WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.(WFMY)--When he was only 16 years old, Danny Stanley was in a freak car accident that severed his right hand.
Dr. Jesse Meredith, a surgeon with Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center reattached Stanley's hand, one of the first successful surgeries of its kind. The year was 1966.
"I put my hand up, and the car bounced on my hand. The windshield frame bounced on my hand. It happened so quick I didn't even hurt," Stanley said, "They told my mother and father, said it looks like somebody took a meat cleaver and chopped his hand up."
By chance, the two reunited 52 years later. Stanley was helping his grandson with his home repair business, when the homeowner asked him about his scar. Stanley told the story to the owner, a Wake Forest Baptist employee. Through conversation, Stanley learned Meredith performed the operation, and the homeowner introduced patient and now-retired surgeon over lunch at Cloverdale Kitchen in Winston-Salem.
That meeting marked the first time they had seen one another since the days following the surgery. Stanley credits Dr. Meredith with helping have a firm handshake, but more importantly - a full life.
"There’s nothing better than finding somebody that you took care of, and that it worked well for 50 years," said Dr. Meredith, "Going to heaven is the only thing that’s better than that."
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