BOY RECOVERING AFTER ARM REATTACHED AT UCLA.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen and Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writers

An 8-year-old Panorama City boy was recovering Friday after a team of doctors meticulously worked into the morning hours to reattach his arm, which was ripped off his body during an accident in front of his home.

Ready for a holiday camping trip, Anthony Tirado sat in a car Thursday with his mother and coiled around his arm a half-inch thick plastic rope that dangled outside the car and tangled onto a car wheel, fire officials said.

As the car accelerated, the rope tightened around the boy's right arm, which was severed about three inches below his shoulder.

Though the boy was listed in critical condition at UCLA Medical Center on Friday, fire officials and doctors attributed the successful reattachment procedure to his young age, emergency crews' quick response and the surgery team.

The arm was quickly preserved in a towel and put on ice before it was swiftly transported to UCLA Medical Center, where a team of hand surgeons and microsurgeons reattached the limb in a 6-1/2-hour procedure, said Simi Singer, a hospital spokeswoman.

``The surgery went well. They successfully reattached the arm,'' Singer said. ``The arm is pink, with circulation reaching to his fingers and hand. He is in critical condition but awake and comfortable. Also, nerves have been restored and successfully attached.''

The surgery ended about 12:30 a.m. Friday, Singer said, adding that doctors will continue to monitor the boy before making a more definitive condition report by early next week.

``It takes time, for healing. . . . It's a major trauma,'' she said.

The boy's family stayed by his side Friday, Singer said.

On Friday, a neighbor recounted the traumatic scene before paramedics arrived at the home in the 9200 block of Cedros Avenue about 4:30 p.m.

As the screams of Anthony's mother - whom a friend identified as Rocio Ruvalcaba de Tirado - filled the neighborhood, Mirna Ruiz watched as Anthony's father rushed his son from the car into the house.

``They were just going crazy, (the mother) kept on fainting,'' said Ruiz, 18, whose friend helped by holding a towel on Anthony's wound.

After returning to retrieve his son's severed arm off the street, Ruiz said Anthony's father placed the limb on a table inside the home.

``The whole arm was cut off,'' Ruiz said. ``I was scared. I was nervous. I've never seen anything like that.''

Though his parents were frantic, Anthony was calm and coherent, Ruiz said.

``He just kept saying that he wanted to go camping and that he couldn't feel his arm,'' Ruiz said.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Dr. Gabriel Rubanenko, who has performed similar replantation surgeries, though he did not assist with Anthony's surgery, said the boy's chances for recovery should be heightened because of his age and the fact that the surgery was performed within four hours - the deadline before muscles can begin dying.

``He was rushed immediately to a capable facility,'' the doctor said.

The complicated surgery, Rubanenko said, involves using microscopic magnification to reconstruct or repair the vessels and restore the blood supply to the severed parts, which include tendons, vessels, nerves and bone.

Rubanenko labeled this type of surgery ``complicated'' in that the amputation occurred above his elbow, where there are more vessels and nerves. This type of injury occurs only about 10 times a year in Los Angeles County, he said.

``To replant the finger is not unusual. To replant the arm is quite rare,'' he said. ``The speed of repair is very slow because the hands have to be so steady.''

The doctor said the recuperation period can last months or even over a year.

``The nerve grows one millimeter a day. If the laceration was below the shoulder then it takes so long,'' he said.

The fact that the injury was a clean cut helps him, the doctor said. Most arms are amputated in car and train crashes in which heavy objects have fallen and crushed them.

Meanwhile, at the family home the only signs of the previous afternoon's tragedy were the bloodstains on the street in front of the single-story house.

A family friend said the child's parents were encouraged that the surgery was successful.

``His parents are despaired about his condition, but they were relieved that his arm was reattached,'' Henry Walker said.

Daily News Staff Writer Jin Whang contributed to this story.