SURGEONS reattached a North-East girl's severed fingertip after she travelled 40 miles with it wrapped in ice.

Two-year-old Dominique Hepple lost the flesh surrounding the tip of her right ring finger after catching it in a pub toilet door.

Frantic mother Jane Hepple, 32, from Blyth, Northumberland, searched for missing fingertip, eventually finding it stuck in the door hinge.

The acccident happened when the family stopped to have Sunday lunch at the Apple Inn in Lucker, near Belford, Northumberland.

Mrs Hepple's husband John, 32, their children, Dominique, Loryn, five and Carl, nine, were on their way home from a camping trip with another family.

Dominique was first taken to Alnwick Infirmary and then to Newcastle RVI where the finger tip was reattached by micro- surgery.

The flesh and fingernail from the tip of her finger were torn off, making the surgeon's job more difficult than with a clean cut.

Her parents have been told that it will be a week before doctors know for sure whether the surgery has succeeded.

Friend Mandy Woodhouse, whose daughter, Carly, had taken Dominique to the pub toilet, took charge of the fingertip and the ice pack during the trip to Newcastle RVI, which took about two and a half hours.

"The paramedics in the ambulance were great," said Mrs Hepple.