hospital from his property in Collombatti on the Mid North Coast.

An ambulance aeroplane was dispatched and within hours he was on the operating table at Australia's pre-eminent hand unit at Sydney Hospital.

There, a team of specialised hand surgeons used finely tuned microsurgery techniques to reimplant his fingers.

His partly amputated index finger was repaired but, in a twist, his ring finger was put back as his middle finger.

"Because we only had one digit to replant we transplanted it to the middle finger to give him as much function as possible," hand fellow Peter Tomlinson said. "Functionally it gives him a much stronger grip."

Surgeons began the operation, which lasted for five hours and 20 minutes, by shortening the bones at the site of the amputation to decrease tension on the repaired arteries, veins and nerves.

Blood flow was re-established by reconnecting the blood vessels in the finger to the hand. With wires stabilising the bones, the tendons and nerves were repaired using microsurgery.

Chairman of the Medical Staff Council and hand surgeon Ian Isaacs said time was of the essence as reattachment is most successful when performed up to six hours from the injury, though fingers can be reimplanted as long as 48 hours after amputation.

"Microsurgery has gone beyond just putting the wheels back on - it's utilising the reimplanted parts to get the best function in the hand with the tissue available," he said.

Health Minister Reba Meagher said the amalgamation of the Sydney and St George hand units at the Macquarie Street hospital had created a centre of excellence for serious hand trauma and staff performed "miracles" every day.

Mr Lynn has begun to regain feeling and movement in his fingers although he is experiencing "phantom pain" where his ring finger and top of this index finger used to be.

"As long as I can cast a fishing rod and not throw it in, I'll be happy," he said.