A 13-year-old Chinese boy had the thumb and two fingers on his right hand chopped off after they were caught in a machine cutting up corn at the family farm, mainland media reports. The primary six student, identified only by his surname, Wu, said he tried not to cry to avoid upsetting his parents, the news website Chinajilin.com.cn reported on Thursday. My right thumb, forefinger and middle finger were chopped off immediately and it was very painful. I couldn’t cry because I didn’t want my parents to feel bad, so I held back [my tears] Chinese boy, 13, after the accident The accident happened on Saturday as he was helping his parents, who earn their living from growing and selling corn in a village in the city of Tonghua, in Jilin province. The glove he was wearing on his right hand became snagged in the machine and pulled part of his hand into the spinning blades. “My right thumb, forefinger and middle finger were chopped off immediately and it was very painful, but I didn’t cry,” the boy was reported as saying by Chinajilin.com.cn. “I couldn’t cry because I didn’t want my parents to feel bad, so I held back [my tears].” Doctors at the People’s Liberation Army No 206 Hospital in Jilin managed to reattach his thumb and fingers after a four-hour operation. However, the doctors said he would be unable to regain full use of his thumb and fingers and would have to remain in hospital for one month. The boy’s family had been forced to borrow most of the money needed to cover the cost of the operation and his stay in Hospital, which would be more than 20,000 yuan, the report said. “We are a family of farmers and we don’t have a lot of savings,” the boy’s uncle said. Wu said he hoped to return home to help his parents work on their farm once he had recovered.