There was little pain. The 16-year-old quickly wrapped the stub of her left arm in wet paper towels. Soon the Moscow, Maine, high school student was on her way to Massachusetts General Hospital, with her mother, Linda, riding in the ambulance and clutching a plastic ice-filled bag containing the severed hand. They were met by Dr. Jonathan Winograd, 35, a relative operating room novice, who successfully reattached the hand during a rare 13-hour procedure nine days ago.

Yesterday, Ingersoll, sitting in a wheelchair, her arm wrapped in thick gauze, related the harrowing tale while gingerly flexing her fingers, the beginning of a lengthy recovery process.

"I'm actually happy to be able to have my hand back," said Ingersoll. "I didn't think it was possible."

The smiling teen said her experience offered hope for others: "I'd like to remind everybody: Don't give up on your dreams."

Ingersoll aspired to become a carpenter. On Dec. 20, she was using a powerful circular saw to cut molding for a dollhouse. The dollhouse was for a charity auction to raise money for the carpentry program at Skowhegan Regional Vocational Center, where Ingersoll took after-school woodworking classes.

She stopped sawing for a moment, went outside for a break, and then continued work. It's unclear what went wrong, she said yesterday. Perhaps someone had readjusted the saw's settings or position, speculated Ingersoll.

It was a clean, quick cut. She saw her hand twitching on the table, its nerves still firing. Without pause, she wrapped her stub and called school nurses for help. They placed the hand on ice, crucial if it was to be reattached.

At the time of the accident, Ingersoll was unsupervised.

"Someone should have been in the room with her," said her mother, Linda Ingersoll, 33. "But maybe she should have waited for someone."

Ingersoll was rushed to a local hospital, and Mass. General surgeons were contacted. Winograd got the call, He had assisted on two similar procedures before. But now he would lead. Six hours after the accident, the teen, who had been sedated in the ambulance, was on his operating table.

The news was good at first glance, said Winograd: The muscles in the severed hand had tensed, preventing blood from spilling out. It could be saved.

First, Winograd's team reconnected the bone. But the four severed blood vessels were key. Under a microscope, he used fibers thinner than hair to sew them together.

When Ingersoll woke up, one of her first comments, according to Winograd, was: "Well, I was in school to be a carpenter, but I'm not going to do that anymore."

Occupational safety education is her new fascination. She is already looking forward to learning more about the field, said her mother.

Over the next four months, Ingersoll will undergo grueling physical therapy, crucial to helping recover function of the hand. Winograd said a full recovery is not certain, but predicted that much of her hand strength could be regained.

After the surgery, when nurses cut the bandages off with scissors, Ingersoll felt pricks on her hand, indicating that some feeling has returned. Otherwise, she said, her hand is largely numb.

In the spring, nerves from the back of her leg and bone from her hip will be implanted in the hand.

It has been a tough holiday season for the Ingersoll family. Last month, Billy Ingersoll, Erin's older brother, seriously hurt his back in a car accident. Then came the saw accident. The Ingersolls have no health insurance. A free-care fund at Mass. General has paid for the surgery and will probably pay for the rehabilitation, said a hospital spokeswoman.