A local orthopedist who had garnered an international reputation for his pioneering work in re-attaching severed fingers and limbs fell from a window in his seventh-floor apartment yesterday morning and died.

Chen Zhongwei, 74, lived in Shanghai and worked at the city's Zhongshan Hospital, affiliated to Fudan University.

His wife and children all live in the United States.

Local police attributed Chen's death to accidental fall from the building, ruling out the possibility of murder, after initial investigation.

Police said that Chen fell when he was trying to enter his locked apartment through a balcony window to get his keys and mobile phone. Police found Chen's keys and mobile phone in his room, his fingerprint on the window and his briefcase in front of his apartment door.

After falling, Chen's body landed, with the face down, between his apartment building and a teahouse at around 8:30 yesterday morning.

Chen's apartment building is located at the crossing of Nanjing and Jiangning roads in Jing'an District.

Several people heard Chen crash to the ground and called police once they discovered his body.

Chen, a US green card holder, lived alone in the seventh floor apartment near Nanjing Road W. He had just returned from America four days ago and was expected at Zhongshan Hospital yesterday morning.

Chen family in the United States has been informed of his death.

The local medical community expressed sorrow over Chen's death yesterday. "It is a great loss to the medical community," said Dr Wu Desheng, an orthopedist at Shanghai East Hospital.

Also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chen was particularly acknowledged as the pioneer in reattaching severed limbs.

He successfully operated to reattach the totally severed right hand of an injured worker in Shanghai No. 6 People's Hospital in 1963, which was the first of the kind operation in the world.

Chen had been a guest professor of Harvard University, New York University, Oxford University of Britain, Zurich University of Switzerland, and Osaka University of Japan.

(Shanghai Daily March 24, 2004)